David Williams II had a profound impact on national and international sports through his Tennessee-based work as the first Black athletics director in the SEC, the first Black vice-chancellor and the first Black general counsel of Vanderbilt University.
Williams arrived at Vanderbilt University in 2000 and served as vice-chancellor, general counsel, secretary of the university and was a tenured law professor at Vanderbilt’s Law School. During Williams’ tenure, Vanderbilt athletics won four national championships – in bowling, baseball and women’s tennis. Vanderbilt also won more than 19 league titles and tournaments.
Williams was known nationwide for his visionary work with student-athletes in Tennessee and actively participated in NCAA governance, where he impacted college athletes beyond his campus. He served on the NCAA General Counsel Advisory Board, the Academic Council and the Enforcement Task Force and chaired the Infractions Appeals Committee. In Jan. 2020, shortly after his death, he was posthumously awarded the NCAA President’s Pat Summitt Award.
The Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame awarded Williams the Significant Historical Achievement Award in 2019, and changed the award’s name to The David Williams II Significant Historical Achievement Award. In 2021, Vanderbilt University inducted Williams into their Sports Hall of Fame.