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Friday, October 15, 1976
University Daily Kansan
Outshines other '73 KU stars
Williams blooms in pros
Remember Delvin Williams? The KU halfback who frequently had a hamstring pull?
You probably don't remember him, do you? But you do remember David Jaymes, Emmett Edwards, Don Goode and Milch Sutton? They were the stars of the 1973 Jayhawk team that had a 7-4-1 record and went to the Liberty Bowl.
None of them are stars in the National Football League—except Williams, Jaynes and Sutton were recently cut by several NFL teams. And though Goode is a starting linebacker for the San Diego Chargers and Edwards is a reserve split end for the Buffalo Bills, they didn't jump from oblivion to the leading rusher for the San Francisco 49ers. Williams did.
"THAT I DID well shows the scouting ability of the National
By Steve Schoenfeld
Sports Editor
Football League scouts," Williams said. "They knew we were runners even though we were a passing team."
Williams, a second round draft pick by the lakers in 1974, has gained 26 points and has a longest run of 50 yards. He has caught 11 passes for 101 yards.
And to think those stats are coming from someone who spent much of his college career blocking for a team that broke nearly every
"I felt all the while we were here we could run the football even though we spent much of the time blocking for David," Williams said. "We always did well running when we got the ball, but we were a passing team."
**WILLIAMS DID** indeed do well running when he was at KU. He left Kansas as KU's No. 3 all-time rusher. The rise of Laverne Smith, senior halfback, and Nolan Cromwell, senior quarterback, has surpassed his number of yards on 387 carries in three years with the Javahawks.
Williams also is No. 11 on the Kansas single season rushing chart with 762 vards on 198 carries in 1973, his senior year.
Williams' name probably would appear even more in the KU record books had the Jahwahys had a running offense. But Williams was a big influence on them, too.
"I HAD TO do it over again, I'd do the same thing," Williams said of teams trained in a wabone, and bocks piled up a lot of yards, he added.
"I had to block linebackers, catch passes. The things I did in college, and had to do in college, I've done here."
Don Fambrough, head football coach when Williams was at KU, said the pro set had helped and hurt Williams' college career.
"The kind of mess we were using didn't let him carry the ball that much," Fambrough said. "He but learned to do so many things well that he would do to later in the pros. He could block, catch the ball, make the big play. He was an all-round good back."
Williams, 6-2 and 194 pounds, was hampered by a hamstring injury for much of his career at KU. In fact, he was injured for most of his career.
"WHEN I FIRST got to KU, I had trouble with my hamstring," he said, "and kept having trouble with my hamstring because I wasn't used to coming from the warm climate of Houston. And then for some reason I tended to pull them a lot.
Farnbrough, now assistant director of the Williams Educational Fund, the athletic department's scholarship program, said, "After he hurt his hamstring, he lost some speed and quickness. His junior years he played with hardship and pain. Still, he played well for us."
Williams continued to have injury problems his rookie year with San Francisco. He suffered a broken wrist, keeping him out of games.
HE BECAME A starter for the 49ers at the beginning of last
Delvin Williams — San Francisco 49ers
season and has been there ever since. Williams finished the year as the 41st leader rusher with 631 yards on 117 carries, or 8.4 yards a season.
“If I keep myself in one piece, I’ll have a good year,” Williams said. “I don’t understand it. There are guys who have played 12-13 games.”
William was scholastically ineligible his freshman year at KU and came here on his own. Three years later he had accomplished the highest number of degrees.
"I was so proud of him," Fambrough said. "He didn't have a really good background in high school. His grades were really pretty bad."
"THAT SHOWS THE type of person he was. He was very conscientious. I can remember one day when he got a good grade on an English theme and showed it to me. He was all smiles. He's a perfectionist. I'm very happy for him."
But Williams is perplexed that he made it and some of the others didn't.
"I thought about that myself the other day," Williams said. "I can't really figure out why Dave (Jaynes) and Mitch (Sutton) didn't make it. Something must have happened to Dave's arm. Those guys I would make it. They were so highly sought, I can't understand it."
Many people couldn't understand how Williams made it, either.
Now look who's the star.
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