Willie Bethea was one of Ticats’ most special players

Why did they call him that?

“When the guy was cut, he’d put an ‘X’ on the sign over their locker,” laughs teammate John Michaluk.

From the time he arrived in Hamilton in 1963 until his knees gave out and he was released in 1970, Bethea — who died last week at age 85 — swatted away all challenges to his throne. In the meantime, he built a legendary career.

In his eight seasons with the Ticats that eventually landed him on the team’s wall of honour, Bethea helped the black and gold to three Grey Cups (1963, ’65 and ’67). When fans voted for their all-time Ticats team a little over a decade ago, he was chosen as one of the two running backs (along with Troy Davis).

He was great in an era when the team was unbelievably special. Some say the best ever.

And he was tough.

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• Dec 31, 1969
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• Dec 31, 1969
• Comments

“He was always playing through injury which was the nature of football in those days,” says Bob Bratina who MCed the Quarterback Club for CKOC radio in that era.

Bethea dealt with a dislocated elbow and a badly bruised sternum. Then played the 1967 Grey Cup game with broken ribs.

The ability to play through pain allowed him to rack up 3,919 career rushing yards, which is still third on the franchise’s all-time list more than half a century after his final game. Which might’ve been even higher but for knees that also took a pounding.

Five times they had to be surgically repaired. Meaning he was often competing on creaky legs. Bratina says this affected how he played. Bethea never had breakaway speed. His longest run from scrimmage was 55 yards.

“But he was always making tough yards,” Bratina says.

Former teammate Ed Turek echoes that. He says the running back was durable and would do anything on the field that was necessary. Didn’t matter if he was hurting. He carried the ball 15 to 20 times a game and blocked fearlessly when it wasn’t in his hands.

Why not just sit a few games to recover if the knees were that bad?

“(Ralph) Sazio was an old-school coach,” Turek says. “You didn’t want to tell him anything about an injury.”

Despite being a star in high school, he never played college ball. Back then, Rider University in New Jersey — which had given him a basketball scholarship — had no football team. So he played semi-pro for the Paterson Miners in the American Coastal Football League. His success there led to an offers from the NFL and CFL.

He chose the Ticats. It was the golden age of Tiger-Cats football. By the time 1967 rolled around, the team was stacked. The lineup was a who’s who of this city’s football legends.

Garney Henley, Bob Krouse, Angelo Mosca, John Barrow, Bill Danychuk, Ellison Kelly and Sazio — who were all chosen by fans for that all-time team — were on it that year. The lineup also included hall of famers Hal Patterson, Tommy Grant and Tommy Joe Coffey. Not to mention Joe Zuger, who should be in the hall.

And Bethea.

After helping Hamilton win in ‘67, he remained productive in 1968 and ’69. But by the end of the 1970 season, it was obvious the body wasn’t co-operating. He was a free agent and hoped to keep playing for a couple more years but those knees simply couldn’t do it anymore.

Done with football, Bethea stayed in Hamilton where he sold cars for years.

“Willie was a good guy,” Turek says. “Very respected.”

“He was a gentleman,” Michaluk says. “A good man. A good teammate.”

“He was a really good person,” Bratina says.

And his football legacy isn’t done.

In 2022, 52 years after his final CFL play, his grandson, Alonzo Addae, suited up for the Ottawa Redblacks and has played every game in each of the past two seasons.