"Big Cat" Williams Dead After Accident
Paul Dalrymple
Associated Press
Tuesday, September 14, 1999
Cleveland ``Big Cat'' Williams, whose career highlight was a 1966 bout
against heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, died of injuries in an
auto-pedestrian accident.
Williams, 66, who battled a kidney problem and diabetes for years, died
Friday afternoon at Ben Taub Hospital. He was struck by a car as he was
crossing a Houston street Sept. 3. No charges were filed against the driver.
Williams overcame tremendous odds to face Ali in the Astrodome on Nov. 14,
1966.
A year and a half before stepping into the ring against Ali, the fighter
quarreled with a Texas state trooper during a traffic stop. The officer shot
Williams in the midsection, leaving the boxer with lifelong kidney problems.
But after the miraculous recovery, Williams' career came to an anticlimactic
finish: He lost to Ali in a three-round knockout and was never again
considered a serious contender.
Williams was born in Griffin, Ga., and raised in Houston. He was inducted
into the World Boxing Hall of Fame in Commerce, Calif., in 1997.
``I told him he was the champion before he got in the ring,'' Irene
Williams, his wife, said, referring to the Ali fight. ``That was a fight we
didn't think would ever happen.
``He fought Ali with one kidney and only half of his intestines. He was the
people's champion.''
Williams fought professionally only a few more years after the Ali fight.
Then the boxer who fought Sonny Liston twice called it quits.
In recent months, Williams underwent dialysis treatments three times a week
at a Medical Center hospital in the Medical Center.
Williams was returning home from a dialysis session when he was fatally
injured.
``It's a tragedy we had to lose him,'' his wife said. ``It's hard to take.
The shooting couldn't take him. Diabetes. None of that took him out.''
``He was a good man,'' said Reuben Williams, the only child of the retired
boxer. ``Loved people, loved children and loved to fish. And loved the sport
of boxing.''
Memorial services will be Friday from 7-9 p.m. at Eternal Rest Funeral Home
in Houston. Burial will be Saturday at 11 a.m. at Paradise North Cemetery in
Houston.
Bob Sheehy
Liston, he was probably the second best heavyweight in the decade that
separated Marciano and Ali.
Rest in peace, Cat.
Michael Haught
heard of the rough upbringing and life he endured before, during and after
boxing. If not for Sonny Liston, the guy easily could have been the HW
champ.
One thing I question about the article, not wishing to speak ill of a newly
departed person, but I have read that Cleveland Williams had fathered over
20 children by several different women. Was that untrue or is the author
being kind here?
-mwh
Paul Dalrymple <Paul...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
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