Asmussen | The gang's all here for opening weekend

Apr. 9—CHAMPAIGN — Same Hall of Fame host.

New venue.

Oodles of college sports stars.

Rose Bowl team memories.

That's the plan for the second annual David Williams Foundation golf outing, which is scheduled for Sept. 1.

The start time will be 10:30 a.m.-ish. The first was played at Mahomet's Lake of the Woods, where 28 foursomes had a blast. But looking to expand the number of entries, Williams moved this year's event to the UI Orange and Blue courses in Savoy.

"I think we could do 60 foursomes," said Ryan McClure, a foundation board member who is helping organize the event.

"It's going to get bigger and bigger and bigger," Williams said.

Entry fee is $150 per player and includes golf, cart, lunch, dinner and an autograph signing session. For more information or to become a sponsor, go to davidwilliamsfoundation.org.

The namesake of the event is ready to swing away.

"I'm a golfer. I'm playing," Williams said.

Williams plans to spend nine holes with the title sponsor and then will bounce from group to group for the other nine holes. Hit a couple shots with each team.

The outing will benefit two charities: the Tom Jones Challenger League and DASH, which is run by Champaign speedskating legend Bonnie Blair.

The golf outing coincides with the 40-year reunion for Illinois' 1983 Big Ten champions. Williams starred on the team that is the only one in history to sweep every team in the conference. A perfect 9-0 when the now-14 team league had 10 schools.

Players from the Rose Bowl team are all invited to play in the golf event.

Mike White, the Illinois coach from 1980-87, plans to attend. Williams has commitments from Craig Swoope, Cam Benson, Keith Taylor, Chris White and others from the Rose Bowl team.

The reunion will be an Illini-only event. There will be some natural crossover because of the players involved.

But Williams wants to make sure not to take away from the Rose Bowl anniversary celebration. Team get-togethers are planned for both Friday and Saturday nights.

"We're going to make it a whole weekend," Williams said. "We haven't seen some of those guys in 40 years."

The last major reunion for the 1983 Big Ten champions was in 2003.

Williams is tapping into his college football friendships to turn the golf outing into a star-studded happening.

Former Ohio State running back Keith Byars is coming back for the second year in a row. College Football Hall of Famer David Fulcher, who played safety at Arizona State, is playing. So is Art Still, a College Football Hall of Famer and NFL standout with the Chiefs and Bills. He played at Kentucky.

Former Nebraska quarterback Tommie Frazier will play. Williams is talking to Pitt great Hugh Green and Nebraska Heisman winners Mike Rozier and Johnny Rodgers about playing too.

Williams, who was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2005, has met other honorees while attending Hall of Fame events.

"We kind of hang out with each other," Williams said.

Some of the players have annual charity events and they support each other. Williams is willing to attend outings. Fulcher is having one in June and Williams is participating.

When there is any Illinois player inducted into the college Hall, Williams makes it there. He supported Dana Howard in 2018 and Moe Gardner in 2022. Howard and Gardner are scheduled to be at the golf outing.

More are on the way to the Hall, with Simeon Rice and Kevin Hardy deserving nods.

Former Illini Brandon Lloyd, who had a long NFL career, is returning to the Williams outing along with basketball great Dee Brown. And five-time Olympic gold medalist Blair will play again.

"She is awesome," Williams said. "Bonnie's good."

"She is the ultimate competitor," McClure said.

What do you really think?

Few, if any, Illinois players I have dealt with over the years have been as open and candid about the program as Williams. He has been a tremendous resource over the years, sharing his opinions, which are always spot on.

Bottom line: He wants his alma mater to succeed in football. When the program was down for a decade, Williams was unhappy about it.

He doesn't know current Illinois coach Bret Bielema.

Williams did talk to the team once during the Lovie Smith era.

"I'm not really big on that kind of stuff," Williams said. "They don't know me. They see my pictures all over the building, which is cool for me. But it's like some old dude coming and telling them what he did a million years ago."

Let me fill them in: Williams had 262 catches in three seasons, 93 more than No. 2 Jason Dulick, who played four seasons. Williams had 809 more yards than No. 2 Lloyd.

Unless college football moves to a 20-game schedule, those records are never getting touched.

Williams met former Illini standout Mikey Dudek early in his career. Dudek was on pace to challenge Williams' Illinois records until a string of knee injuries cut his career short.

"I thought he had a shot," Williams said.

Staying connected

Williams lives in the Los Angeles area, where he works for a steel company.

He is being helped at the Illinois end by McClure, Larry Rolle, Cam Wallace, Tom Scaggs and Deb Babcock.

The group's hard work allows Williams to enjoy the golf.

"It wasn't nerve-racking at all," he said. "I thought it would be, but they did such a great job. I'm way out here. They did all the hard work.

"They are really communicative. They're taking of everything that's going on, everything we need to do, all the people we need to keep in contact with. For me, it was smooth."