By T. Scott Boatright
Grambling State University has lost a legend as alum and former baseball star Benjamin Williams suddenly passed away early Sunday.
A Grambling native and Lincoln High School product, Ben was named All-State catcher and was a member of the 1964 Louisiana AAA State Championship team.
He then played college baseball at Grambling College for President/Head Baseball Coach R. W. E, Jones, being named two times to the All-Southwestern Athletic Conference Team.
“I came to Grambling in 1964 as a 16-year-old and signed an athletic scholarship with Eddie Robinson and to play ball for Ralph Waldo Emerson Jones,” Williams told the Monroe News-Star in 2015 . “I didn’t really know just how special that was at the time. I’ve learned to really appreciate that opportunity that I was given.”
That opportunity to play when Williams was drafted in the 13th round of the 1968 Major League Baseball Draft by the Cincinnati Reds.
In the Reds Minor League system, Williams went up against future MLB Hall of Famer Johnny Bench to join the Reds roster.
But as important as baseball was to him, Williams made his biggest impact working with young people. He coached at Ruston and Chatham High Schools, and Grambling State University.
“Ben was part of that Grambling team that went 33-1 when I was an assistant coach under Prez (GSU President/Head Coach Ralph Waldo Emerson Jones),” said former GSU head coach and College Baseball of Famer inductee Wilbert Ellis. “Later on he served as my assistant coach after Prez retired and I became head coach.
“Ben knew baseball. But more importantly, he knew people. That made him a good coach. And he was naturally a very talented player. It’s a big loss losing him. A big loss.”
Williams was named the Louisiana Teacher of the Year in 2001-02 before turning his attention to working with special-needs and becoming a Special Olympics Coach for the state of Louisiana.
He was also an inductee into the 2008 Grambling Legends Hall of Fame
Aaron James was a standout basketball star for the Grambling State Tigers and then the NBA’s New Orleans Jazz in the 1970s; But in the 1990 and 2000s, James became a good friend of his fellow G-Man.
“It was when I was basketball coach and then athletics director,” James said. “Then Ben and I became pretty close. We talked a lot. Ben was one of those guys who just liked making an impact. He wanted to leave you feeling better than when you first started talking to him. He did a lot of things behind the scenes people didn’t know about. He did a lot of things in front of the scenes, too.
“Ben was one of those people who cared. It’s as simple as that. Ben cared.”
