59 years old R.I.P. and prayers to his family. From your link: Ronnie Williams, the all-time leading scorer in Florida basketball history with 2,090 points, died Sunday night following a two-year battle with brain cancer, the school's website reported Monday. He was 59 years old. Williams, a forward from New York, was a four-year starter (1980-84), the SEC Freshman of the Year, a four-time All-SEC selection, and a senior team captain. He led the Gators in scoring for four consecutive seasons, converted 58.5 percent of his field goal attempts, pulled down 954 rebounds and hit 546 free throws.
My father died at 48 from a brain tumor. But this was back in '68. I think it very well could have been brain cancer now....they didn't know as much about it back then.
Was an absolute scoring machine. Delancey had the highlight reel stuff and Ronnie was the machine in the paint.
Ronnie was a great Gator that could fill the stat sheet without you even noticing. You'd think he was having a quiet game, and at the end you'd see he'd put up another quiet 20 points. Such an efficient scorer.
He was a great player and sounds like a great person. Condolences to his family. May he rest in peace.
Sad to hear about that. I lived in Pittsburgh and never got a chance to see him play. TV was different then, even with cable. Family that lived in Florida sure liked watching him.
I was a young kid. Those are my first Gators hoops memories. Double digits from the 3, 4 and 5. Man that would be nice today.
Remember Ronnie from his playing days. Sad, he is gone at such a young age. Tough disease for sure. RIP
That is sad. 59 is pretty young and looking younger all the time. I remember him from the few times that the Gators were on TV back then. He was smooth and always around the ball. Never knew that he spent his career working in a juvenile detention center. That's a tough job. RIP Ronnie Williams.
I had two people I knew and rode with from bike racing die from blastomas (one form of brain cancer). One was a former domestic pro a few years younger than me that died in his 50's. We were close and rode together several times per week. We talked about doing a ride around the neighborhood toward the end, but by then things were too far along. My wife and I used to cook meals for him late in his life when he was living with his estranged wife (before I knew that we thought he was divorced) because she and their kids were vegan and he wasn't. The other was a female engineering student that was a national level racer. I am guessing she was around 30 when she died. RIP, Jackie. But getting back on topic my first ever Gator basketball game was during the 1982-83 season against Georgia at the O'Dome. Ronnie's senior year and the game was on ESPN. Coming from Illinois I thought that if you didn't have tickets you couldn't get in unless you paid steep scalper prices. We bought First Row Level 1 seats on one endline walking up to the ticket office. He played in an era where he would be underappreciated. RIP, Ronnie.
RIP Ronnie. Great all-around player and good guy. Had the pleasure to watch him every night his Senior season. Especially remember the '84 UK game when Ronnie and Eugene (RIP) ran Bowie and Turpin out of the o-dome!
When I was a UF freshman, I got to see Ronnie Williams play his senior season at Florida. Along with Eugene McDowell (UF's "first McDonald's All-American") and Vernon Delancy, Ronnie Williams formed what was arguably part of Florida's most talented front-court in school history. It's kind of hard for me to describe Ronnie Williams style of basketball - he had a lots of old-school moves around the basket with lots of subtle-moves and shot-fakes where he often scored easily over other players trying to defend him. Another former UF player that reminds me of this style was Demetri Hill who came to UF a decade later. You don't know how they get the ball off over other much bigger, athletic types but the results are undeniable when the basket swishes through the net. Ronnie Williams College Stats | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com Up to that point in time, Florida basketball did not have too much successful history - only one post-season appearance (1969 NIT appearance). However, Ronnie Williams did become Florida's first 2000 point scorer. Currently, UF now has three 2000+ point scorers (Maxwell, Williams, Boynton). Moten (1930 pts) had just missed out on the 2000+ point club at UF. Schintzius was another UF player who had an opportunity to become a 2000+ point member