Mar 26th, 2021
Basketball Coach Marvin Williams, one of the most successful coaches in the history of Jackson State Community College, was inducted into the Tennessee Community College Athletic Association Hall of Fame on March 20.
"It is always an honor to be chosen for a Hall of Fame," Williams said when he was inducted into the TSSAA Hall of Fame four years ago.
During his six years of coaching women's basketball at Jackson State from 1979 to 1985, Williams led the Lady Generals to a 103-20 record, as they won 83.7 percent of their games.
Under Williams, the women's basketball team was undefeated in the Tennessee Junior College Athletic Association in the 1980-81 season. The next year, the team won every game against opponents in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Mississippi and finished third in the National Junior College tournament.
"We should have won the 1981 national championship," Williams said. "We had the best team there, but we had to play four nights in a row."
Williams completed his college coaching career at Austin Peay State University, where he helped lead the Governors to a conference championship in his first year.
A native of Hardeman County, Williams earned degrees from Bethel University and Freed Hardeman University. During his 21 years of coaching high school and 11 years at the college level, his teams won more than 900 games.
Among his many accomplishments, Coach Williams was a nominee for National Coach of the Year in 1978 and won two Tennessee Junior College Championships. Besides the TCCAA Hall of Fame, he was inducted into four other Halls of Fame: Bethel University in 1981, Freed-Hardeman University in 1989, Bolivar Central High School in 2006, and TSSAA in 2017