Facts About Fred Williamson

He was another guy who transitioned from sports to movies.

Fred WilliamsonPhoto byCreative Commons: Wstotler

I’m probably one of the few people who remember Fred “The Hammer” Williamson more for his football career than his acting. Fred was a pretty good cornerback in the old AFL, actually playing for the Chiefs in the first Super Bowl, which wasn’t called the Super Bowl back then.

Fred followed Jimmy Brown’s path from the NFL to the movies, even appearing in some movies with Brown. And beyond that, I didn’t know a lot about Williamson before doing some more research. So, here are some things you probably didn’t know about Fred Williamson.

1: It seems that Fred must have an interesting personal life. He’s been married twice and has at least three kids, though some say he has at least six.

It’s always interesting when you can only get a rough estimate of how many kids a guy has.

2: Fred was briefly the color guy on MNF broadcasts, following the departure of Don Meredith. But Fred only did pre-season games and was sacked before the regular season.

I will give credit for Williamson saying during his introductory press conference, he would try to “bring some color to the booth.”

3: Fred worked with Jimmy Brown on three movies. The one I actually saw was the western, “Take a Hard Ride.”

The third star of the movie was Lee Van Cleef. It would have been nice if the three of them had made more westerns together. They could have been called, Oreo Westerns.

4: Williamson had a role in “The Cloud Minders” episode of the original “Star Trek” series.

It was an example of where Fred boldly went where few, if any black guys had gone before.

5: Fred was known as The Hammer during his NFL days becuase he attempted to knock out receivers with karate chops. He played in the first Super Bowl and talked about knocking out Green Bay Packers receivers.

Unfortunately for Fred, his head made contact with Packers’ running back Donnie Anderson’s knee and he was knocked out and carried off the field. The Hammer had gotten hammered.

6: Williamson has black belts in a number of martial arts.

I wonder if martial arts people would make an adjustment for their senior division and offer black suspenders instead of black belts?

7: Williamson’s football career was no joke. In the old AFL he was a pro bowler three times and was named to the All-Pro team twice.

I believe that surpassed the number of Oscars he received.

8: Fred had a fairly big role in the classic movie, MASH. He played Capt. Oliver Harmon “Spearchucker” Jones.

Capt. Jones was a former pro football player turned surgeon, which I expect is easier than going from surgeon to football player.

9: He appeared in the October 73 issue of Playgirl.

He appeared mostly nude in the magazine. The difference between “mostly nude” and “nude” can make or break a career.

10: Fred has three rules for his movies: “(1) You can’t kill me in the movie, (2) I want to win all my fights in a movie, and (3) I get the girl at the end of the movie if I want her.”

Well, I guess there’s no point in getting the girl if he doesn’t want her. To get the girl if a guy doesn’t want her seems like a loss. For both parties.