had he played his entire senior season (but that is another story involving "Captain Ahab" and the infamous 1990 UF season). Many of the "blue-blood" schools often celebrate the total number of individual 2000+ point scorers in their school history. Well, UF has three of them beginning with Ronnie Williams. That 1983-84 team also had a freshmen Joe Lawrence and the great Andrew Moten. During that 1983-84 season, it was amazing to see Florida's duo of Williams/McDowell taking on the top SEC competition of that era and totally holding their own in those games: - Auburn's Charles Barkley (aka "The Round Mound of Rebound") & Chuck Pearson (aka "The RifleMan") - Kentucky's twin towers: Sam Bowie & Melvin Turpin (Some NBA team actually took Sam Bowie over a guy named Michael Jordan in the top 3 of the 1984 draft; Bowie was regarded as one of the most talented centers in basketball before his injuries) - Alabama's Buck Johnson & Bobbie Lee Hurt - Georgia's Vernon Fleming On his radio-talkshow with Steve Russell, I heard former UF assistant under Norm Sloan, Monte Towe, describing how he went to New York trying to recruit the Fleming twins (to NC State) but also noticed another talented player in the gym - one Ronnie Williams. In 1980, Towe and Sloan (2nd stint at UF since the 1960s) would soon leave NC State and try to start up the Florida basketball in the brand new O'Connell Center built for Basketball & other sports (i.e, swimming, gymnastics, track, volleyball). Ronnie Williams would be one of Sloan's first, most important player that would be recruited to build up Florida's program back in 1980-81. Towe was also a former Wolfpack PG that would help NC State win their 1st NCAA title over John Wooden's UCLA; UCLA had previously won 7 straight NCAA titles before losing to Sloan's/Towe's NC St team. At Florida, Sloan would often try to repeat that same formula that he had NC State when he had won the national title: having a dominant, front court (preferably having a 7+-foot shot-blocking, scoring center) along with an athletic 2-guard and a smart, heady point guard to run the team. 1983-84 Florida Gators Schedule and Results | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com In the 1984 season, Florida's best wins were over #3 Kentucky (who would go on to the 1984 Final4), #18 Georgia (who had previously went to their only Final4 in the 1982-83 season) and #14 LSU. Despite all of those great wins over ranked opponents, Florida would still miss the 1984 NCAA Tournament. Florida (16-13, 11-7) would finish third in the SEC (see the 1984 SEC standings). Being swept by Florida State did not help matters in the total win column and also losing the 1st game of the SEC Tourney to Tennessee. In those days, UF-FSU played home-away schedule for a number of seasons. 1983-84 Southeastern Conference Season Summary | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com Controversially, the 4th place (LSU) and 5th place (Alabama) SEC teams would be invited to play in the 1984 NCAA Tournament (over the 3rd place Gators) along with 2nd place (Auburn) and 1st place (Kentucky) SEC teams. Does this seem right to you? I remind you that this was also around the same time that the SEC stripped Florida of their 1984 SEC title in football. If one was a Gator fan back then, one could develop a neurosis that "they" are all out to just get your team someway or stick it to your team. Florida was still trying to go their first ever NCAA Tourney which would not happen until 1987. From 1984-1986, Florida would get very close to qualifying for the NCAAs only to come up short and would play in the NIT for three straight seasons before finally breaking through in 1987. In those days, the NCAA tournament had only 53 teams (expanded from 48 teams from the previous years). The NCAA would expand to 64 teams in 1985 and would implement the 3-point line in 1987 to help teams that did not have dominant front-courts to compete better. Also, a 45-second clock (?later 30s) would be implemented so that teams like North Carolina (i.e, Dean Smith's "4-corners offense") could not play stall ball for long stretches of a game after securing a substantial lead. As a consolation prize, Williams' 1984 Florida basketball team would make only its 2nd post-season appearance in the NIT after a fifteen year absence. RIP Ronnie Williams. Your contributions to Florida basketball and their rise will never be forgotten!
Enjoyed watching him play when I attended UF. Very sad news!!! Prayers to his family. RIP Ronnie. Great Gator.
