Chuck Williams (2018) - CU Athletic Hall of Fame - University of Colorado Athletics

Chuck Williams

Induction:
2018
Class:
1968

A three-year letterman at guard under Coach Sox Walseth for the 1965-66, 1966-67 and 1967-68 seasons … Stood 6-foot-2 and weighed 185 pounds, one of the bigger guards in the nation for his day … A floor leader, he was known for his precision passing, slashing drives to the basket and his tenacious defense, possessing exceptional quickness and speed … Following a serious knee injury his junior year that cost him over a third of the season, he rebounded his final campaign to have an excellent year … An honorable mention All-Big Eight Conference performer as a senior, when he was second on the team in scoring (18.0 points per game), along with averaging 5.1 rebounds per game (assists and steals were not official statistics at the time) … Led the team that season in both field goal percentage (.439) and free throw percentage (.748) … Scored a career-high 38 points against Iowa State in Boulder on Feb. 28, 1968; still tied for the 13th-most points in a single game in CU history, at the time it was the fourth-most … His 802 career points were the ninth-most upon his graduation … He was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers in the 1968 National Basketball Association Draft (sixth round, No. 76 overall), but began his professional basketball career with the Pittsburgh Condors and then the Denver Rockets in the old American Basketball Association … Between 1970-71 and 1977-78, he would play in 638 regular season games in the pros, 500 in the ABA and 138 in the NBA, averaging 10.8 points and 4.5 assists per game … Also appeared in 37 playoff games, all in the ABA, averaging 11.9 points and 4.1 assists per contest … He played in 184 games with the Rockets/Nuggets franchise during three different stints in both the ABA and NBA, and also had stints with Pittsburgh, San Diego, Kentucky and Memphis in the ABA and finished his career with the NBA Buffalo Braves … A two-time ABA All-Star … Represented the Nuggets’ decade in the ABA, along with Spencer Haywood and Ralph Simpson, at the team’s 50th anniversary celebration in 2018 (also attended an Indiana Pacers 50th anniversary celebration that had over 100 ABA players from all different teams) … He earned two degrees from CU, his bachelor’s in 1968 and his Master’s in 1969 … Previously inducted into the Denver East High School Sports Hall of Fame (in its inaugural class in 2007) and the Colorado High School Sports Hall of Fame (2015) … Co-founded three highly successful businesses in sports medicine, environmental remediation and transportation … Born Edward Williams in Pittsburg, Calif., on June 6, 1946, and currently resides in Denver, where he is the national business development manager for BELFOR Environmental.