PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - Harvard senior offensive tackle James Williams has been named to The Sports Network's 2009 Preseason All-America First Team in an announcement made Thursday afternoon.

Williams, who has reached All-America status since his sophomore season, was previously recognized by the Consensus Draft Services (CDSdraft.com) Preseason All-America team

Williams has started every game since his sophomore season and has been a mainstay for a Crimson offense that has ranked among the nation's leaders in virtually every statistical category while winning back-to-back Ivy League championships.

This marks the second season that Williams has been tabbed to the preseason list from The Sports Network - which has also given him season-end honors since 2007.

Harvard has had at least one All-American in each of the last 10 years while posting the nation's second-best winning percentage this decade.  

Since 2000, Harvard owns a .775 winning percentage (69-20) - second-highest in the Football Championship Subdivision and sixth highest in all of Division I. Over the past five seasons, Harvard is 41-9. Harvard is 36-6 at Harvard Stadium dating back to 2001 while winning 16 of its last 17 games there.

The Crimson has registered at least seven wins in each of the last eight years, making Harvard the first team in the history of Ivy League football to post such a string of successful seasons. Two years ago, Harvard became the first Ivy team to post a string of seven such seasons together. The current stretch is the Crimson's best eight-year run since a 28-year streak of seven-plus win seasons came to an end in 1911. The program has won 64 games over the past eight seasons for the best stretch since a stretch from 1908-1915 when the program also won 64 games.

-Photo courtesy of DSPics.com