Curly Williams spent time with Lloydminster Meridians throughout his long and glorified baseball career.
Williams, a native of South Carolina was born in 1925 and passed away one year before his induction into the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame, which will take place Aug. 18 in Battleford.
He played in the Negro leagues and the White Sox farm system and was picked for the Negro Leagues' all-star game in 1950 and reached the highest level of the White Sox minor league system in 1952 with the Toledo Mud Hens of the American Association.
Williams played baseball for Carman, Man. in the Mandak League before joining the Meridians in 1955. In his first season he hit .280, and was a great third baseman. The following year he was the team's leading hitter with a .314 average, seven homers and 45 runs batted in.
One of his best Canadian seasons came in 1957 when he batted .343 with 15 home runs and 55 RBI in 66 games. He was a power hitter, who didn't strikeout often, just 20 times during his impressive season.
Williams was a perennial all-star who also took a turn as manager of the club. In his first full month as the Lloydminster skipper in 1961, he led the Meridians to 25 wins in 32 games, including tournament victories.
After the collapse of the Western Canada League at the end of the 1961 season, Williams returned to Lloydminster to head up the city's entry, the Green Caps, in the Northern Saskatchewan League.
Those would be the final two seasons of his 20-year baseball career. He retired after the 1963 season. Williams went out with a .391 average in his final season.
For nearly a decade, beginning in the mid '50s, not only was he one of the best players but one of the most popular and most respected.
