Milam Native Remembered at Local Museum Event

With Kyle Schiller Barrett, Milam County Historical Museum Director

In recognition of the upcoming Juneteenth Federal and State Holiday, the Milam County Historical Museum held an event featuring stories from the life of a famous Milam County native-son. 

Coach William P. (Bill) Moultrie, a native of Rockdale, was fondly remembered by his niece Elissa Benford-Roberts during a program Tuesday evening in downtown Cameron. The Milam County Historical Museum sponsored the event to commemorate Juneteenth and to highlight the contributions of the African American community in Milam County. 

William Moultrie from Rockdale, Texas became a trailblazing coach, athletic director, and Olympic leader whose decades of impact on track & field, football, and beyond continue to inspire. — Howard University

Moultrie attended Rockdale’s Aycock School for African American students and later attended Texas Southern University earning both an undergraduate degree and master’s degree in Physical Education. He went on to earn another master’s degree from San Francisco State and a divinity degree from Howard University. 

Impressive as that is, Moultrie really made his mark in history by becoming a world famous, award-winning track and field coach. This stellar career gave Coach Moultrie the opportunity to become the first-ever African American Olympic Coach and Olympic Official. With this information as a starting point, his niece, Elissa Benford-Roberts, educated and entertained a group of patrons at the Milam County Museum. She told many stories of her uncle’s amazing career. 

“ … he just simply wanted to give back to his own community.” 

As the evening’s keynote speaker, Benford-Roberts also brought many of Coach Moultrie’s awards, medals, photos, artifacts, and personal items to show the museum crowd. She told about her uncle’s many accomplishments as a coach at Stanford University in California and Howard University in Washington D.C. Speaking on her uncle’s outstanding character, Benford-Roberts said, “My Uncle took a significant cut in pay to leave a wealthy university like Stanford, and take a position at Howard University, a traditionally African American University.” She explained that he did it to help the less wealthy black college students that he could relate to and that he held so close to his heart. She added, “he just simply wanted to give back to his own community.”