Weird Houston Sports Tales
A few weeks ago, Sports Illustrated's Peter King visited the Houston Texans training camp, and referred to trainer Tom Williams:
"There used to be a guy who lived in Houston and trained players, and his name was Tom Williams," Casserly said. "He had players run a hill to get ready for the season and they swore by it. It became a famous thing, running the hill in the dog days of summer. So we put it here this offseason." Players don't run it during camp, but it was used plenty in the weeks before. What a punishing looking thing it is, and daunting.I don't know how Casserly knew about Tom Williams, since Casserly is a newcomer to Houston, but my boss had this great story about the legendary UH trainer:
The trainer referred to by Casserly, Tom Williams, was UH's trainer during the great Yeoman years. Toughest, meanest, grumpiest SOB I have ever met. But really one of the best in the business. Anyway, he had this wooden leg -- maybe lost his in Korea -- but you could hardly tell it. So one year, Yeoman brings this group of freshmen into the training room and Wilson's sitting, whittling a stick -- very country-like, right? So he starts telling them about how he's going to work them over, how they're gonna run that hill, etc. Telling them how tough he is and how soft they are. So he gets more and more into it, like really crazed. Finally, he works himself into a closing frenzy, and screams: "I'LL SHOW YOU HOW TOUGH YOU'RE GOING TO BE WHEN I GET THROUGH WITH YOU BASTARDS!! -- and then unexpectedly jumps up and sticks the knife in the thigh of his wooden leg! Guys said it was just about the damnest thing they'd ever seen.Ha! I love stuff like this.
Wouldn't it have been cool to read about it in the local paper? Especially since Chron sports columnist Dale Robertson was at UH during the Yeoman years.
Too much to expect from our Chron I guess.
[Posted at 22:41 CST on 08/06/02] [Link]
