Ricky Williams broke the NCAA Division I-A records for career rushing yards and all-purpose yards during his senior season.
92 Facts About Ricky Williams
2.
Ricky Williams played minor league baseball in the Philadelphia Phillies farm system for four seasons during college.
3.
In 2015, Ricky Williams was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
4.
Ricky Williams was drafted by the New Orleans Saints fifth overall in the 1999 NFL Draft after a blockbuster trade and spent three seasons with the team before he was traded to the Miami Dolphins in 2002.
5.
Ricky Williams played for the Dolphins for two seasons, leading the league in rushing in 2002, and retired for the first time from football in 2004.
6.
Ricky Williams re-joined the Dolphins in 2007 and played with them until 2010, and spent the 2011 season with the Baltimore Ravens.
7.
Ricky Williams earned first-team All-Pro honors and a Pro Bowl selection with the Dolphins in 2002.
8.
Ricky Williams was born to Sandy and Errick Ricky Williams.
9.
Ricky Williams is the second cousin of Major League Baseball player Cecil Fielder.
10.
Ricky Williams was sent by his mother to counseling for anger problems as a youth.
11.
Ricky Williams took a test as a six-year-old that revealed he had the intelligence of someone twice his age, and earned honor roll recognition in high school.
12.
Ricky Williams had a brown belt in Taekwondo by age 12, and he started growing dreadlocks when he was 15.
13.
At San Diego's Patrick Henry High School, Ricky Williams primarily played baseball and football in addition to running track.
14.
Ricky Williams wrestled, notably losing a match to future NCAA champion and three-time Super Bowl champion Stephen Neal.
15.
Ricky Williams played outside linebacker and strong safety in addition to his primary position of running back.
16.
Against a top-ranked school, he had 129 yards on 24 carries and one touchdown, and Ricky Williams totaled 47 of the 69 yards Patrick Henry accumulated during the game-winning drive.
17.
Ricky Williams helped Patrick Henry to its first Eastern League title in 11 years with a win against San Diego High School; Ricky Williams had 115 yards and two touchdowns in the first quarter of the game but suffered an Achilles tendon rupture early in the second quarter.
18.
Ricky Williams attended the University of Texas, where he played for the Texas Longhorns football team from 1995 to 1998.
19.
Ricky Williams was named Southwest Conference Freshman of the Year after the season.
20.
Ricky Williams moved to running back for his junior year in 1997, and Bob Griese's Football Magazine considered him as the second-best candidate for the Heisman Trophy going into the season.
21.
Ricky Williams scored five touchdowns in a game against Rice, setting school and Big 12 Conference records.
22.
Ricky Williams set single-season school records for rushing yards, carries, and rushing touchdowns in a season, as well as all-purpose yards with 2,043.
23.
Ricky Williams had the highest rushing yards per game in Division I-A with 172.0, and he earned fifth place for Heisman balloting with 135 points.
24.
Ricky Williams won the Doak Walker Award in December 1997, and was a unanimous All-American selection.
25.
Ricky Williams returned to Texas for his senior season, opting to forgo the 1998 NFL Draft, in which he was projected to be drafted between the fourth and seventh picks.
26.
Ricky Williams became Texas's all-time leading scorer during the game, with 344 career points, and set a school record for all-purpose yards in a game with 350.
27.
The game was briefly paused while Ricky Williams received the game ball and was honored by a group of dignitaries, including Dorsett.
28.
Ricky Williams led Division I-A in rushing for the 1998 season with 193.0 yards per game.
29.
Ricky Williams won his second straight Doak Walker Award, the Walter Camp Award, the Maxwell Award, the Associated Press College Football Player of the Year, the Sporting News College Football Player of the Year, the Best College Football Player ESPY Award, and the Big 12 Conference Offensive Player of the Year awards after the 1998 season.
30.
Ricky Williams was a unanimous All-America selection for the second straight season.
31.
