He was a 3rd Round pick of the Minneapolis Lakers in the 1950 National Basketball Association draft but chose insteand to sign a contract with the Peoria Caterpillars of the American Athletic Union and the National Industrial Basketball League.
Williams played collegiately at Purdue University where he was a 2x All-Big Ten guard (1948-1949, 1949-1950). He was selected as the Purdue team Most Valuable Player in his junior and senior seasons and as Team Captain in 1949-1950. Posting a career total of 735 points (100 game avg).
He led the Big Ten Conference in Free Throw Percentage (857%) for the 1948-1949 season.
He played all eight games and finished #8 in scoring for the squad. Williams spent four seasons playing for the Caterpillars and finished with 1,235 career points, eighth on their career scoring list.
He was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 1989 and the Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame in 1991. He died in Phoenix, Arizona in 2004.
Following a 35-year career with the Caterpillar Corporation.
The Caterpillars finished 4th in the NIBL but won the National Amateur Athletic Union title (the first of three consecutive titles), knocking off the regular season champions, the Phillips Oilers in the semi-finals on Williams last second bucket. Williams and the rest of the Caterpillar team defeated the National Collegiate Athletic Association Champion Kansas Jayhawks in the Amateur Athletic Union Title game. Following the title game, the Los Angeles Times named Williams the Amateur Athletic Union Player of the Year. Williams then led Peoria to another Amateur Athletic Union National title in 1953. The 1952 win placed Williams as well as Peoria teammates. Ronald Bontemps, Marcus Freiberger, Frank McCabe and Dan Pippin on the United States. Olympic squad. That team, led by fellow native Hoosier Clyde Lovellette won the gold medal.
