Colorado University Athletics
Brooks: 'Big Al's' Love For CU Makes Every Day Special
September 16, 2010 | Football, B.G. Brooks
Williams' position coach (outside linebacker) at the University of Colorado, Simmons recalls 1990 bringing a double bonanza for Williams and the Buffaloes. In addition to CU defeating Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl, 10-9, to win its first national championship in football, Williams won that season's Butkus Award, presented annually to the nation's top linebacker.
"When he came back from the Butkus Award presentation," Simmons said, "he walked into my office and we started talking about the event, the season we'd had . . . we talked a long time. He had the trophy with him.
"On his way out, he stopped, turned around to me and said, 'I'm going to leave this here; I'll come back for it later. You hold onto it.' I think it was his way of saying, 'Thanks for your guidance over the past four years.' It was so good to see him grow and mature. But he was always a character."
Still is, too. With his infectious laugh and 1,000-watt smile, "Big Al" is a character's character. He wasn't too bad a football player, either. He and fellow "H-Boy" Kanavis McGhee (they both hailed from Houston) were CU's dominant defensive bookends in '90, and Williams never allows an opportunity to pass without acknowledging McGhee as his equal - or better.
"I'll always say Kanavis was the best linebacker at Colorado," said Williams, who captained the Buffs. "He pushed me . . . I'd consider us the two best in college football while we were playing."
But one of the pair - guess who? - wasn't always the easiest to coach. His athleticism, size (6-foot-6, 230) and talent made him special, but his inquisitive nature and independence sometimes perplexed his position coach.
"Al would size up a guy on tape and say, 'I can do this or that against him,'" Simmons said. "I would tell him, 'Yeah, but it better be in the framework of the defense.' He was a guy who would ask why and you'd have to explain some things to him - but not enough to complicate the issue.
"I would tell him, 'If you're going to do it like that, something special better happen.' If there was a guy who was going to take a chance, it was him. But he was athletic enough to pull it off. When you've got guys like Al, you watch them, but you also let them play."
Williams, who registered 121/2 of his school career record 35 quarterback sacks in his senior season, went on to a nine-year NFL career. He made the Pro Bowl and won a pair of Super Bowls (1997-98) with Denver, the team he'd hoped to be with from the start of his professional career. Finishing with the Broncos, however, provided him - and Simmons - with a cherished memory.
"I was with him on Draft Day and even though he was a first-round pick (18th overall by Cincinnati), he wasn't happy," Simmons said. "I said, 'Al, you've just been picked in the first round of the NFL Draft.' But his heart was in Colorado . . . I was so glad he got back to the place he wanted to be - and won a couple of Super Bowls to boot."
There's no doubt that Williams believes he's home. He married his longtime partner, Kristina, last May and has four sons and a daughter he plans on raising in the Rocky Mountains.
"All my friends are here and many of my teammates . . . guys who stood up for me in bad times, stuck by me. They've been mentors to me, best men in my marriage, even babysitters," he said. "It's just who we are. The friendships are unbelievable."
Since retiring from the NFL in 1999, he's been in business with former teammate Charles "CJ" Johnson, dabbled in television work and currently is living his dream - working in Denver radio (104.3 The FAN).
"I love it . . . it's fluid and I know it," Williams said of his drive-time sports talk career. "I'm talking about things I'm very familiar with . . . To me, it's like being in the locker room still. It feels genuine; there's no good cop, bad cop. The way I talk is the way I feel. Now, people don't always agree with me, but it's locker room talk and it's good."
This season marks the 20th since the Buffs won the national championship. With an 18-year-old son, Williams says he can indeed believe it's been two decades since CU won it. But he still "feels great, and I feel just as great about how my teammates are doing with their lives," he said.
Despite winning the pair of Super Bowl rings with the Broncos and his Pro Bowl appearance, CU's '90 season was Williams' personal football highlight. Aside from defeating Notre Dame by a point in Miami, his most memorable games were CU's 27-12 win at Nebraska and a 64-3 rout of Kansas State in his final home game.
The reasons for each being etched in his memory differ greatly.
"The Nebraska game is special because we came back and persevered under great duress," he said. "Just understanding how important that game was to the university, the team, the entire campus . . . it was monumental."
The K-State game remains a personal highlight because good friend O.C. Oliver, a reserve tailback who likely would have played a more prominent role on a less talented team, scored a touchdown.
"We met him and carried him off the field," Williams recalled. "He was important to the program, although he was overshadowed by (Eric) Bieniemy. The look on O.C.'s face was something I'll never forget."
Nor will he forget the ultimate prize at the conclusion of the '90 season. Even two Super Bowl victories can't compare, he said: "Winning the national championship was no doubt the highlight. When you get paid, you're supposed to do those things; that's the way I feel. When you can transform the energy of a campus into something that was magnetic, something magic, it was awesome."
On Dec. 7 in New York, Williams will be inducted into the National Football Foundation College Football Hall of Fame, an honor he calls "huge, no bones about it. People ask me about best career moments - the NFL or in college. That college memory (the '90 championship) will be forever.
"You don't get many opportunities for those types of things, and we had a shot to play for it twice (1989-90). It's really a tougher task to win a national championship than a Super Bowl. You have to have great players and a great coach - we had both.
"There's really no NFL moment to rival it. The amount of talent on both teams (CU, Notre Dame), the way we competed, a pair of Hall of Fame coaches. It was just huge. You can't dream up the kind of experience I had . . . nobody would believe the movie. They'd say it didn't happen."
As a fall prelude to his Hall of Fame induction, Williams will be honored Saturday at Folsom Field when CU plays Hawaii. It's "Alfred Williams Day" and the honoree is overjoyed.
"It's just awesome that they'd do that," he said. "For me, this is the greatest time of year as a former member of the football team . . . the people I'm around now and the people then were just phenomenal. We get together and rejoice in our success.
"I think we all know that not every day is going to be a good day, but we believe it will be. Why have a bad day when you've got the option to make it a good day? This (Saturday) is going to be a good day, I know it. But every time I'm on campus, I believe it's 'Alfred Williams Day.'"
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
