The Official Web Site of the WVU Varsity Club

Profile: Ron Williams
By John Antonik

Ron “Fritz” Williams harbored grave doubts about attending West Virginia University.

Although geographically closer to prominent Eastern cities like Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, Morgantown, W.Va., in the mid 1960s was more like living in Birmingham, Ala.

Williams, an African-American from Weirton, W.Va., wasn’t excited about the prospects of becoming a pioneer at his home state school. Roger Alford -- WVU’s first African-American athlete -- was just wrapping up a trouble-free football career in 1965 and there were a few other African-Americans playing on the team at the time. That was it.

Ron’s mother Blanche also had some reservations. Williams later recalled her feelings in Norman Julian’s book Legends: “(She) was unsure about me going to WVU,” he said. “We lost the state high school finals at Morgantown. I got 35 points and could have got 50, but I fouled out and we lost the game. Most of the fouls were offensive calls, like traveling and things. Mom thought maybe they were singling me out.”

Williams wasn’t just any high school player, though. The 6-foot-3, 188-pound guard was one of the nation’s most coveted recruits. Depending upon which newspaper article you read, Williams had scholarship offers from every major college in the country. According to one unofficial tally, 102 college scouts wrote, called, or visited Williams during the winter of his senior year.

Having a player of Ron Williams’ stature certainly made West Virginia University’s basketball integration much easier.

Still, Mountaineer coach George King had to do a pretty good selling job to the Williams family, making them feel certain that their son would be adequately taken care of. Realizing this, King asked West Virginia University athletic director Red Brown to accompany him on one particular trip to Weirton.

Said Brown years later: “I was in the stands when Jackie Robinson made his major league debut. I felt Ron was the right person to integrate WVU basketball, and he was. Williams handled things with dignity.”

In addition to being a well-known basketball player, Ron was an all-state end on Weirton’s football team and a state champion sprinter in track. Not only did King have to contend with other basketball programs to sign Williams, he also had to deal with at least 20 football scholarship offers, too.

To sweeten the deal, West Virginia also offered a scholarship to Ron’s high school teammate Ed Harvard and the two joined Norman Holmes and Jim Lewis in becoming the school’s first African-American basketball players (Washington, D.C., junior college transfer Carl Head was added in 1966, officially making it five African-Americans on WVU’s varsity roster).

Even though Williams spent his first year in Morgantown playing on the freshman team, his every move was chronicled in the state newspapers.

One West Virginia daily ran a game-by-game comparison of Williams’ freshman season with former All-American Hot Rod Hundley’s first year. Another suggested that with the addition of Williams, West Virginia University had accelerated its hopes of constructing a new basketball arena (which it did finish in 1970).

Quentin Barnette, West Virginia’s freshman coach, made a public comparison between Williams and all-pro Jerry West: “Williams is stronger physically, a better outside shooter than West, and he scored more points, comparable rebounds and more assists over a tougher schedule,” he said in 1965.

“West probably had a little quicker hands, but Williams is quick at getting the ball into the front court as anybody I’ve ever seen,” Barnette added. “He’ll beat anybody in one-on-one situations.”

Those were the expectations levied on Williams when he returned to school for his sophomore year in 1966. The guard also had to make the transition of playing for a new basketball coach.

King, disenchanted with some of West Virginia’s unrealistic fans, decided to take the Purdue job after his 1965 team won only 14 of 29 games but still managed to win the Southern Conference championship and advance to the NCAA tournament.

Replacing King in 1966 was Raymond “Bucky” Waters, barely 30 years old and coming from Vic Bubas’ basketball staff at Duke. Having a player like Ron Williams in his back pocket certainly helped Waters’ coaching career get off the ground, although he was to endure his fair share of criticism, too.

Many critics believed Waters held the reigns too tightly and didn’t let Williams have the freedom to score more points.

“If you pinned most coaches in a corner years after they coached, they would say that maybe they over-coached,” said Waters in an interview with the Morgantown Dominion Post in 1996. “I was guilty of it. I think now Ron needed a freer reign, but I didn’t think he could get 40-some a game and carry us by himself.”

