Ricky Williams: Dreadlocks to Ditka

By Steve Richardson

Ricky Williams is not only the best running back in the history of college football, but also a known for his down-to-earth personality and willingness to help others. His decision to stay at UT for his senior year despite opportunities to join the NFL meant the world to UT and fans of the soft-spoken, dreadlocked, talented athlete. Richardson delves deep into the personal life of Williams', who was forced to grow up at an early age in order to take care of his twin sister, younger siblings and divorced mother. Through his responsibiliy to his family and love of football, Ricky Williams' story is truly inspirational.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sports Publishing
• Release date: Feb 7, 2012
• ISBN: 9781613211427

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

Ricky Williams is the best running back in the history of college football. His statistics prove it. And off the field Williams became somewhat of a Texas icon in 1998. His relationship with his coaches, his teammates, fans and people of Texas developed into a bond his senior year which will last forever.

When Mack Brown became Texas’ new head football coach in December 1997, Williams had to make the decision whether or not he would stay for his senior season or accept a high position in the 1998 NFL Draft. Each time they met, their relationship became a little warmer. And by the time Williams made his decision to stay for his senior season at Texas, they understood each other very well. It was a tough decision for Williams to stay. Brown remembers telling him he had done more for the University of Texas than most people ever dreamed of doing even if he left after his junior season. Of course, Brown hoped he stayed. But he never tried to influence his decision. The fact Williams stayed for his senior year meant UT enjoyed a magical season.

Before the 1998 season it was doubtful Williams would break Tony Dorsett’s career rushing record. Why? UT’s passing game was questionable and its defense suspect. Williams needed almost 2,000 yards rushing to pass Dorsett. Defenses were geared to stop Williams. But UT’s passing game improved and things opened up for Williams on the ground. And Texas made Williams winning the Heisman Trophy a team thing. He probably wasn’t going to win the Heisman Trophy unless Texas won as a team. It worked out that way.

In some ways this was a tough season for the UT coaching staff because they never knew how long to leave Williams in a game. Williams could have broken Dorsett’s record before the final regular-season game against Texas A&M if he had been left in some games longer. Williams got stronger as games progressed. He wore people down. By the fourth quarter, he usually was a man among boys. But there was always the danger he might get hurt if he was left in a game a little too long. It was a fine line UT coaches had to straddle.

Then, when Williams did win the Heisman Trophy and broke the rushing record, he handled everything with class. He did that during the good times and bad. One of the most memorable times was when he had a bad day at Kansas State early during the 1998 season and his Heisman Trophy chances appeared to be slipping away. But he stood there and answered every last question from reporters. The most telling statement he made was that the University of Texas had more pressing concerns than his Heisman chances. Williams always put the team above his personal goals.

He was great most of the season. But it all seemed to come together in the Nebraska game when UT defeated the Cornhuskers in Lincoln. Williams may have won the Heisman that game. Nebraska coaches and media conceded it to him afterward. He eclipsed Dorsett’s record on a memorable day in Austin in late November when all of college football was watching.

Williams showed the characteristics a Heisman Trophy winner must have in his game performance, practice habits, charisma, and his leadership. Williams excelled in all of those areas. Texas can’t replace Ricky Williams with one player. And as his new career begins for the New Orleans Saints, the people of New Orleans are in for an interesting ride.

Steve Richardson

August 1999

CHAPTER ONE

Ricky as a Youngster

If you reach your dreams, dream higher."

—Ricky Williams

In San Diego, the dreadlocks were long ago accepted. They sprouted on his head as a sophomore in high school. They were a symbolic extension of the late Bob Marley’s Reggae music beat.

Ricky Williams wanted to be different. And he was. At Patrick Henry High School, he was not just a running back. He was that dreadlocked running back, whose powerful and swift running moves and mysterious Jamaican hairstyle blended with his soft speech, pleasant smile and likable nature.

Last October, when he returned to San Diego to serve as the grand marshal of Patrick Henry High School’s homecoming parade, Williams was a mature 21-year-old. And by example, he showed others how to grasp for their dreams. His dreadlocks were even longer, his body bigger and his reputation as a runner more renowned.

He talked to them at the half time of our game, said Patrick Henry’s retiring coach Jerry Varner. He’s not a man of many words. He doesn’t get his dander up or raise his voice. But he did a great job talking to them. We asked him to wear a tuxedo, but he didn’t want to because he didn’t want to direct any undo attention to himself. He wore a polo shirt and slacks.

