Former Husker football standout Jamie Williams has joined the Nebraska athletic department as the Associate Athletic Director of Diversity and Leadership Initiatives. Williams, who played 12 seasons in the NFL after his Husker career, spent the last six years at Academy of Art University in San Francisco, where he built a Division II athletic department from scratch as the school’s athletic director.
Quote from Jamie Williams:
“First of all, I bleed Husker Red! Secondly, I am forever grateful to the Stephens family for providing me the blank canvas to build an NCAA Division II athletic program at their amazing Academy of Art University and I feel good about the continued success of that program. Leaving the heart of downtown San Francisco, the Urban Knights and the magically creative folks of this wonderful art institution was emotionally tough. It would take my alma mater and my uncanny former coach, Tom Osborne, to pull me away from a program where I continually led a young staff into ‘Nietzsche’s abyss,’ where men fear and fail. I’m proud to leave them as ‘young leaders’ unafraid of today’s innate chaos in athletics.
“For the record, T.O. can still recruit like any great wizard. I owe him and the University much. I thank Dr. Tom Osborne, his staff and Chancellor Perlman for facilitating my return to Lincoln. Red nostalgia fills my mind, including clear visions of the unique, but home-grown, pageantry of home football games. It’s been awhile but I still envision Valentino’s pizza, Abel Dormitory, red helium balloons, rocky mountain oysters, fat inner tubes floating coeds down an endless creek, friendly smiles, great fishing, bald eagles along the Platte River and, of course, a volleyball hitting an opponent in the face! They call this ‘The Good Life’ and I agree. I feel like the prodigal son. More importantly, I built an intercollegiate athletic program that none thought could happen, based on the principles I received through UNL, Coach Osborne and Gene Huey. This standard of integrity, higher education, discipline, creativity and winning has become my “tattoos.” Winning ‘the right way’ is a mantra for Nebraska. I’m hoping to propagate that guiding principle as an athletic administrator and educator. My task now is to help elevate Nebraska Athletics within the Big Ten Conference and nationally. I am absolutely up for the challenge. Let’s Go Big Red!!”