Jim Williams believes it started with arrogance, almost ended in death and was saved by prayer.
Williams is a two-time All-Southwest Conference defensive tackle for the Arkansas Razorbacks who was an anchor on the 1964 undefeated national championship team.
He’s a self-made success story in land development around the Dallas area as the owner of LandPlan Development. He’s involved in his community, serving on many boards including the Cotton Bowl.
Williams owns a business degree from the UA and a masters from SMU.
“I was an arrogant jerk who never suspected I could get covid,” he said from his home this week by phone. “No mask, eating out and always around people.”
At the end of May, he started feeling unwell. Tired to the bone.
On June 1, he and his wife of 55 years, Nedra, got tested. Both of them and their daughter were positive for covid-19, but his wife and daughter were asymptomatic.
He was not.
Three days after the test, Williams was rushed by ambulance to the University of Texas Southwestern.
His son, Reed — who gave up a career as a doctor to work alongside his dad — isolated his mom and sister, although they never got sick.
All of them were banned from seeing Williams.
Three days after being admitted to the hospital, he was put in ICU. Two days later, he was put on a ventilator.
A week became a month, and the month became three.
About half way through the ordeal, a tracheotomy was performed. There was no immediate response.
Williams lost 50 pounds off a frame that previously was physically fit.
“There was a time period when we thought dad wasn’t going to make it,” Reed said. “The only information we could get was over the phone, and most of the news wasn’t good.”
Nedra was in a panic to see her husband and best friend. She insisted that Reed call everyone he knew to see whether the rules could be bent.
No way, he was told.
For 12 weeks, Williams was in an induced sleep — eight of which a machine did the breathing for him.
Williams had no idea what was going on.
He was getting the best care possible, but there was something else at work. He thinks it started with his family and the Bible study group he’s been a part of for 32 years.
Word spread all over the country that prayers were needed.
“I have stacks of cards and letters from people who were praying for me, some of them from states I’ve never been in,” Williams said.
The fever finally broke, and his labored breathing was his own.
“The first time we saw dad he had this huge beard, and he’s been clean-shaven his whole life,” Reed said. “We couldn’t hear a word he said. We don’t read lips, so we gave him some paper. In big letters he wrote he loved mom and us and he wanted pictures in his room of his family.
“And of the 1964 Arkansas Razorback team so he could show them to the doctors and nurses.”
Williams was a vital part of the Razorbacks’ 22-game winning streak. He is in the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame and the UA Hall of Honor.
“Before I was discharged, a doctor told me when he saw me going to ICU for a respirator he gave me 0.1% chance of surviving,” Williams said.
One in a thousand.
In September, after almost 14 weeks, Williams was discharged to his home in Frisco, but it was just the beginning for him.
“I had to learn to talk, eat and walk,” he said. “I’m doing three forms of therapy.”
A fighter his whole life, Williams has gained 18 pounds and walked to the corner of his street and back.
“I wish I had heeded all the advice about covid,” he said. “I made it, but there’s no doubt in my mind the difference-maker was the prayers.”