Long-time Tamaqua native Dave "Whitey" Williams will add another link to his historic football career on Saturday when he is inducted into the Pennsylvania Scholastic Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Williams, who was a head coach for 16 years, won three PIAA Class AA state championships with the Mount Carmel Red Tornadoes and compiled a record of 135-53-1, will be inducted in a ceremony at 1 p.m. in the Holiday Inn, Harrisburg East kicking off the Big 33 Classic Weekend. He was nominated for induction by Mike Brennan, who took over for Williams at Mount Carmel and is now head coach at Hazleton.The 59-year old retired and coach, was a head coach at Shenandoah Valley, Tamaqua and Nazareth besides Mount Carmel.His three state titles and one runnerup were at the top of the list for his induction, but Williams looks at his love of the game way back to what he calls "old school".He remembers his interest in the game as a player for Norm McLaughlin in the Tamaqua Knee-Hi organization."The first time I went to an Eagles game was when they played at Franklin Field with a guy by the name of Johnny Gould," Williams said when talking about the early days.He also remembers back when he was about seven years old and his grandfather, who was a custodian at the school, let him and his buddies help clean the stadium after a home football game."He paid us with a half dollar, a Pepsi and a bag of Marsden potato chips," he said.Williams graduated from Tamaqua in 1974, where he was a three-sport athlete playing, football, basketball and baseball. Baseball was the sport he excelled in the most as a catcher and it earned him a tryout with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Williams suffered a knee injury during basketball season ending his high school career.The injury also prevented him from playing at the college level at Bloomsburg, where he graduated in 1978 with a degree in education.Williams helped out at Marian in 1978 when long-time friend Charles "Chink" Connelly and Tom Bonner reached out to him after his father Donald passed away. He got his start as an assistant football coach under Tamaqua head coach Dale Titus back in 1979. He was an assistant football coach for nine years at Tamaqua (1979-87) under Tom Bonner and Wayne Schickram.He received a telephone call from Shenandoah Valley athletic director Frank Ulicny offered him the opportunity to become the head football coach of the Blue Devils.Williams coached two seasons at Shenandoah Valley, going 9-2 in 1988 and 5-6 in 1989. Then he coached two seasons at Tamaqua (1990-91)."No. 1, I got my first coaching job because of Frank Ulicny," said Williams. "No. 2 was my dream job at my alma mater (Tamaqua) and I thought I would stay there forever."In 1992, the Tamaqua teachers were in the heat of contract talks and Bob Fulton, then the Raiders head basketball coach was head of the negotations. Williams supported the faculty members and refused to cross the picket line. Williams resigned in July of that year and sat out an entire season.The next year, Jazz Diminick, who was being replaced at Mt. Carmel, called Williams and told him to apply for the job, but Williams didn't think he was ready for that step.Diminick eventually asked him to apply so Whitey went to his house in Mount Carmel, then took him over to the school while a basketball game was going on to apply."Those seven years between 1993 and 1999 were about as special as they can be, not just because of what we did on the field, but because of the people on my staff, the support we received and some of the best players to ever wear a Mount Carmel uniform," Williams said.Williams always wanted to coach in the Lehigh Valley and took over a Nazareth program that almost became dormant in 2000."I told them I only would only coach five years because I wanted to go attend my sons games at Tamaqua with my wife Cindy" he said.He stays close to the game doing games on radio for WMGH 105.5 and hosting a weekly show on WNEP.