Henry Lane Williams (July 26, 1869 – June 14, 1931) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

player and coach. He served as the head football coach at the

United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high groun ...

in 1891 and the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

from 1900 to 1921, compiling a career college football record of 141–34–12. Williams's

Minnesota Golden Gophers The Minnesota Golden Gophers (commonly shortened to Gophers) are the college sports teams of the University of Minnesota. The university fields a total of 25 (12 men's, 13 women's) teams in both men's and women's sports and competes in the Big Te ...

teams won eight Western Conference—now known as the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

—titles and his 136 wins are the most of any coach in team history. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1951.

Coaching career

After playing football at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

under head coach

Walter Camp Walter Chauncey Camp (April 7, 1859 – March 14, 1925) was an American football player, coach, and sports writer known as the "Father of American Football". Among a long list of inventions, he created the sport's line of scrimmage and the system ...

, where with Camp he co-invented the "tackle-back" formation, Williams began his coaching career at the

in 1891 while he was a teacher at Siglar Academy in

Newburgh, New York Newburgh is a city in the U.S. state of New York, within Orange County. With a population of 28,856 as of the 2020 census, it is a principal city of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown metropolitan area. Located north of New York City, a ...

. He then moved to

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

where he enrolled at the

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine The Perelman School of Medicine, commonly known as Penn Med, is the medical school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1765, the Perelman School of Medicine is the oldest medi ...

while he coached football and track at

William Penn Charter School William Penn Charter School (commonly known as Penn Charter or simply PC) is an independent school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1689 at the urging of William Penn as the "Public Grammar School" and chartered in 1689 to be op ...

. In 1900, Williams was hired as the head football coach at the

, where he invented the

Minnesota shift The Minnesota shift is an American football offensive maneuver that was a forerunner of other shifts and pre-snap formation changes in the game. It consists of a sudden switch into a new offensive formation immediately before the ball is snapped w ...

."Sport: Trophies and Gophers"
''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'', November 3, 1941. His

were

champions eight times (1900, 1903, 1904, 1906, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1915). Williams had a 136–33–11 record at Minnesota. His winning percentage (.786) is the highest of any Gopher football coach to date with the exception of

Wallie Winter Wallace Charles Winter Sr. (August 8, 1872 – May 10, 1947) was an American college football player and coach. He played tackle at Yale University from 1890 to 1892 and was selected to the 1891 College Football All-America Team. After graduati ...

who went 6–0 in his only season 1893. In 1903, the Gophers went 14–0–1. Their lone tie came against Fielding H. Yost's Michigan Wolverines. After the contest, the Wolverines left behind their water jug at

Northrop Field Northrop Field was the on-campus stadium of the Minnesota Golden Gophers football team from 1899 to 1923. The original field had seating of around 3,000 and was named for University President Cyrus Northrop. After the 1902 season, the playing f ...

, which gave rise to the Little Brown Jug, one of the oldest and most famous college football trophies. Williams was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame with the inaugural class in 1951.

Williams Arena Williams Arena is an indoor arena located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the home arena for the University of Minnesota's men's and women's basketball teams. It also housed the men's hockey team until 1993, when it moved into its own buildi ...

, the home venue for Minnesota basketball, was renamed in his honor after a remodeling in the 1950s.

Legacy

Williams coaching tree includes: #

Bernie Bierman Bernard W. Bierman (March 11, 1894 – March 7, 1977) was an American football player and coach of football and basketball. He coached from 1919 to 1950 except for a span during World War II when he served in the U.S. armed forces. Bierman was t ...

Gil Dobie Robert Gilmour "Gloomy Gil" Dobie (January 21, 1878 – December 23, 1948) was an American football player and coach. Over a period of 33 years, he served as the head football coach at North Dakota Agricultural College (now North Dakota State ...

# Clark Shaughnessy

Head coaching record

College

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Henry 1869 births 1931 deaths 19th-century players of American football American football halfbacks Army Black Knights football coaches Minnesota Golden Gophers football coaches Yale Bulldogs football players High school football coaches in Pennsylvania College Football Hall of Fame inductees Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania alumni Coaches of American football from Connecticut Players of American football from Hartford, Connecticut