Robert Allen Williams (January 2, 1930 – May 26, 2016) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL).

Early years

Williams graduated from

Loyola Blakefield Loyola Blakefield is a private Catholic, college preparatory school run by the USA East Province of the Society of Jesus in Towson, Maryland and within the Archdiocese of Baltimore. It was established in 1852 by the Jesuits as an all-boys school f ...

High School in

Towson, Maryland Towson () is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. The population was 55,197 as of the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Baltimore County and the second-most populous unincorpo ...

in 1948. Williams attended Notre Dame on an athletic scholarship, where, as a nineteen-year-old junior quarterback, he guided Notre Dame to an undefeated season with 10 wins and no losses. Williams won the National Championship for

Frank Leahy Francis William Leahy (August 27, 1908 – June 21, 1973) was an American football player, coach, college athletics administrator, and professional sports executive. He served as the head football coach at Boston College from 1939 to 1940 and at ...

's 1949 team. Williams finished fifth in voting for the

Heisman Trophy The Heisman Memorial Trophy (usually known colloquially as the Heisman Trophy or The Heisman) is awarded annually to the most outstanding player in college football. Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and hard ...

in 1949 and sixth in 1950. Bob Williams holds the school mark for highest passing efficiency rating for a season (minimum 50 completions) with a 159.1 rating in 1949, when he was 83 of 147 for 1,374 yards and 16 TD's. Williams was first team on the 1949 College Football All-America Team and the 1950 College Football All-America Team. He was awarded the Nils V. "Swede" Nelson Award in 1950. Williams was inducted into the

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were vote ...

in 1988.

Professional career

Williams was the second overall selection in the 1951 NFL Draft by the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

. He played

professionally A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and skil ...

in 1951, 1952 and 1955.

Death

Williams died on May 26, 2016 at a retirement home in

Timonium, Maryland Timonium is a census-designated place (CDP) in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 9,926. Prior to 2010 the area was part of the Lutherville-Timonium CDP. The Maryland State Fair is held in Ti ...

from

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

, aged 86.

References

External links

NFL.com player page
1930 births 2016 deaths All-American college football players American football quarterbacks Chicago Bears players College Football Hall of Fame inductees Notre Dame Fighting Irish football players Sportspeople from Cumberland, Maryland {{quarterback-1930s-stub

Early years

Professional career

Death

See also

References

External links