Coach Williams and his 1970 JU team were the St. Peter's team of their time (even, similarly, upsetting a top ranked Adolph Rupp coached Kentucky team in the tournament).
Unranked at the beginning of the season, they ended up playing John Wooden's UCLA juggernaut for the national championship. Was the first team to average over 100 points per game for the season (and that was before shot clocks, dunking and 3 pointers!) and to feature two 7 footers.
JU's success was on par, or maybe even bigger, than the best of the Jags, in terms of community excitement given the much smaller population of Jax in those days.
https://www.jacksonville.com/story/sports/2022/03/26/former-ju-basketball-coach-joe-williams-dies-led-dolphins-1970-glory/7177730001/
Former JU basketball coach Joe Williams dies, led Dolphins to 1970 NCAA title game
Gene Frenette
Florida Times-Union
Joe Williams, who coached Jacksonville University to its greatest athletic glory when he led its basketball team to the 1970 NCAA championship game against John Wooden’s UCLA dynasty, passed away Saturday at 88 from a lengthy battle with cancer.
Williams died peacefully at home in Enterprise, Miss. while in hospice care, with his wife Wendy by his side. He will be forever remembered as the leader of the JU team that made an epic run to the NCAA finals, falling to UCLA 80-69 in College Park, Md.
When Williams arrived at JU in 1964 after serving as an assistant at Furman, the Dolphins competed in NAIA for one more season before moving up to Division I. In Williams’ sixth and final season in Jacksonville, a team led by All-America players Artis Gilmore and Rex Morgan beat Western Kentucky, Iowa, Kentucky and St. Bonaventure en route to an NCAA runner-up finish.
Joe Williams, who coached Jacksonville University to its greatest athletic glory when he led its basketball team to the 1970 NCAA championship game against John Wooden’s UCLA dynasty, passed away Saturday at 88 from a lengthy battle with cancer.
Williams died peacefully at home in Enterprise, Miss. while in hospice care, with his wife Wendy by his side. He will be forever remembered as the leader of the JU team that made an epic run to the NCAA finals, falling to UCLA 80-69 in College Park, Md.
When Williams arrived at JU in 1964 after serving as an assistant at Furman, the Dolphins competed in NAIA for one more season before moving up to Division I. In Williams’ sixth and final season in Jacksonville, a team led by All-America players Artis Gilmore and Rex Morgan beat Western Kentucky, Iowa, Kentucky and St. Bonaventure en route to an NCAA runner-up finish.
“So we went out and got some very fine gentlemen in [Pembrook] Burrows, Gilmore, Morgan, Chip Dublin and the rest is history. He turned JU from an NAIA school into a Division I power. Joe never got the credit for being as good a coach as he was. He won every place he went.”
Williams compiled an overall record of 336-231 over 22 seasons as head coach at JU (1964-70), Furman (1970-78) and Florida State (1978-86). The ‘70 Dolphins finished 27-2 and No. 4 in the Associated Press college basketball poll after starting the season unranked. JU scored 100 or more points in 18 games, including 109, 104 and 106 in NCAA tournament wins over Western Kentucky, Iowa and Kentucky, respectively.....
