Remembering 1987-90 Notre Dame Defensive Tackle George "Boo" Williams
Today (Feb. 3) would have marked the 51st birthday for 1987-90 Notre Dame defensive tackle George “Boo” Williams.
Instead, a candlelight vigil and balloon released will be held late this afternoon at John F. Kennedy High School in Willingboro, N.J., where Williams starred before becoming part of one of the great program-changing recruiting classes in Fighting Irish football annals that resulted in the most recent national title in 1988.
Last Tuesday (Jan. 28) Williams lost his bout with hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) that attacks the body’s immune system and cause the spleen and liver to enlarge. He also had been ailing with pancreatitis, and liver and kidney failure.
From 1981-86, Notre Dame went through one of its worst football stretches ever that included three losing seasons (1981, 1985 and 1986), a 35-32-1 overall record and no final ranking six straight years, a first and still lone occurrence since the Associated Press poll began in 1936.
However, under second-year head coach Lou Holtz, the 30-man 1987 recruiting class signed by his staff was rated No. 1 in the nation — and Blue & Gold Illustrated has ranked it the fourth-best to matriculate to Notre Dame since the end of World War II in 1945.
As sophomores in 1988, the group that included Williams made an immense impact while helping the Fighting Irish to a 12-0 campaign and the national title, and later a school-record 23-game winning streak.
That class on offense featured running backs Ricky Watters and Tony Brooks, although Watters lined up at receiver for the 1988 national champs while also starring on punt returns, where he scored the first touchdown of the season on an 81-yard return in the 19-17 opening game win versus eventual Big Ten and Rose Bowl champ Michigan.
The 1987 recruiting harvest also featured first-time starters Mike Heldt (center) and converted linebacker Tim Ryan (guard), although Winston Sandri and Joe Allen from that same class also had starts up front.
Likewise, difference-making figures emerged on defense, and specifically along the line.
Todd Lyght would become a two-time consensus All-American while moving from safety to cornerback in 1988, Greg Davis would start later in his career at safety, and the linebacker corps from that 1987 haul would include future starters Andre Jones, Scott Kowalkowski and Donn Grimm.
Yet nowhere was a more profound impact felt during the march to the 1988 national championship than along the defensive line.
THE RISE OF BIG BOO
While losing the final three games of 1987, Notre Dame allowed 256 yards rushing per game.
The four starters up front either graduated or moved to offense, while rising junior end John Foley — the 1985 USA Today Defensive Player of The Year — suffered an injury in the 35-10 Cotton Bowl defeat to Texas A&M that would end his football career.
Furthermore, on the first day of 1988 spring practice, the projected starting nose guard — sophomore Chris Zorich, a converted linebacker — suffered a dislocated kneecap that sidelined him the remainder of that spring.
Consequently, it was sophomore classmate Williams who took the reps and won the nose tackle position in the spring.
Alas, Williams had played only eight minutes and 16 seconds as the backup nose tackle to Griffin in 1987, while Zorich had not seen any action at all, especially after shifting to nose tackle during the season.
At 297 pounds in an era when 270-pound linemen were deemed gargantuan, Williams was conspicuously overweight and did not possess the stamina to last for more than a few plays at the collegiate level.
In fact, he was the largest member of the team as a freshman, which earned him the “Big Boo” sobriquet, although it did not come from team members.
Leave it to Frank Stams, a fifth-year senior rush end in 1988 who came out of nowhere to become a consensus All-American, to tell the story. One night as seniors while Williams was a freshman, Stams, classmate Wes Pritchett and junior Michael Stonebreaker — The Three Amigos — were looking for a party to crash, and found one off campus.
“Guys were trying to hold us back from entering, and I just said, ‘Come on fellas, we’re just looking for a good time,’” Stams recalled. “All of a sudden one guy starts yelling, ‘Big Boo, Big Boo!’
“I’m thinking, ‘Jesus, did we get into something we don’t want any part of?’ And here comes George coming around the corner and we’re looking at each other like, ‘So this is Big Boo.’
“He was the enforcer at the party as a freshmen, and all the underclassmen seemed to know him. They were looking to George for security, and little did they know that George was our ‘little brother’ on the football team. Everything was cool after that.
“We started laughing, and from then on everyone on the team just always called him Big Boo.”
OVERSHADOWED IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Few football players ever at Notre Dame were overshadowed like Williams.
Not only did he play with All-Americans such as defensive backs Lyght and Pat Terrell, plus The Three Amigos, but classmate Zorich would already be enshrined into the College Football Hall of Fame before he was 40 years old.
Yet, Williams’ massive frame made him in an immovable object up front. He never had formal weight training before coming to Notre Dame, but the strength and conditioning staff was awed by what they described as Williams’ “country strength” that made him one of The Sporting News’ top 100 recruits in 1987.
“Tremendous strength and leverage, and most importantly that quick first step — he could make guys miss in a phone booth,” Stams said.
“He reminded me of a guy I played with at Cleveland — Michael Dean Perry (six-time Pro Bowl pick and younger brother of William “The Refrigerator” Perry). They were similar body types, quick off the ball and played with great leverage. George was as wide as he was tall, and just a great guy and teammate to have.”
Williams was penciled in as the starting nose tackle, but a dilemma soon developed for the coaching staff that August. Fellow sophomore Zorich was beginning to establish himself along the line as well and was too good to keep out of the lineup — as was Williams.
Thus, Zorich was inserted as the starter in the middle while Williams shifted to left tackle, with junior Jeff Alm (who died in 1993) on the right side and Stams as the rush end.
Williams starting debut came in that 1988 opening-game victory versus Michigan in which he was credited with 12 tackles and received Co-Defensive Player of the Game honors with Stonebreaker from Blue & Gold Illustrated.
The next week in a 20-3 win at Michigan State, Williams recorded a crucial sack while he and Zorich established inside control of the line of scrimmage. Williams would even receive honorable mention All-American notice from The Sporting News.
In the regular season finale, a No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown at 10-0 USC, Williams forced one USC fumble and recovered another to set up two Irish scores in the 27-10 Irish victory.
Yet no single play that season was more indelible and reflected how so often he was overshadowed than the 31-30 conquest of No. 1 and reigning national champ Miami, which entered the game with a 36-game winning streak in the regular season.
With 45 seconds remaining, the Hurricanes lined up for the two-point play that would potentially win the game.
Most remembered is Terrell batting the pass attempt away in the end zone — but it was Williams’ pressure on quarterback Steve Walsh that threw off the timing and forced the errant toss.
Williams was sidelined 1989 because of academic issues — replaced by yet another 1987 recruit Bob Dahl, who would play in the NFL — but returned to start with Dahl and Zorich on another national title contending outfit in 1990.
His 10 tackles for loss that year were second to Lombardi Award winner Zorich’s 12, but the Irish remained in contention for at least a share of the national title before a Raghib “Rocket” Ismail 91-yard punt return in the closing minute was called back in a 10-9 Orange Bowl loss to No. 1 Colorado.
Although Williams was eligible for a fifth season in 1991, a university-imposed disciplinary action prevented it and he became a sixth-round choice of the Cleveland Browns.
It’s been more than three decades since Notre Dame’s most recent national title, and too many of its members — Alm, Jones, Dean Brown, Rodney Culver, Braxston Banks, Mirko Jurkovic, Justin Hall, Bobby Satterfield, and now Williams — are no longer on earth to celebrate and reminisce with teammates.
Rest well ye immortal champions, who created cherished memories for those still left behind.
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