SPORTS HEROES: WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
By Frederick A. Hurst
(“Where Are They Now” is a regular Point of View sports column featuring outstanding Afro-American Springfield athletes of the past. The column’s sports editor is Bud Williams, who has his own sport’s history. It seemed appropriate, therefore, to assign our first column to his story.)
If you want to know where City Councilor Bud L. Williams gets his drive and determination to succeed you need only look at his history as an athlete. He won’t tell everyone the story of how he was once humiliated on the basketball court and decided then and there to become the best. He honed his basketball skills in some of the toughest gyms in town. He started his career at the Springfield Boys Club where be played guard in the 8-10 league under the guidance of the much-loved Art Jones. The Boys Club was a haven for poor kids in the tough North End of Springfield. From 1960 to 1963 Bud played the same position of guard at Chestnut Jr. High School, also located in Springfield’s North End. During the same period he played pick-up ball at Mt. Cavalry Baptist Church under the able leadership of coach Ben Riley and later he played pick- up ball at DeBerry Playground and the Dunbar Community Center with the Big Will Express.
In 1963 Bud was ready when he joined the Springfield Trade High Basketball Varsity team as a 10th grade freshman. He played three exciting years and was “All City” in his junior year and “All Western Mass” in his senior year. He was the first player in Putnam’s history to score 1000 points. High scoring was not unusual for the precocious Williams, who still holds the scoring record of 50 points for the DeBerry Summer League. Bud went on to play at STCC for 2 years where he made “All American in Jr. College” and then to Westfield State where he played for three years and won “All-Conference”.
After college Bud played pickup ball in summer leagues with many of Springfield’s other outstanding players such as Bobby Knight, Jessie Spinks and Cornell Lewis. He then coached a semi-pro team, “the Big Will Express, A. C.,” competing against teams from all over the country and playing in three national tournaments. For many years he has also coached thousands of kids in Springfield and surrounding areas in the art of basketball, including his own son, Kamari, who started playing for his father at the Dunbar when he was six years old.
And the apple does not fall far from the tree. Kamari Williams, under the watchful and anxious eye of his father has emerged as a star in his own right. Besides playing for the Dunbar and Big Will Express and the Springfield Boys Club like his father before him, he was an outstanding talent on the Cathedral High School Varsity Basketball Team. In his final year Cathedral won the state championships for the first time in its history. Kamari is currently at Suffield Academy Prep School where he keeps making the news as an outstanding player on their basketball team. And during his entire career he has played the same guard position that his father played during his entire career. So, Bud William’s outstanding career lives on not only in our memories but in the actions of those like his son Kamari and other kids he has coached, who have learned from him and moved on to their own successful careers.