Ricky Williams received the 64th Heisman Trophy, becoming the second Texas Longhorn to win this honor, joining Earl Campbell.
32.
Ricky Williams broke or tied 21 NCAA Division I-A records, 24 Big 12 Conference records, and 46 Texas Longhorns school records in his career.
33.
Ricky Williams was drafted in the eighth round of the 1995 Major League Baseball June amateur draft out of high school by the Philadelphia Phillies.
34.
Ricky Williams signed a contract with the team with a $50,000 signing bonus.
35.
Ricky Williams played for the Martinsville Phillies, a rookie league team in the Appalachian League affiliated with the Philadelphia Phillies, for 36 games in 1995.
36.
Ricky Williams was selected in the 1998 Rule 5 draft by the Montreal Expos on December 14,1998, who then traded his rights to the Texas Rangers.
37.
Ricky Williams was placed on the Rangers' 40-man major league roster, but he wrote a letter in March 1999 to the team stating he would not report for spring training so he could prepare for the NFL Draft.
38.
Ricky Williams attended the NFL Scouting Combine 20 pounds overweight and declined to participate in workouts.
39.
Ricky Williams held a private workout for NFL teams at the University of California, San Diego, in April 1999.
40.
Ricky Williams weighed in a 224 pounds at the workout, lower than the 244 pounds he weighed at the Combine.
41.
The Cleveland Browns held the first pick in the 1999 NFL Draft, and after Ricky Williams's workout, their coach Chris Palmer said Ricky Williams was a finalist for the pick along with quarterbacks Tim Couch and Akili Smith.
42.
Ricky Williams was selected as the fifth pick overall in the 1999 NFL Draft by the New Orleans Saints.
43.
The contract was criticized by legions of people, both sports agents and writers, who realized that Ricky Williams's position entitled him to much more in guaranteed money.
44.
Ricky Williams missed the team's last six regular-season games and first playoff game due to an injury suffered in a game against the Panthers.
45.
Ricky Williams caught 60 passes for 511 yards in his last season with the Saints.
46.
Ricky Williams was traded to the Miami Dolphins on March 8,2002, for four draft picks, including two first-round picks.
47.
Ricky Williams followed that up with 228 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns against the Buffalo Bills.
48.
Ricky Williams was noted for his dreadlocks hair style, but he shaved them off during a trip to Australia.
49.
Ricky Williams's shyness made Williams appear somewhat of an oddball.
50.
Ricky Williams previously tested positive for marijuana shortly after he joined the Dolphins.
51.
Shortly before training camp was to begin in July 2004, Ricky Williams publicly disclosed his intent to retire from professional football.
52.
Ricky Williams was ineligible to play for the 2004 season, and studied Ayurveda, the ancient Indian system of holistic medicine, at the California College of Ayurveda that autumn in Grass Valley, California.
53.
Ricky Williams maintains that he does not regret the retirement decision.
54.
Ricky Williams thinks that it was the "most positive thing" he has ever done in his life, allowing him time to find himself.
55.
Ricky Williams officially returned to the Dolphins on July 24,2005, paid back a percentage of his signing bonus and completed his four-game suspension for a failed drug test.
56.
At his return press conference, Ricky Williams expressed his apologies for leaving the team two days before the start of training camp, which had contributed to the Dolphins' having their worst season in years.
57.
Ricky Williams finished with six touchdowns and a 4.4 yards per carry average on 168 carries and 743 yards during 2005.
58.
On February 20,2006, the National Football League announced that Ricky Williams had violated the NFL drug policy for the fourth time.
59.
On May 28,2006, Ricky Williams became the highest-paid running back in the CFL when he signed a one-year Can$340,000 contract with the Argonauts.
60.
The CFL had no substance abuse policy in place, nor did it prohibit its teams from signing players suspended from other leagues, despite Ricky Williams being under contract with the Dolphins for the 2006 season.
61.
Ricky Williams received a 10-year suspended prison term, was placed on five years of probation and fined.