That’s Ricky Williams. What you see, isn’t necessarily what you get.

I think a lot was made of his hair and those kind of things, said Carl Jackson, one of Williams’ University of Texas running back coaches. He’s not a rebel. He’s an independent thinker. When I started talking to him, it’s just something he decided to do .... The fans realize what kind of person he is.

Growing up, Williams lived in several different middle-class neighborhoods. Racism was prevalent. Once a note was left on the doorstep of the Williams’ home with a racial slur: Get out of the neighborhood. Another time, a fire was set in the Williams’ backyard. The police, instead of going after the culprit, suggested the Williams family move out of the neighborhood. But Williams’ mother, Sandy, persevered. Sandy always said: Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something.

She was a taskmaster, and did what had to get done, Varner said. I will take my hat off to Sandy. She has been a great mom to those kids and a great person.

Sandy was married to Errick Williams at 19, and had three kids by time she was 21. Ricky Williams, named Errick Lynne Williams, was born on May 21, 1977, along with his fraternal twin Cassie, who is one minute older.

I was supposed to be first, but she was upside down, so they had to get her first, Williams said.

By 1983, Sandy and Erick were divorced. Sandy, Ricky (Errick Jr.) Cassie and younger sister Nisey became the Four Musketeers, who were left to fend for themselves.

Williams became the man of he house at the age of 5. Williams’ father, now 40, lives in Houston, and Williams still maintains a relationship him despite the divorce.

It was so tough. I was the man of the house. I took a lot heat from her, Williams said in an interview with ESPN after winning the Heisman Trophy. She put so much pressure on me to grow as a man and become a man. She did a great job. She has three beautiful children. They are all in college and they will all graduate eventually.

But times were often tough.

The Williams’ family celebrated Christmas once by decorating an artificial house plant.

After the divorce, Ricky and his two sisters were latchkey children. Sandy went to night school at San Diego City College, while working as purchasing agent for the Navy. Later she had similar jobs with the Children’s Hospital and the school board during the day.

There were family rules such as never open the door to strangers. Sandy had a special signal on the phone. The phone rang twice. Sandy hung up. Then she immediately called back to check on her children.

Even before the Williams’ household became a single-parent one, Ricky, at age 3, was putting his little sister, Nisey, to bed.

Later, Ricky often cooked. The Williams’ children’s menu was a steady diet of hot dogs, pork and beans, macaroni and cheese, spaghetti doused with sugar and nutmeg and noodles mixed with almost any kind of vegetable.

Williams still says peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are his favorite. And even today, Williams can whip a mean fat-free, sugar-free cheesecake from scratch.

At first Ricky and his twin sister, Cassie, could not be separated. When they were little they held hands wherever they went. But by the time they went to school in first grade, Ricky took a different seat on the bus. Cassie said mom said that we are supposed to sit together. Ricky told her he had other friends.

As a youth, Williams was sometimes angry. That was, in part, most agree because of the broken home and the fact his father was gone at any early age. His mother sent him to anger counseling. And school wasn’t always easy.

Williams was devastated when he lost an election to become vice president of his fifth-grade class at Green Elementary School. He was beaten by Megan McKellog. Williams ran out of the room in tears when his teacher made the announcement. He and his campaign manager Eric Niehause had worked hard on his candidacy. Williams said he wouldn’t run for public office again. And he didn’t.

A test at age 6, revealed his intelligence was that of a 12-year-old. But he didn’t find studying important until he was nearly in high school. And then he became an honor student and was named to The San Diego Union- Tribune All-Academic team.

I was always very bright, but not necessarily a hard worker, Williams said the fall of his senior year at UT. I think I was in eighth grade when I really became focused as a student and started getting good grades. I really wish I had started earlier because I had to make up for some lost time. My advice would be to work from the first day you start school and learn as much as you can.

Williams always wanted to be different, though. When teachers asked him what was different about himself he merely replied he had a twin sister.

When I was young, I was always just part of the crowd, Williams said during his freshman season at UT. "I wanted to be someone. So I worked to make myself some-one.

He went into athletics. And he eventually grew the dreadlocks at age 15. He quit listening to Gangsta Rap and switched to Reggae. He even wrote a term paper on Marley. But in high school Williams was far from a rebel.

We didn’t make a big deal of it at all, Varner said of the dreadlocks. "It is still not common at our school, although a couple of kid have imitated Ricky. They (Ricky’s dreadlocks) were not as long as they are now. And if they had been that long, it wouldn’t have bothered me.

