Rob Vanstone remembers former Saskatchewan Roughriders running backs Fred Williams and Molly McGee, both of whom died in untimely fashion.
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Trivia explosion: Did you know that Saskatoon StarPhoenix sports editor Kevin Mitchell and I have combined to win TWO National Newspaper Awards?!
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Kevin has won both of them.
Anyway, Kevin deserves an award of a different description for sifting through the StarPhoenix’s filing cabinets, extracting an assortment of decades-old Saskatchewan Roughriders photos, and having them scanned into our system.
While perusing the pictures, which were generally taken between the mid-1970s and mid-1980s, I was especially captivated by the photo that appears above.
It was taken Aug. 28, 1977 at Taylor Field, where the Roughriders defeated the Calgary Stampeders 30-19.
Mom and I had a post-game routine. Back then, the Roughriders’ players got on a bus — whereupon many of them started lighting cigarettes — and made the short ride over to the exhibition grounds, where they were headquartered.
After that 1977 game, we really wanted to catch a glimpse of Fred Williams. In his CFL debut, the former Arizona State star carried the ball 12 times for 85 yards and two touchdowns after replacing Steve Molnar, who had suffered a groin injury earlier in the game.
(That game was also the first as a Roughrider for Joey Walters, who is my all-time favourite athlete. No. 17 caught four passes for 82 yards, the first reception being a spectacular 39-yarder that quickly endeared him to quarterback Ron Lancaster.)
Williams, as impressive as he was, wasn’t even the Roughriders’ leading rusher in that game. Molly McGee carried the ball 16 times for 100 yards.
Anyway, out came Williams, headed for a city bus. As he walked right by us, Mom patted him on the shoulder pads. “Great game,” a 13-year-old me added with considerable eloquence. He smiled and thanked us before acknowledging various other well-wishers en route to a smoke-filled bus.
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I had met McGee a few months earlier, at training camp. I got his autograph and chatted with him. He was such a nice guy!
So was Williams, who intrigued me. I remembered reading about him in college football magazines, which typically referred to him as “Fast Freddie Williams.”
Given the build-up, and his considerable skills, I had expected him to enjoy a long and prosperous career in the NFL. But he came to the Roughriders in 1977, not long after being released by the Dallas Cowboys.
After a dazzling debut, I was certain that Fast Freddie was going to be a mainstay in green and white.
Alas, Williams played only one more game (and barely that) of professional football. He carried the ball just one more time, for two yards, and added a reception for a loss of seven during a 26-18 victory over the visiting Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Sept. 5, 1977 — a game in which McGee rushed for 117 yards, including a 39-yard touchdown.
It was a costly victory, though, as Williams suffered torn ligaments in his left ankle — an injury that ended his season and, ultimately, his football career.
I often wondered: What might have been …?
That question again entered my mind after seeing the aforementioned photo. Out of curiosity, I did a Google search in order to hopefully satisfy my curiosity as to what had happened to Fred Williams.
I soon discovered that he was a 2002 inductee into the Arizona State University Sports Hall of Fame — fitting recognition for someone who had rushed for 1,298 yards in 1974 and 1,427 the following season.
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Scrolling down, I also discovered that, sadly, he had died on May 14, 2014. He was only 58 years old. The cause of death was not revealed.
Sylvester (Molly) McGee also passed away in untimely fashion — on July 18, 1994, at age 41. According to The Journal News, based in White Plains, N.Y., McGee died in Brooklyn after “a long illness.”
Dick Yerg of The Journal News wrote that McGee had been inducted into the Rockland County Sports Hall of Fame (in 1986) and was to enter the Rhode Island University Sports Hall of Fame in the fall of 1994.
“For those of us who knew him,” Yerg wrote, “he was just a Hall of Fame person.”
That he was. And the same applied to Fast Freddie Williams, whose time with the Roughriders elapsed much faster than I could have imagined on Aug. 28, 1977.
The sports world is ever-changing, as are the times. Supplement your steady diet of sports coverage by subscribing to the Regina Leader-Post’s 306 Sports Fix newsletter. Each week, sports editor Rob Vanstone will provide additional commentary on the Roughriders, Pats and other teams/sports of interest, along with a peek behind the curtain. Click here to subscribe.
Rob Vanstone: The tale of me and Molly McGee — and Fast Freddie! - Regina Leader Post
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