62.
Ricky Williams made his official CFL debut on June 17,2006, in a home game against the Tiger-Cats at the Rogers Centre.
63.
On July 22,2006, Ricky Williams suffered a broken bone in his left arm during a game against the Saskatchewan Roughriders in Regina, Saskatchewan.
64.
Ricky Williams underwent surgery on July 23,2006, to repair the broken bone.
65.
Shortly after injuring his arm, Ricky Williams suffered yet another injury after a door at the Argonauts' practice facility swung behind him and clipped the running back on his left achilles tendon requiring 16 stitches to close the gash.
66.
Ricky Williams stated his love for Toronto and mentioned the possibility of returning to the Canadian game during his professional career.
67.
The new rule was grandfathered so that players who were still playing in the league, such as Argonaut tackle Bernard Ricky Williams, who was suspended by the NFL for drug abuse and did not seek reinstatement when the ban ended, could continue playing.
68.
On May 11,2007, an anonymous source reported that Ricky Williams had failed a drug test again.
69.
Ricky Williams adhered to a strict regimen of multiple drug tests per week in 2007 as part of his attempt to be reinstated by the NFL.
70.
Ricky Williams practiced yoga, which, he claimed, helped him to stop using marijuana.
71.
Ricky Williams returned for a Monday Night Football game on November 26,2007.
72.
Ricky Williams rushed six times for 15 yards before Lawrence Timmons, a Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker, stepped on his right shoulder, tearing his pectoral muscle.
73.
Ricky Williams bounced back in the 2008 season, rushing for 659 yards on 160 carries and scoring four touchdowns while playing in all 16 games for the Dolphins.
74.
Ricky Williams finished the season with 1,121 yards rushing and a 4.7 yards per carry, along the way setting an NFL record of the longest time span between 1,000 yard seasons.
75.
Ricky Williams became only the seventh player in NFL history to begin a season age 32 or older and reach 1,000 yards rushing during that season.
76.
Ricky Williams signed a two-year, $2.5 million contract with the Baltimore Ravens on August 8,2011.
77.
Ricky Williams finished the 2011 season with 444 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns.
78.
On January 1,2012, Ricky Williams surpassed the 10,000 career rushing yards mark and became the 26th player in the history of the NFL to do so.
79.
On February 7,2012, Ricky Williams informed the Ravens of his retirement from the NFL.
80.
Ricky Williams has admitted being very shy and was diagnosed with social anxiety disorder, borderline personality disorder, and avoidant personality disorder with which he struggled to cope during his football career.
81.
Ricky Williams was briefly a spokesperson for the drug Paxil as treatment.
82.
Ricky Williams worked with the drug company GlaxoSmithKline to educate the public about the disorder.
83.
Ricky Williams later quit using Paxil and said that cannabis was a much better form of treatment.
84.
Ricky Williams has stated that one of his main reasons for joining the Canadian Football League's Toronto Argonauts was for the opportunity to teach free yoga lessons at a local Toronto yoga facility.
85.
In 2009, Ricky Williams enrolled at Acupuncture and Massage College in Miami, Florida to study massage therapy and Japanese Shiatsu.
86.
In 2018, Ricky Williams co-founded an herbal wellness company with his second wife Linnea Miron named Real.
87.
In May 2022, Ricky Williams legally changed his last name to Miron, his wife's last name, after they married.
88.
The son of a minister, Ricky Williams was raised Southern Baptist and attended church twice a week during his childhood.
89.
Ricky Williams believes religions are cultural, and his beliefs are inclusive of at least some Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu philosophies.
90.
Ricky Williams is in the first year of a master's program at Emperor's College of Traditional Oriental Medicine in Santa Monica, CA.
91.
In 2015, Ricky Williams signed with global talent agency William Morris Endeavor for representation in media prior to being inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
92.
Ricky Williams was previously a vegan or at least had a meat-free diet.