He didn’t do it as a defiant thing. We never had any confrontations. One game he tried to wear black socks. I told him I wouldn’t play him unless he wore white socks. He didn’t have a problem with that.

In high school, Varner said the Williams’ family lived in a middle-class area north of San Diego State.

It was a nice area, Varner said. We did some bussing. A lot of minorities would ride the bus. But Ricky was not among them.

UT recruited Williams, the dreadlocks, and eventually the entire family, Sandy, Cassie and Nisey.

He beats to his own drummer, Bernstein said. Once he started talking to you and he was so soft spoken, you looked past all of that____"

The earrings in pierced ears . . .

the pierced tongue . . .

the spider web tattoo on his left shoulder . . .

the nose ring . . .

the Mickey Mouse tattoo on his left bicep . . .

the barbed wire tattoo around his right arm . . .

the dagger tattoo on his right pectoral muscle . . .

and the Gemini tattoo on his left pec . . .

The Ricky package by 1999.

AND NOW THE MAN.....

But because, things weren’t always easy for Ricky Williams, now wants to make things better for those around him.

Ricky’s the kind of guy who, if he has $10, he’ll give you $8 and get by on $2, said former UT cornerback Chad Patmon, a high school buddy. He’ll give as much as he can to help you out.

Williams helped pay for his sisters’ college education with his signing bonus from the Philadelphia Phillies. He moved his mother to be with relatives near Houston and later to Austin. He wouldn’t report to UT’s freshmen camp in 1995 until she was settled in Katy, Texas.

With his Saints’ bonus money, Williams bought his mother an Explorer XLT and a three-bedroom home south of Austin. He also purchased twin sister Cassie an Explorer and little sister, Nisey, a Nissan Sentra. Williams has also vowed to set up a trust fund to help his father’s three children from a second marriage.

His mother did an unbelievable job raising that kid, said Chris Plonsky, UT associate athletic director for external affairs. He had been disciplined longer in his life than just here in athletics.

He once helped Edith Royal, wife of former UT coach Darrell Royal, when she was searching for an item in an Austin supermarket. Only later did he find out her identity.

Once, after speaking at an elementary school, he promised one of the children that he would attend his birthday party later in the day. He cut short his tuxedo fitting to make sure he was there when the cake was cut.

During the 1997 season, Coach John Mackovic’s last at the school, he regularly popped into Mackovic’s office on Sundays to offer him encouragement during a 4-7 year.

He once signed autographs for about 8,000 people at a Kansas-Texas basketball game in January, 1998, after he made his decision to stay for his senior season.

He wrote literally hundreds of notes and sent pictures to little kids every Sunday during the season.

He once tossed an $80 football out the window to kids who wanted something to remember him by.

And Williams turned the other cheek.

He was mistakenly arrested outside Memorial Stadium in early September, 1997.

Early in the morning, Williams ran a stop sign, mere yards from where he carried the ball on Saturdays. The UT police officer Eric Poteet asked Williams his name.

Ricky responded: Ricky Lynne Williams. His drivers license and vehicle registration said Errick Lynne Williams.

Williams was arrested by Poteet for failing to identify himself. Williams was handcuffed and booked. He was held overnight, but then released and the charges dropped. Poteet was suspended, but later re-instated. UT police chief Donald Cannon apologized to Williams for the mix-up.

The kid just bites his lip, shuts his mouth, and just takes it, Plonsky said. "And he lets them work it out. And then afterwards, just says the guy made a mistake. Pretty stout.

There was a grounding in him that allowed him to take those kind of situations and just go through them with great aplomb. Of all the things that happened to him, that had the potential to blow up. You are on your own campus, three steps away from where you practice and play. He had classes in this building. How can you not know him?

Most people in Austin did know him, but for different reasons. Williams’ speeches, public appearances and spots on television and radio reached far more than an athletic audience.

It gave people an appreciation he had a bigger heart for things than just playing football and running up records, Plonsky said. It was kind of a rally around thing I had never seen before in a collegiate sport before where so many different constituencies embraced this young guy.

Williams performed public service announcements for the Heart of Texas Campaign, for the UT Development Office and for the Texas Library Association. Williams made dozens of appearances at elementary schools and children’s hospitals. He participated in the NCAA Stay in School Program and Crime Stoppers among others.

