In 25 seasons as director of athletics at Sam Houston, Bobby Williams has led the Bearkats to unprecedented competitive success while simultaneously lifting the academic performance of the university’s 18 sports programs.
Williams has served Sam Houston as an athletic administrator and a coach since 1982. He was interim director of athletics for the 1997-98 school year after working as assistant director of athletics for seven years. He was an assistant football coach for nine years.
Sam Houston won the Southland Conference Commissioner’s Cup a league record seven times. The Bearkats won their first cup in 2005, sharing the honor with Texas State. They then won the title in 2006 and 2007 to become the first school to win three straight. The Bearkats then claimed back-to-back titles in 2013 and 2014 and won their sixth in 2018 to move past SFA for most in Southland and then the seventh in 2019 after winning nine championships in the spring semester.
Under his direction, the Bearkats have won two NCAA Division I national championships, claiming the bowling title in 2014 and then football in the spring of 2021.
Williams has received the General Robert R. Neyland Outstanding Athletic Director Award from the All-American Football Foundation and the AstroTurf Athletics Director of the Year “Football Championship Subdivision West Region” award.
Williams has overseen an amazing makeover of Sam Houston’s intercollegiate sports facilities including state-of-the-art video/scoreboards at four venues; new artificial turf fields for football, soccer and baseball and renovation of Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum.
Facility additions have included the Ron Randleman Strength and Fitness Center, Don Sanders Stadium (baseball), Bearkat Softball Stadium and the McIver Golf Training Facility and
the Robert and Erin Steele Golf Facility at Raven’s Nest Golf Course.
In 2019, the Woodforest Bank Athletic Center opened it’s doors, including the Learning Enhancement Center and the Bearkat Sports Network studios. The BSN media suite includes a 500 square foot television studio, a podcast center and two control rooms, one of which serves as a centralized ESPN production room for events at Bowers Stadium, Pritchett Field, Don Sanders Stadium and the Bearkat Softball Complex.
With new marketing strategies, Williams and his staff have increased both campus and community attendance at all Bearkat intercollegiate athletics events and increased revenue generated from outside university sources. In addition, Sam Houston athletics has received regional and national television exposure through telecasts on the ESPN family of networks and other outlets.
Williams was a starter at wide receiver for the Rice Owls. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Rice University in 1981 and his Master of Arts from Rice a year later.
His father, the late Bobby Williams, Sr., was a member of Rice University’s 1958 Cotton Bowl team and retired in 2002 after working as an NFL scout for the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins. His mother, Carolyn, retired from the Dow Chemical Company.
His wife, Janet, received her Bachelor’s degree and her Master’s degree from Sam Houston as have her father General Thomas Stone (distinguished alumni 1999 and football letterman 1955-56), mother Claudette, brother Keith (football letterman 1978-79) and sister Kelly (Master’s degree). Janet is a professor in the SHSU College of Education. The pair have two daughters, Audrey Kathryn and Alexandra Karolyn (both Sam Houston graduates).
