DEGREE IN REALITY

St. Mary’s College appears as if by revelation.

Beyond the freeway that leads east from Oakland, along a winding road through the hills, the school comes suddenly into view. A chapel rises from the center of campus with classrooms and dormitories radiating outward in neat lines of white stucco and red tile roofs.

The afternoon calm--a warm autumn breeze, students chatting outside the bookstore--is broken only by church bells tolling the hour.

Ed Williams never dreamed of playing football at a place like this. He dreamed of big stadiums and cheering crowds. But fate led him to the quiet and the oaks and the ivy of St. Mary’s.

“It’s a place to think and learn,” Williams said. “I’ve learned a lot.”

*

This is a story about the other side of college football. No hype. No television cameras or shoe contracts. At small colleges across the nation, the game has its proper place and time.

At St. Mary’s, the place is a practice field behind the maintenance buildings and the time is shortly after 5 p.m.

Williams is late.

The senior tailback hurries up the hill to where his teammates have been scrimmaging for an hour already. He hates to miss even a minute of practice, especially this season.

The Gaels, a Division I-AA independent, are struggling through their toughest schedule in recent memory. Taking on more prominent football schools such as Montana and Northeastern, the team has lost three of its first four games.

St. Mary’s relies on the tandem of senior quarterback Sean Laird and Williams, a team captain and four-year starter. At 5 feet 8 and 186 pounds, Williams is a small back with slashing speed and reliable hands. He is also the most prolific kick returner in school history.

“He can explode and score from a long way out,” Coach Mike Rasmussen said. “That’s the biggest thing for us.”

After a record-setting freshman season, Williams missed much of his sophomore and junior years with injuries. He wants badly to finish his college career with a bang.

“No stops. Don’t hold back,” he said. “That goes for every game when you’re a senior.”

But to graduate on time--almost everyone at St. Mary’s graduates in four years--Williams must take a psychology class that lasts until 5 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

It is hard to imagine the starting tailback at Florida or Michigan or even Cal State Northridge missing so much of practice each week.

“God knows, practice is important,” Williams said. “But getting a degree . . . that’s why I’m here.”

*

Williams is here because no one else wanted him.

“A lot of schools thought I was too small,” he said.

The issue of size diminished his accomplishments at Canyon High, where he rushed for 1,072 yards as a senior and was chosen the Foothill League’s co-player of the year. The mention of his name causes former coach Harry Welch to blurt a string of adjectives.

“Quickest, most dedicated, team-carrying,” Welch said. “One of the most talented runners I have ever been around.”

Williams also earned a reputation for being selfless, willing to throw his body into the fray for the good of the team.

“I could put my star player on kick coverage and he was there with a terrific attitude,” Welch said. “Other people with a lesser attitude--or more discretion--might not have put themselves at such risk.”

One more thing, Welch said, “if he’d been 6 feet and 190 pounds, he would be playing big-time Division I.”

Instead, Williams found himself listening to a recruiting pitch from a tiny Catholic campus on the outskirts of the San Francisco Bay Area.

The coaches told him that St. Mary’s consistently ranks as one of the top academic colleges in the western United States. They offered an $18,000-a-year scholarship to offset the pricey tuition. The Gaels started playing football around the turn of the century. Back in the 1920s and ‘30s, they were beating USC and UCLA and even winning a Cotton Bowl.

“We have a team out here called St. Mary’s, which sounds effeminate,” entertainer Will Rogers once quipped. “But they haven’t lost a game since the gold rush.”

The winning came to an end in the late 1940s and, with few fans coming to games, the program was discontinued for more than a decade. When it came back in 1968, no one expected--or particularly wanted--a return to glory days. The Gaels would play with passion but keep the game in perspective.

So no one could have blamed Williams for passing on their offer.

*

Ultimately, the opportunity to spend Saturday afternoons against the likes of Chapman and Humboldt State proved more enticing than “sitting on the bench for four years or maybe getting special teams time at a bigger school,” Williams said. “I don’t think a lot of guys can say they started four years of college ball.”

In his first season, he set school freshman records by carrying 179 times for 661 yards. That included a big game at Northridge where, with family and friends in the stands, Williams carried 38 times for 116 yards and the Gaels won, 20-10.

There were other big games in the seasons that followed. As a sophomore, he again stung Northridge with 146 rushing yards. As a junior, he had 193 kickoff-return yards against Idaho, and finished as the nation’s third-ranked returner.

Along the way, injuries kept popping up. “Fluky injuries,” Rasmussen said. Williams would pull a hamstring or have someone roll on his leg during punt coverage.

This season, he is nursing two sore legs and has gotten off to a slow start. His best game came last Saturday when he carried 26 times for 73 yards in a 24-14 loss to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

“I’ve learned to roll with the punches,” Williams said.

He has learned that football is only part of the equation.

Williams will graduate this spring with a degree in kinesiology. He wears the face of a serious young man, the kind who inspires coaches to use words such as “sensitive” and “introspective.” His demeanor fits the earnest surroundings at St. Mary’s.

Said Welch: “I don’t know if I believe in destiny, but I think Eddie belongs there.”

St. Mary’s has given Williams a chance to make friends at a school that, with 4,000 students, is not much bigger than some Los Angeles high schools. It has given him a chance to attend small classes where the professors know him by name. He talks about the trails that lead into the hills behind campus, where he goes when he needs to be alone.

“This place allows you to focus on a lot of things, whether it is academics or personal stuff,” Williams said. “At a larger school, I don’t know if that would happen.”