Cy Williams (American football)

Burton Caswell "Cy" Williams (October 12, 1903 – September 28, 1965) was an American college and professional football player who was a tackle for three different professional teams in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL) during the 1920s and early 1930s.

Cy Williams
Williams at Florida, 1923
Position:Tackle
Personal information
Born:(1903-10-12)October 12, 1903
Canoe, Alabama
Died:September 28, 1965(1965-09-28) (aged 61)
Alameda, California
Height:6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Weight:200 lb (91 kg)
Career information
College:Florida
Career history
Career AFL / NFL statistics
Games played:28
Games started:26
Player stats at NFL.com
Player stats at PFR

Early years

Burton was born on October 12, 1903 in Canoe, Alabama to Benjamin Collis Williams and Maria Prescott.[1] His father Benjamin was a long-time turpentine operator at Sopchoppy, Florida. His father died of pellagra in 1913.[2]

College career

Williams attended the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he played for coach James Van Fleet and coach Harold Sebring's Florida Gators football teams from 1923 to 1925.[3] In his first season on the freshman team, the team won the southern crown for freshmen squads.[4] He was remembered as a versatile athlete and a key Gator lineman, blocking the way for such notable Gators backs as Ark Newton and Edgar Jones. During his three-year college career, the Gators had the best three-year streak in the history of the first 20 years of the Florida football program, during which the team compiled a win-loss-tie record of 25–5–4 and finished 8–2 in 1925.[3]

One account before the start of his sophomore season at Florida reads: "Big Cy Williams, star Freshman tackle of last year and probably the Varsity tackle of this year, was the immediate cause of the 'dummy's' downfall for when he dove into the lifeless foe, it collapsed and Cy was deluged with sawdust. A new 'dummy' was brought out but it is predicted that it will not last long under the fierce tackling of the Gators gridders."[5]

Professional career

In 1926, he played professionally for the Newark Bears of the American Football League, appearing in all five games played by the Bears. The team was notable for the number of players from Georgia Tech, but also included two fellow former Gators, back Ark Newton and lineman Goldy Goldstein.[6] The Bears are remembered for the team's financially weak ownership group, which led to the folding of the team mid-season.[7]

During the 1929 and 1930 NFL seasons, Williams played tackle for the Staten Island Stapletons in 22 regular season games, including 21 of them as a starter.[8] He also appeared in a single game for the NFL's Brooklyn Dodgers in 1932, before being released.[8][9]

Wrestling

Williams also worked as a professional wrestler during the 1930s.[10][11]

Championships and accomplishments

See also

References
  1. California, Death Index, 1940-1997 Place: Alameda; Date: September 28, 1965.
  2. "B. C. Williams Dies Of Pellagra". Tallahassee Semi Weekly True Democrat. July 1913.
  3. Florida Football 2014 Media Guide Archived September 3, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, University Athletic Association, Inc., Gainesville, Florida, pp. 96 & 183 (2014). Retrieved September 9, 2014.
  4. Associated Press (December 1, 1922). "Florida Freshmen Claim The Crown". p. 6. Retrieved February 5, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. Newton, Virgil M. (September 19, 1923). "'Ark' Newton Ready To Go". St. Petersburg Times.
  6. Steve Rajtar. Gone Pro: Florida Gator Athletes Who Became Pros. p. 89.
  7. David S. Neft, Richard M. Cohen and Rick Korch, The Football Encyclopedia: The Complete History of Professional Football, From 1892 to the Present, St. Martin's Press, New York, New York (1994).
  8. Pro-Football-Reference.com, Players, Cy Williams. Retrieved September 9, 2014.
  9. "Football Dodgers Release Williams," The Brooklyn Eagle, p. 12 (September 28, 1932). Retrieved September 9, 2014.
  10. "Sign Clever Array of Wrestlers for Auditorium Bouts," The Ottawa Evening Journal, p. 19 (July 21, 1932). Retrieved September 9, 2014.
  11. "HISTORY: Duke of Kent draws big crowds".
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