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Black Alumni seeking SIU Sports Hall of Fame nomination. If inducted he would be 1st black gymnast inducted. Here is my story.
SIU ALUMNI ASSOCIATION – “Tell Us Your Story”
It was 10am on a Saturday morning in the spring of 1980 when I called SIU Men’s Gymnastics Coach, Bill Meade. I explained that I recently had been accepted into SIU Architecture program for the fall of 1980 and I wanted to attend the summer gymnastic camp with hopes of making the team some day. Coach promised to send the camp information, but it never arrived. I went on later that year to win the SIU Black Alumni Scholarship Award, finish my first semester at SIU with a 3.75 GPA, and was inducted into Phi Eta Sigma freshman honors fraternity.
In the late fall of 1980 with no prior gymnastics training and nothing more than ”street tumbling skills,” I walked into practice at the SIU Arena with a dream and sheer determination to succeed. You see I graduated from Simeon Vocational High School on the Southside of Chicago where no such gymnastic program existed, and I was the first person in my family to attend college. I asked if I could work out with the team, and Coach said, “Yes!. Five months later, I learned the fundamentals of the sport and soon competed at an in-house team meet and scored a disappointing 6.8 on floor exercise. The next year I improved so much in such a short period of time that Coach offered me a partial sports scholarship, and I earned a spot on the traveling team. I spent the next four years giving my all towards my academics and the sport that I love. By the time I had completed my senior year my accomplishments included:
– #1 NCAA ranking on floor exercise with a season average score of 9.75, out of a 9.8 degree of difficulty routine.
– SIU school record in on floor exercise with a score of 9.8
– 1st place and MVP honors at the Penn State vs. SIU gym meet
– 1st place at the Chicago-Windy City Invitations for the 2nd consecutive year
– 1st place at the Nebraska Big Eight Invitational, competing against several NCAA All American
– 3rd place at the Mid-West Open.
– 5th place at the NCAA Championship & receiving All American honors.
When I came off the NCAA All American stage at the National Championships, I greeted Coach Meade and asked/reminded him about our phone conversation in the spring of 1980 on that Saturday morning. With clarity, he recalled that he did and said, “You were a guy with no high school training, and I thought it would be a waste of time to send the brochure to you. You proved me wrong, and in fact you turned out be one of the best walk-on athletes that I have ever coached.” In an article written in the Daily Egyptian, Coach stated that, “Lawrence has made more progress than 95% of the entire walk-on gymnasts I have ever coached.”
My days at SIU are filled with awesome memories, life-long friendships, and lessons learned. My biggest lesson learned was to never give-up on a dream even when others do not believe in you. I went on to receive my master’s degree in Real Estate Development from Columbia University-NYC, win a HUD Fellowship, the 2002 President Jimmy Carter Partnership Award, and the 2006 Gerald Hines /Urban Land Institute Urban Design Award. Today, I work as a Real Estate Consultant, Developer and Investor in the City of Detroit and I teach tumbling one day per week.
One of my dreams is to make the SIU Sports Hall of Fame. As an undergraduate student in the early 1980’s, I walked through the Student Center to gymnastics practice at the Arena, and to class at the School of Technical Careers. Each day I stopped to look at the Hall of Fame wall and dreamed of someday of taking a spot amongst the other great athletes of SIU. I have faith that one day I will.
LAWRENCE WILLIAMSON AAS ’83, Architectural Technology, BS ’85, Advanced Technical Studies, MS-Real Estate Development 2006 contact info 478.256.4946 lawrencewilliamson1962@gmail.co