Since putting on a pair of boxing gloves as a youth, Bill Williams’ passion for boxing has never wavered.
Williams, who has been around the boxing ring for over 50 years in various roles including as a boxer, boxing gym owner, coach, and trainer, started out being trained by his late father.
“My dad was a pro boxer back in the 1940s down on the East Coast circuit. He joined the military in 1955 where he ended up coaching the boxing team there, and that’s around the time he started to train me,” Williams recalled. “In 1959, our family moved to Germany. I started to box there and had a couple of fights. The different battalions would have matches against each other, and they would always have me open the show. So that’s basically how I started in boxing.”
After moving back to Canada in the 1960s, initially to an army base in Picton, Ontario, he got in more intensive training and fought in a few more matches.
“I started training under a gentleman by the name of John Chesson, who was a corporal in the Canadian military [and] who had gone to the Olympics. My first real fight was when I was 17, at the Benny D’Amico Gym in Toronto. I fought there a few times, and then I moved to Brantford in 1968 and started training under Frank Bricker a year later. He’s in the Brantford & Area Sports Hall of Recognition [along with the] three Summerhayes brothers, Gary, John and Terry,” said Williams.
In 1978, Williams had an opportunity to start a boxing gym at the Boys and Girls Club in Brantford. This eventually led Williams to opening and establishing the Black Eye Boxing Club.
“I talked to a friend I knew, who was a director at the Boys and Girls Club [and he’s the one] who brought the idea up to do boxing there. It was great; I got a lot of young kids that were around 14 and 15, training there back then. One in particular was Allan Speakman. Although he never went pro, he became the Ontario provincial champion in 1982 [and] went to the nationals in Prince Edward Island,” recalled Williams. “I’m still friends with many of the boxers I have trained throughout the years. Many of them are married now [and] they’ve got families, but we stay in touch.”
Williams would go on to operate the Brantford Black Eye Boxing Club until he went back to Prince Edward Island in 2011. The club was then taken over by Jackie Armour, who Williams had mentored.
“When I when I came back to Brantford in 2017 after caring for my mom for six years, I ran into Jack [Blasdell]. I’ve known him for years because he was at Black Eye when I owned it. We talked about opening a gym [which would be the Bell City Boxing Club],” Williams explained. “We reached out to a few people I knew [and] found a gym space that was available which we ended up leasing. Jack and I have coached together since then, moving once to where we are now.”
Since then, Williams and Blasdell have successfully built Bell City Boxing Club, which is a non-profit, into one of the most respected boxing clubs in the region by heading programs for people of all ages, promoting their popular Friday Night events as well as training young talent in the community.
Along with all these initiatives, the partners have also been leading a very important boxing session three times a week.
“When I was down east, I read something in the paper about how hitting a heavy bag helped with the tremors for Parkinson’s patients. I never thought much of it until I came back to Brantford, [and] heard a little more about it. And then there was a seminar going on in Toronto about a special program called ‘Rock Steady Boxing’. Jack and I went to it, and we did the weekend course, and we got our certificates,” Williams stated. “We began to offer the program at the gym starting with three or four patients, and then Covid-19 hit, which put a hold on things for a couple of years. We then started back up [and] now have 11 Parkinson’s patients that come in [and] they’re just the greatest people you could ever want to meet. It’s [a program] that we are very proud of,” said Williams.
Being back in Brantford for almost 15 years, Williams is hopeful of getting more space at his present gym location in Brantford.
“We’re in a very small space right now…it’s about 1,400 square feet, and the landlady has another section beside where our gym [and] we’re in negotiations to maybe take the wall down and expand to where we’ll have about 2,600 square feet,” Williams said. “My dream is to get the gym bigger with more equipment [and to get] more members in and help them train and learn about boxing.”
However, Williams’ passion continues to be reflective in the community.
“I’ve never made any money at boxing or coaching nor have I ever wanted to make any money from it. The boxing gym’s mission statement is to give kids a place to go and keep them off the street. Hockey is very expensive [and other sports can be too], but we have a very inexpensive membership price; it’s $35 each month for a kid under 18 to be able to come and work out three times a week which is very reasonable,” Williams explained. “And over the years, I buy kids gloves, boxing shoes or whatever they need to participate… that’s what it’s all about to me…giving back to the sport I love and to the memory of my dad, and trying to help kids and the community.”
