Roy Williams

Roy Williams began his basketball career at an early age, earning Manitoba provincial titles as a high school student in 1944 and at the club level in 1945. He then entered the University of Manitoba to study commerce and continued with the sport, winning the inaugural regional college title with the U of M Bisons in 1948. In 1950 the Bisons were national runners-up. At the same time, Williams played for the Winnipeg Paulins and took the city senior league title in 1948 and 1949. Joining the University of Manitoba Grads in 1951, he was again a provincial champion and, in 1952, runner-up nationally. He was then selected to help represent Canada at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, where the nation won all three of its games against Egypt, Italy, and Turkey in the qualification round, before losing its next three against Argentina, Brazil, and the Philippines and being eliminated.

Williams, who was employed with the Great West Life Insurance Company after his graduation, won another provincial championship with the Grads in 1953, and was then sent to Chicago. He played basketball in that city for two years, before moving back to Winnipeg and winning one final provincial championship prior to his retirement from active competition. He was inducted into the Manitoba Basketball Hall of Fame in 1983 and the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.