Burton Caswell "Cy" Williams (October 12, 1903 – September 28, 1965) was an American college and professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player who was a tackle for three different professional teams in the

American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Football Conference. ...

(AFL) and

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) during the 1920s and early 1930s.

Early years

Burton was born on October 12, 1903 in

Canoe, Alabama Canoe is an unincorporated community in Escambia County, Alabama, United States. Originally called ''Canoe Station'', the settlement was a stop along the Mobile and Great Northern Railroad. Civil War During the American Civil War, Confederate f ...

to Benjamin Collis Williams and Maria Prescott. His father Benjamin was a long-time

turpentine Turpentine (which is also called spirit of turpentine, oil of turpentine, terebenthene, terebinthine and (colloquially) turps) is a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin harvested from living trees, mainly pines. Mainly used as a special ...

operator at Sopchoppy, Florida. His father died of

pellagra Pellagra is a disease caused by a lack of the vitamin niacin (vitamin B3). Symptoms include inflamed skin, diarrhea, dementia, and sores in the mouth. Areas of the skin exposed to either sunlight or friction are typically affected first. Over t ...

in 1913.

College career

Williams attended the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

in Gainesville, Florida, where he played for coach

James Van Fleet General James Alward Van Fleet (March 19, 1892 – September 23, 1992) was a United States Army officer who saw service during World War I, World War II and the Korean War. Van Fleet was a native of New Jersey, who was raised in Florida and gradu ...

and coach

Harold Sebring Harold Leon Sebring (March 9, 1898 – July 26, 1968), nicknamed Tom Sebring, was a Florida Supreme Court justice, and an American judge at one of the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials of German war criminals after World War II. Sebring was a native ...

Florida Gators football The Florida Gators football program represents the University of Florida (UF) in American college football. Florida competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Eastern Division of ...

teams from 1923 to

1925 Events January * January 1 ** The Syrian Federation is officially dissolved, the State of Aleppo and the State of Damascus having been replaced by the State of Syria. * January 3 – Benito Mussolini makes a pivotal speech in the Italia ...

.
Florida Football 2014 Media Guide
'', University Athletic Association, Inc., Gainesville, Florida, pp. 96 & 183 (2014). Retrieved September 9, 2014. In his first season on the freshman team, the team won the southern crown for freshmen squads. He was remembered as a versatile athlete and a key Gator lineman, blocking the way for such notable Gators backs as

Ark Newton Robert Dee "Ark" Newton, Jr. (January 31, 1903 – January 1974) was an American college football player for the Florida Gators football team of the University of Florida. Newton was also a member of the Florida Gators baseball, basketball and ...

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. 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 Sawdust (or wood dust) is a by-product or waste product of woodworking operations such as sawing, sanding, milling, planing, and routing. It is composed of small chippings of wood. These operations can be performed by woodworking machinery, ...

. A new 'dummy' was brought out but it is predicted that it will not last long under the fierce tackling of the Gators gridders."

Professional career

In 1926, he played professionally for the

Newark Bears The Newark Bears were an American minor league professional baseball team based in Newark, New Jersey. They were a member of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball and, later, the Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball. T ...

of the

, appearing in all five games played by the Bears. The team was notable for the number of players from

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

, but also included two fellow former Gators,

back The human back, also called the dorsum, is the large posterior area of the human body, rising from the top of the buttocks to the back of the neck. It is the surface of the body opposite from the chest and the abdomen. The vertebral column run ...

and lineman Goldy Goldstein. The Bears are remembered for the team's financially weak ownership group, which led to the folding of the team mid-season. During the 1929 and 1930 NFL seasons, Williams played tackle for the

Staten Island Stapletons The Staten Island Stapletons also known as the Staten Island Stapes were a professional American football team founded in 1915 that played in the National Football League from 1929 to 1932. The team was based in the Stapleton section of Staten ...

in 22 regular season games, including 21 of them as a starter.Pro-Football-Reference.com, Players
Cy Williams
Retrieved September 9, 2014. He also appeared in a single game for the NFL's

Brooklyn Dodgers The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1884 as a member of the American Association (19th century), American Association before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the ...

in 1932, before being released.

Wrestling

Williams also worked as a

professional wrestler Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

during the 1930s.

Championships and accomplishments

*NWA Florida **

NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship The NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship was a major title in Championship Wrestling from Florida, USA and is now the major title in NWA Florida Wrestling Alliance. It started in 1937 and was abandoned in 1949. It was picked back up in 1966 by C ...

( 1 time)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Cy 1903 births 1965 deaths People from Escambia County, Alabama Players of American football from Alabama American football tackles Florida Gators football players All-Southern college football players Newark Bears (AFL) players Staten Island Stapletons players Brooklyn Dodgers (NFL) players 20th-century professional wrestlers NWA Florida Heavyweight Champions