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Wonderful World of Williams

By Jack DeGange

This is Rule Number One in the Wonderful World of Disney: Everybody works for The Mouse. And, with Reggie Williams calling the signals, The Mouse has roared into the world of sports.

It’s been 30 years since Williams wrapped up a football career at Dartmouth that saw him become an All-America and three-time All-Ivy League linebacker. That set the table for 14 seasons, including a pair of Super Bowl appearances, with the Cincinnati Bengals.

Over the years, the pains of playing have subsided (though Williams awaits replacement surgery on both knees). Since 1993, Williams, now the vice president of Disney Sports Attractions, has channeled the energy once aimed at opposing quarterbacks into making an unparalleled athletic mecca of Disney’s Wide World of Sports, the 200-acre athletic component of Florida’s Walt Disney World Resort.

Since it opened in 1997, Disney’s Wide World of Sports has hosted more than a thousand events, most of them involving young, amateur athletes from all corners of the United States and overseas. The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), the nation’s largest amateur sports organization, has made the complex its home. When the AAU’s junior volleyball national championship was held last June in The Milk House, a 5,500-seat arena, 13-year-old Desirre Wilkerson from Louisville, Ky., was recognized as the complex’s one-millionth athlete.

Selection as the NFL’s Man of the Year in 1986 and by Sports Illustrated (for his contributions as a community leader) as its Co-Sportsman of the Year in 1987 are among the honors accorded to Williams. As his playing days ended, he was appointed and then elected to the Cincinnati City Council.

In 2003, SI recognized him again in its list of “101 Most Influential Minorities in Sports.” That measures the credentials of the man who oversees the vast sports and recreation offerings at Walt Disney World, including the sports complex, two water theme parks, five championship golf courses, miniature golf courses, countless nature trails and bodies of water used for fishing, boating and sailing.

“Disney Sports has exceeded all expectations,” said Williams, who is first to point out that it’s not about one individual’s efforts but the hard work of the 2,300 cast members of his Sports and Recreation team.

Looking back over 35 years as an athlete and now marketer of athletic opportunity, it almost seems as though Williams’ life has followed a carefully crafted plan. Williams regards the notion as laughable.

“Things just happen,” he said. “If you gravitate to your passions, you’ll be happy.”

Consider the path Williams has taken. Growing up in Flint, Mich., he had to overcome a hearing disorder. Bo Schembechler, the University of Michigan football coach, didn’t think Williams could make his Big Ten team. His high school counselor didn’t think he could handle the academic rigors at Dartmouth.

“I was passionately committed to proving otherwise to Schembechler and that guidance counselor — I don’t remember his name but he wore plaid pants and white socks before it was fashionable."

Williams reflected, “Would I have come to Dartmouth if I aspired to play pro football? In the NFL, would I have chosen Cincinnati (he was picked by the Bengals in the third round of the 1976 draft)? What would make me gravitate from Flint to Florida?”

“There was a lot of incentive during my college career to take advantage of every opportunity, every single day,” said Williams, who majored in psychology and was also the Ivy League’s heavyweight wrestling champion in 1975. He was honored by Dartmouth with an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 1990.

There may have been no plan but there certainly has been no more driving influence for Williams, then and now, than Lenny Nichols, his classmate, roommate, fraternity brother and Dartmouth teammate who died nearly 10 years ago.

“No one made a greater sacrifice from a peer standpoint as a college freshman than Lenny,” said Williams. “He came to Dartmouth (from Elmsford, N.Y.) as an all-state linebacker in high school.

“I was a part-time linebacker, wannabe running back and was informed by Coach (Jake) Crouthamel that I was going to be a linebacker. To do that, Lenny had to move to the offensive line (he became a three-year starter at guard). He had a good college career and I had great success at linebacker.

“All of my college experiences, my language study abroad, my study at Cal-San Diego, vacations at his home, Lenny was with me. Lenny is my unsung hero. The thing about unsung heroes, their song is never sung. And that’s unfortunate. He was the best friend a man could ever have.”

The foundation and inspiration for Williams’ career with Disney Sports was laid in that friendship and a remarkable football career. He stills holds the Dartmouth career record for unassisted tackles (243 from 1973-75) and is second to linebacker Jerry Pierce ’81 in overall tackles (370 to Pierce’s 385 from 1979-81). He won All-America honors and invitations to three post-season all-star games (he accepted two). His achievements as a player at Dartmouth have earned his nomination to the College Football Hall of Fame.

Breaking into Cincinnati’s starting lineup as a 6-1, 225-pound linebacker in 1976, Williams was named to the NFL’s All-Rookie team as the Bengals built a 10-4 record. Matching 12-4 records in 1981 and 1988 took Cincinnati to the Super Bowl where the Bengals were victimized by quarterback Joe Montana’s comeback drives as the San Francisco 49ers won, 26-21 in 1982, and 20-16 in 1989.

In 1993, his leadership ability and overall experience in athletics at the highest level made him an attractive candidate for the Disney organization as plans for the Disney Sports World were developing. “It’s obviously a very successful company that offered multiple learning opportunities,” said Williams. “Coming from a profession (football) where the average career is three-and-a-half years, this has been a lifetime.”

And, it’s become a unique athletic environment. The Disney sports complex is a training ground for the Atlanta Braves and NBA teams. It’s become the venue for marathons and professional tennis championships.

“Thousands of kids come to practice and compete on the same fields as many of the world’s greatest athletes,” said Williams. “The first players to step on our softball quadraplex were the women who won the softball gold medal at Atlanta (in 1996). Every venue has its own story about some of the best athletes in the world of sports who continue to come back again and again.”

Name dropping: NBA stars Yao Ming and Amare Stoudamire, soccer sensation Freddy Adu, the WNBA’s Chamique Holdsclaw and soccer Olympian Mia Hamm participated in Disney Sports events as amateurs.

Williams has helped to build an environment to elevate young athletes. “I always look at a Super Bowl ring as a key to influencing kids about trying to do the right things with their opportunities,” he said. “But what we’ve built here has opened up many more doors than a hundred Super Bowl rings could have done.”

Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex offers an ongoing celebration of sports. “It’s a day-to-day love affair, where culture and language aren’t prerequisites,” Williams said. “The focus is geared to amateur athletes, young and old, male and female. Rarely do they get a chance to play in a pristine facility under pristine conditions. Everything is designed so they’ll have a great experience, win or lose.”

After a much longer-than-average career in the NFL, Williams is about to match that tenure working for the Mouse. How do the experiences compare?

“You could say that this has erased the pain of losing the Super Bowl (twice),” he said. “Still, there’s nothing that beats taking the field at one o’clock on a Sunday afternoon in front of your home crowd.”

There’s one thing he doesn’t miss: “These days, when I get up on Monday morning, I don’t ache.”

Freelance writer Jack DeGange was Dartmouth’s sports information director from 1968-77. Last year with David Shribman ’76, he co-authored a book, Dartmouth College Football.

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