Just ask Jim Bakken, Lou Groza and Bruce Gossett how explosive Travis Williams was in 1967. One by one, each of the three placekickers lit up as the Roadrunner carved his way into the NFL record book.
Williams rewrote history as a kick returner his rookie year. Not only did he best the all-time greatest returner who was entrenched in his own career year, but Williams raised the bar so high that no one has seriously challenged his mark in the decades since.
Vince Lombardi’s Packers had plenty of spark in their quest for three straight championships. Williams, the team’s fourth-round draft pick out of Arizona State, returned 18 kickoffs for 739 yards and four touchdowns. His 41.06-yard average obliterated Ollie Matson’s previous record (35.50) by more than five yards per return.
All this from a player who was not a lock to make the team.
The backfield of the two-time defending champion Green Bay Packers was well stocked in Lombardi’s final year as coach. Elijah Pitts, Jim Grabowski and Donny Anderson returned from 1966. Ben Wilson was also in the mix by coming on board in a trade with the Los Angeles Rams.
Had it not been for injuries, Williams might have languished on the bench. Although he had been tested as a kick returner during the preseason, those duties fell primarily to Anderson and Herb Adderley once Green Bay really started against the Lions.
Through six games, Williams was not a factor. His practice workload consisted of two runs for 11 cleanup yards in a 23-0 win over the Atlanta Falcons.
But the opportunity came in Week 7 in St. Louis. With Adderley hampered by what the Green Bay Press-Gazette described as a “slightly injured arm” and Anderson (hip) relegated to punting only, Williams took center stage. As the stubborn Cardinals took a 23-17 lead with 12:47 remaining, Williams took Bakken’s kick and ran 93 yards for a touchdown, flicking past, among others, Bakken, who made a feeble attempt to stop him.
Two weeks later, Williams made Groza and the Browns pay. In the seventeenth and final season of his, Lou (The Toe) got ready to start the evening and 13 seconds later, Williams hit the dirt. Before he finished the first quarter, Williams reached the end zone again as the Packers took a 35-7 lead.
“I’m heading for the wedge,” Williams told the Milwaukee Journal. “Gale Gillingham is the point man. He yells at the wedge when he starts upfield and once underway he can see and spot the first fault.”
“When the break comes, you turn it on. The best way to come back is to give it directly to them.”
In three short weeks, Williams returned six kickoffs for 340 yards (56.7 average) and three touchdowns. He would need more tries if he wanted to lead the league in return average. He would also have to deal with the Bears and Gale Sayers.
Sayers, the only player to average more than 30 yards per kickoff return in his life, had a record pace of 38.8 yards on 10 returns. Plus, the Kansas Comet could run from scrimmage like he did when he outscored the Packers for 117 yards on 18 carries in that late-November matchup between the best teams in the Central Division. His 43-yard scoring run put the Bears within 7-7 late in the first quarter.
Williams again drove the way for Green Bay. He ran 69 yards on the ensuing kickoff and only Roosevelt Taylor prevented him from scoring. With great field position, the Greens and Golds needed just six plays to go up 14-7 en route to a 17-13 victory and a sixth division title in eight years.
Despite picking up 101 yards on three returns at Wrigley Field, Williams still didn’t have enough tries to qualify for the league lead. He would have to be busy as the Packers closed out the regular season against the Vikings, Rams and Steelers.
Minnesota held its own, limiting the elusive return to 64 yards on three returns. But that was enough for Williams to pass Sayers in qualifying.
Six days later in Los Angeles, the Road Runner caught Gossett’s boot and ran 104 yards to his fourth touchdown, and the race for top honors was all but over. With one game to go, Williams had returned 14 kickoffs for 625 yards (44.64 average), well ahead of Sayers’ pace (37.69).
Williams played three more seasons in Green Bay. He returned another 63 kickoffs, but his average on those returns (22.75) was nothing to write home about and only one resulted in a touchdown.