| It has been more than 50 years since Jim (Frip) Ewell played football for Snow College. But to this day, his fondest memories are still of the years he spent on the team. “I wasn’t even the star football player,” Ewell says with a laugh, adding that his love for the game wasn’t the main appeal. His attachment to the sport had as much — if not more — to do with the coach, Jim Williams. Back in the 1950s, Williams coached just about every sports team at Snow College, including football, baseball and basketball. “He really brought the school’s sports program back to life,” Ewell says. “And he became like a second father to me.” Ewell only attended Snow part time because he had to work and care for both of his parents. “I could only go to school during the three months of football season.” Even that got too difficult after a few years, and Ewell was forced to drop out. “Coach Williams really wanted me to stay in school. He even offered to lend me the money to make that possible. But I didn’t want to take it, I didn’t know how I would ever pay him back,” Ewell says. So Ewell left the team and Snow, and, shortly after, was drafted into the military. He served in the army for two years as a helicopter mechanic instructor, and then had a long career as a police officer and security consultant in Las Vegas. He moved back to Mt. Pleasant about 12 years ago. Over the years, he stayed in contact with some of the other athletes he met at Snow who were coached by Williams, especially local residents Joe Hanks, a basketball player, and Hal Jensen, who played baseball. He has talked to Coach Williams, who left Snow shortly after Ewell did to coach at Colorado State, a few times. “But I hadn’t seen him in 30 years at least.” That is, until last week. Coach Williams was in Utah visiting his nephew, Deeworth Williams, who also played football for Snow. His nephew brought him to Mt. Pleasant for an impromptu visit with Ewell and his other former players, Jensen and Hanks. “Can you imagine what that was like, the five of us in one room, most of us in our 70s now and Coach Williams in his 90s? Can you imagine the stories that filled up that room? By the time we were through I think we had told about 20 stories each,” Ewell says. “Coach Williams is such a fantastic man, he is still as brilliant and as sharp as he was back then. He remembers every little detail of everything, right down to the plays that he had us do. There was one game my freshman year where we were playing against BYU. I kicked a field goal that won the game, and he remembered the whole thing. Seeing him again was the most spectacular and beautiful day of my life. I still haven’t come down from the ceiling yet.” Ewell hasn’t played football in years. “Now I’ve got two new hips and a new knee, I’m pretty much disabled,” he says. But reminiscing about the glory days that afternoon with Coach Williams and his former teammates will be enough to sustain him for a long, long time. “Coach Williams sat next to me. When we started taking pictures of the group, he reached over and took my hand. He held it during all of those pictures. Can you imagine what that meant to me? It just melted my heart.” # # # | 