When you add in all of his qualities, all of the intangibles outside of just what he does on the football field, it even makes him more special, Texas Coach Mack Brown said. There have been a lot of great players who have not been the type of role models that they needed to be off the field. Ricky has done everything right. He has become a celebrity in this state and in the nation.

And, with a major in education, he hopes to some day use his schooling once his playing days are over.

One day, I hope I can be an educator, Williams said. When you sit back and look at it from the outside, you say they are just teachers. Inside, when you are taking classes and interacting with teachers, you can see how important an educator can be to 30 kids in their lives and in their futures.

Ricky’s dreadlocks, which startled Austin when he first arrived, became a rallying point by the time he concluded his career.

Earl Campbell, UT’s only previous Heisman Trophy winner, asked him to shear them. And Royal once said he was cutting off opportunities for himself, because he didn’t understand what high profile was.

But Williams merely stuck to his hairstyle. And by the end, Royal wore fake dreadlocks in a post-game taped tribute along with Willie Nelson and Brown following Williams’ smashing of Tony Dorsett’s rushing record.

Williams simply was an icon in Austin by the time he left. Black, white, no matter the color, they all flocked to see Williams.

The endzone seats at Memorial Stadium, at $6 a pop, were packed three hours before kickoffs to see #34. Fans were hoping to catch a glimpse of Williams running or walking on to the field.

At a parade in Austin to honor the UT athletic department in late January, 1999, Williams might as well have been the grand marshal. The sidewalks were packed. Young and old. Investors, bankers and lobbyists were on hand. People of all sizes, shapes, color and creeds attended. It brought together one of the most diverse groups ever in Austin.

There was something inspirational about Ricky Williams.

Maybe UT’s offensive guard Ben Adams summed it up best: Ricky has a self-less nature that inspires the whole team.

CHAPTER TWO

Ricky’s High School Days,

On to Texas

Ricky Williams was a football legend in San Diego by his senior year in high school. An all-around athlete, Williams, from an early age, could slip from football to other sports with the greatest of ease. But his meal ticket to college was running the football.

And by his senior year in high school, Williams was the toast of San Diego High School football. He had major-college football recruiters from Texas, USC, UCLA, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Cal—you name the school—calling regularly for his services during the fall of 1994.

It was obvious he was the man to catch, said Patrick Henry High School football coach Jerry Varner. He was a man among boys. He was head and shoulders above the other kids. He knew the game. He had it all.

It had taken years of work to become the polished player Williams was in 1994.

Williams, a stickler for detail, started taking notes at an early age. He spotted a player in the Junior Bantam Pop Warner Football League named Christian Romero. Although Romero stood only 5-6, 140 pounds, he make big lead blocks. Williams took mental notes and learned how to become a tougher player from Romero.

Once told by other kids he was too small to play junior varsity football, Williams kept getting, bigger, faster and stronger every year. He loved getting out of his house which was dominated by three women—his mother, Sandy, and two sisters.

Competitive by nature, Williams sought other athletic challenges from the day he started playing football.

Chad Patmon, later Williams’ roommate at Texas, first met Williams after a junior varsity football game in which Patmon had played. Williams jumped out of the stands, introduced himself to Patmon, and then promptly challenged Patmon to a 50-yard race. Patmon edged Williams at the finish. And they have been inseparable ever since.

I think no matter what Ricky did, he would have been successful at it, said Varner, who spotted Williams as a talented, but small ninth grader (5-9, 155 pounds). He had all the neuron connections. He probably could have gone out for golf and been a good golfer.

At age 12, Williams already had a brown belt in tae kwon do. He starred in Little League baseball. But Williams didn’t make his mark in football at Patrick Henry in football until he started putting on some weight.

Varner remembers after the 1992 season Patrick Henry players gathered together. They had been outscored by rival Morse High School, 257-53, the previous five seasons. Morse had even gone for a two points after a touchdown in a 70-7 rout of Patrick Henry in 1991. Varner said that became a rallying point for his players.

The kids made a pact to work hard and get after it, Varner said. We went to a summer camp up in the mountains for a week.

The team lifted weights together. And Williams gained 25 pounds going into his junior season. Williams had a Mighty Mouse tattoo put on his left bicep. It was his way of saying he used to be small and still had a squeaky voice (like a mouse), but he was no pushover.

And Patrick Henry defeated Morse, 34-13, his junior season when Williams ran for 133 yards and scored three touchdowns.

That’s when I proved to myself I could do it, Williams told The San Diego Union-Tribune. "(I proved) that I could