Inspirational Athletes – 4

When it comes to inspiration in the world of Tennis, many in recent times would have been inspired by the exploits of Venus and Serena Williams. Yet how many have heard of Richard Williams? No not their father, who happens to have that name, but Richard Norris Williams?

The reason that you have probably never heard of him is he was known as Dick to his friends but is in most record books as R. Norris Williams.

Williams was born in Geneva, Switzerland in 1891. His father Charles Duane Williams was an American lawyer and a direct descendant of one of the founding fathers of America, Benjamin Franklin.

Charles Williams is regarded as the driving force behind the foundation of the International Tennis Federation back in 1913. There are two stories as to how this came about but one of the resulting events was the French Open being opened up to foreign players. Previously it had been known as the French Championships and was only open to French players.

Dick was educated at a Swiss Boarding school and spoke fluent French and German. At the age of 12 his father introduced him to the game of tennis.

In 1911 aged 20 he won the Swiss Championships. In 1912 he returned to the United States to attend Harvard University. He became the intercollegiate tennis champion in singles in 1913 and 1915 and the doubles champion in 1914 and 1915.

Williams is said to have been a player who loved to hit the ball hard. He also had a penchant for trying to hit winners as close to the lines as possible. Needless to say these two traits led to his form at times being erratic.

Despite that he still won two men’s singles titles at the U.S. Championships in 1914 and 1916. He was also a member of the victorious American Davis Cup team twice, in 1925 and 1926.

However it was before those David Cup victories that he had one of the highlights of his career when he won Gold at the 1924 Paris Olympics at the age of 33. He partnered Hazel Wightman in the mixed doubles and the pair won in spite of Williams’ sprained ankle. Mind you Wightman was some player in her own right. She would become the founder of the Wightman Cup, which was an annual team competition for British and American women. It ceased in 1990 as public interest waned due to the dominance of the US players. Wightman was dominant in her era and won 45 U.S. titles!

This all sounds like a privileged young man having great sporting success, but there was tragedy at the start of his career as he was involved in an historic incident that almost curtailed his participation in sport.

In 1912 Williams and his father decided to travel back to the USA together as he set off for Harvard. They boarded the ship in Cherbourg. The ship they boarded was the Titanic.

So the story goes the two were in their first class stateroom when the ship hit the iceberg. Hearing a noise they decided to investigate. They came across a door through which they could see a Steward was trying in vain to open with an agitated passenger alongside. Williams put his shoulder to the door and broke it. The steward it is said then threatened to report him for damaging the door! This was re-enacted in James Cameron’s film of the disaster.

Father and son then headed to the bar oblivious as to what was actually happening. The bar was closed, so they asked if it could be opened, only to be told that was against regulations. They continued to wander the ship and ended up in the gymnasium with many of the other passengers. The ship started to list and then they knew that this was more serious than they had realised.

Father and son found themselves in the icy water. Dick still wearing a heavy overcoat. They had not been in the water long when he saw his father and many other passengers crushed to death when one of the ships funnels collapsed and fell into the sea. Richard only just avoided being hit himself. He then swam to a collapsible boat and clung to it waiting for help to arrive. That wait would be six hours.

In his own account of what happened he revealed that he managed to discard his coat and shoes and after finding the collapsible raft, “I hung on to it and after a while got aboard and stood up in the middle of it. The water was up to my waist. About thirty of us clung on to it. When officer Lowe’s boat picked us up, eleven of us were still alive; all the rest were dead from the cold.”

When on board the rescue ship the Carpathia, the ship’s doctor recommended amputation of both his legs due to frostbite. Williams refused. Instead he would get up and exercise his legs every two hours, for days on end, to help the circulation to return and his legs start to work properly again. By all accounts this exercise was excruciatingly painful, but it paid dividends. His legs recovered.

He was able to take his place at Harvard and the following year won the Collegiate Championship. He also won the US Open Mixed doubles title partnering Mary Browne.

Williams tennis career was then interrupted by the First World War. Here he was awarded the Croix du Guerre and the Legion d’honneur by the french for valour..

In 1919 he married Jean Haddock in Paris. The couple had four children. However, sadly at the age of 38 in 1929 she would pass away. He would later remarry.

As for his Olympic gold medal, he sprained his ankle in the semi final and the injury was so bad he wanted to withdraw. His partner would not hear of it and as Williams said, “She told me to stay at the net and she’d cover everything else. I didn’t move much.” They beat their opponents 6-2 6-3.

Williams wrote his memoirs of his time on the Titanic but only printed twelve copies. One for his four children along with copies for their children, and one for the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. He would only ever talk of this experience if asked, but it was said to have understandably had a profound affect on him.