When Frank Williams starred at East High School, he marveled at a fellow City Series track and field standout who was a year and a half older than him.
Williams viewed South High School’s Virgil Brown as a hero.
“I just remember they used to call him Batman,” Williams, 81, said. “That guy used to fly, man! He could just run.”
Mutual respect and admiration between Williams and Brown led to friendship between two young Black men navigating the world and local sports scene in the 1950s and ’60s. What they had in common expanded as they grew older. Akron Public Schools, the University of Akron, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and family played major roles in their lives.
Williams has many fond memories of Brown, who died on May 28, 2024, at the age of 81.
As a member of the Summit County Sports Hall of Fame’s board of directors, Williams championed Brown’s posthumous induction into the SCSHOF. It became official during a sold-out banquet on Oct. 7 at the Bank at East End in Akron.
Williams will be honored next. He will be inducted into the Akron Public Schools Athletics Hall of Fame on Oct. 18 during a ceremony at Guy’s Party Center in Akron.
There is a natural synergy between the two local halls of fame, much like there is connection between Williams and Brown. Williams said he is called “Uncle Frank” by Brown’s three daughters.
Kim Brown delivered an acceptance speech on behalf of her father during the SCSHOF banquet, describing him as a humble man who refrained from bragging about his track accolades. Through the people of Akron, including Williams, Brown’s children learned about their dad’s sprinting prowess.
“[Williams] described it to me in detail, and what he said was, ‘I used to run across town to see your father run because he ran like the wind, and it was such a joy to watch him,’” Kim Brown said. “And then other people have told me stories about he was unmatched in that he was a joy to watch. Not only was he fast, but he was exciting.”
Kim Brown characterized her father and Williams entering local halls of fame in the same month as “divine timing.”
Frank Williams and Virgil Brown were City Series and Akron Zips track and field stars
Williams won Class AA state championships for East in the high jump as a junior in 1961 (6 feet, 3 inches) and as a senior in 1962 (6-3¼). He competed before the Fosbury Flop became the standard technique used by high jumpers. He used the Western roll and sparked a trend of successful high jumpers from APS.
“We took over,” Williams said. “We made the Rubber City bounce.”
An Akron native, Williams also excelled in basketball at East, starting all three seasons in high school and making first-team All-City Series as a junior and senior.
With the Zips, Williams vied in both sports for two seasons. He then married his late wife, Kay, and entered the workforce. He became a pipefitter at Goodyear, where he retired as a skilled tradesman after 37 years.
A 1960 South graduate who was born in Dorothy, West Virginia, Brown helped the Zips win their first Ohio Conference title in 1961 and repeat with another crown in 1962. Brown set a UA record in 1962 with a time of 20.8 seconds in the 220 yards. He also broke his previous school record in the 440 yards, posting a time of 48.6 seconds to give the Zips their only first-day win at the All-Ohio Championships.
Following a brief UA career, Brown served in the Air Force (1964-68). He later returned to UA and earned a bachelor’s degree in education. He added a master’s degree in business administration from Ohio University.
Brown became an executive at Goodyear, where he worked for more than 30 years. He was assigned to Goodyear International locations in Germany, Luxembourg, France, Morocco and Congo, formerly Zaire, where he struck up a friendship with boxing icon Muhammad Ali, Brown was quoted as saying in a Beacon Journal story published in 1977.
Brown and his wife, Anita, raised three daughters: Kim Brown, Rebecca Brown and Renee Nurse.
“He was a great guy, and that’s what we say all the time,” Kim Brown said. “He was just a great guy. And people say that in those words: ‘Oh, man. That’s my guy.’ And so much so that on his headstone it says, ‘He’s still our guy.’”
Giving back to Akron became priority for Frank Williams and Virgil Brown
Family is also a central part of Williams’ identity.
Williams said he decided to compete in high jump and basketball because of the influence of his older brother, Woody. From the time Williams was 2 to about 14 or 15 years old, his father was incarcerated. Williams’ mother, Callie Mae Williams, raised four children.
As a kid, Williams was often teased by his peers because his dad was in jail.
“My mom sat me down one day, and she told me not to worry about what other people were saying because the narrative was going to change,” Williams said. “She said that I was blessed, and I was one of the favorites of the Lord, that I was already crowned a champion. The only thing I had to do was do the work, and I bought into that when I was in the fourth grade.”
Williams said the narrative about his family has changed because his four sons, Todd, Troy, Frank and Tobias, graduated from college and embarked on successful careers. Williams also has nine grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
“The biggest treat is being in their lives,” he said.
Brown’s leadership extended beyond the corporate world, as evidenced by his involvement with organizations in the area, including the United Way of Summit County, Akron Urban League, NAACP and Battered Women’s Shelter, which rebranded as the Hope and Healing Survivor Resource Center.
“He gave so much of himself,” Kim Brown said. “He gave to us. He honored and protected my mother and our family. But he also took care of this community.”
Williams became a high school basketball referee and got to know Cleveland Plain Dealer sports columnist Terry Pluto, formerly of the Beacon Journal. The two men attend the same church and would see each other at games.
Pluto persistently recruited Williams to join him in prison ministry, Williams said. Williams did it for 20 years, until the COVID-19 pandemic. Williams has transitioned to mentoring kids at the Summit County Juvenile Detention Center. Williams also taught grief recovery classes for about five years.
Williams ran a fatherhood initiative program for Head Start for roughly four years. In 2000, he started the Williams Challenge, which provides APS students with scholarships in honor of his wife who died in 1983 of Lupus. An annual golf outing, which has been held at Good Park in recent years, aids the nonprofit organization’s mission. In 2006, Williams launched his Man 2 Man Fatherhood Initiative.
“We teach guys how to be fathers,” Williams said. “We teach them the blessings of being a father, that you can really raise a child and mold that child into a real good person and how important it is to be in a child’s life.”
Track and field accomplishments aside, Williams and Brown became champions of the community.
More on the Summit County Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2025
In addition to Brown, the following people were inducted into the Summit County Sports Hall of Fame on Oct. 7:
Ticket information for Akron Public Schools Athletics Hall of Fame induction banquet
The APS Athletics HOF induction banquet will be held Oct. 18 at Guy’s Party Center (500 E. Waterloo Road, Akron). Doors are scheduled to open at 5 p.m. with dinner at 6 p.m.
Tickets can be purchased at www.akronschools.com/divisions/athletics/tickets.
In addition to Williams, here are this year’s inductees:
Nate Ulrich is the sports columnist of the Akron Beacon Journal and a sports features writer. Nate can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. On Twitter: @ByNateUlrich. He is on the SCSHOF’s board of directors.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Frank Williams champions late friend Virgil Brown’s HOF induction. Williams to be honored next
Reporting by Nate Ulrich, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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