Despite playing under Waters’ tight control, Williams helped West Virginia to a 19-9 overall record and a second-place Southern Conference finish his sophomore season in 1966. He averaged a team-best 19.7 points and 5.5 assists per game and he played a key part in one of West Virginia’s greatest victories when the Mountaineers upset No. 2-ranked Duke, 94-90 in Charleston on Feb. 7, 1966.

Williams increased his scoring average to 20.1 points per game as a junior, helping the Mountaineers to another 19-win season and a Southern Conference title. West Virginia lost to Princeton, 68-57 in the first round of the NCAA tournament in Blacksburg, Va.

Williams handed out 197 assists in 28 games that year for a school record that still stands more than 30 years later.

Socially, Williams was a hit on the Morgantown campus, too. His easy going demeanor made Williams one of the school’s most popular students.

“I never had any problems,” he said years later. “I never had anyone say anything bad to me. I try to treat people like they would like to be treated. I got along well with everyone. I was mature enough to handle it.”

Only once did Williams encounter trouble during an away game and West Virginia’s widely popular trainer Whitey Gwynne took control of the situation. “He stood up with his water bottle with that long spout and squirted my hecklers,” Williams laughed.

As a senior in 1968, Ron led the team once again with an average of 20.4 points per game and finished his three-year career with 1,687 career points, ranking him seventh on the school’s all-time scoring list. His 504 assists still rank third in WVU history.

Said Florida coach Tommy Bartlett in 1968 after his team escaped with a 10-point victory in Charleston, “Williams is everything they say he is. He is a real good shooter and can really kill you one-on-one. He’s got all the moves in the world – moves that you can’t teach a boy.”

Williams earned mention on the Chuck Taylor-Converse All-America second team, and was the Southern Conference player of the year as a senior.

Philadelphia 76ers general manager Jack Ramsey, scouting Williams at the Southern Conference Tournament, said: “I guess I’ve become one of Ron’s most avid fans. I’ve seen him mostly on TV, but I really think that he is perhaps one of the very best prospects in the country.”

Williams had all of the tools NBA scouts were looking for – shooting, defense, size, speed and attitude. The trouble was NFL scouts hadn’t forgotten about him either.

Unpredictable Dallas Cowboys talent evaluator Gil Brandt drafted Williams in the 14^th round and offered the speedy Williams a $75,000 signing bonus.

“I liked football, but I didn’t love it,” said Williams.

In the meantime, Williams was one of 30 players selected for the 1968 U.S. Olympic tryouts, but he declined the invitation.

He was the ninth overall player drafted (first guard) in the 1968 NBA draft by the San Francisco Warriors – one of just five first-round picks in West Virginia University history.

His professional basketball career lasted eight years with three different teams. His best two seasons came in 1970-71, when he averaged 14.8 and 14.4 points per game.

Williams ranked among the NBA’s top 10 playmakers in 1970 with an average of 5.3 assists per game, playing in a Warriors backcourt that included Jeff Mullins.

In 1971, Williams lost the NBA free-throw shooting title to Oscar Robertson and Chet Walker on the last day of the season by a fraction of a percentage point.

He scored a career-high 34 points in a game against the Detroit Pistons on Jan. 27, 1971.

Williams played two more seasons with the Warriors in 1972 and 1973 before being traded to the Milwaukee Bucks. Williams was the team’s first guard off the bench, averaging 6.3 points and 2.2 assists per game to help the Bucks to the NBA Finals where they lost to Boston in five games.

Williams played another year with the Bucks in 1975 and one final season with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1975 before retiring at 32.

His eight-year NBA totals include 4,797 points and 1,818 assists. He is the last West Virginia University basketball player to spend more than five seasons in the NBA.

Following his professional career, he coached at all levels including college assistant coaching stints at Cal-Berkley and Iona.

In 1993, Williams was inducted into the West Virginia University Sports Hall of Fame.

His Hall of Fame induction was a lasting tribute -- not only to his performance on the basketball court -- but also for the graceful and classy way he conducted himself off it.

He died of a heart attack on April 4, 2004, in San Francisco.

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