Hall of Famer seeks apology for alleged 1989 racial slur
But Colorado's Alfred Williams doesn't want Mike Gundy to get fired
Alfred Williams never forgot the word Mike Gundy used 31 years ago.
Walking off the field in Stillwater before halftime, Williams — then a standout linebacker for Colorado — heard Oklahoma State's star quarterback call him a name he'd never been called during a football game.
And he heard it from Gundy twice. Williams said it happened again during the second half of Colorado's 41-17 win in 1989 at OSU.
Williams said Gundy called him the N-word.
“I remember that it was the first time that the University of Colorado beat Oklahoma State while I was there,” Williams told The Oklahoman in a phone interview Wednesday night. “It was a big win. It really was a big win.
“And I remember Mike Gundy called me the N- word. That's what I remember.”
OSU's head coach now finds himself in the middle of a racially charged incident for the second time this week.
On Tuesday, Gundy apologized after a photo of him wearing a One America News Network T-shirt nearly led to a player revolt.
On Wednesday, Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe relayed Williams' story on
FS1's “Uninterrupted.” Pictures of game stories in the Tulsa World and St. Louis Post-Dispatch from the 1989 game were circulated around social media, with Gundy denying the accusations in each story.
An OSU official declined comment to The Oklahoman on Wednesday night.
Williams said he wants an apology. He's not looking to get Gundy fired. But Wednesday was the first time he had seen Gundy's response from that day in 1989.
That stirred up painful memories.
“I want an apology from him and I want to see him have some growth,” Williams said. “If he denies that he said (that), I have at least 20 people who will vouch for what happened that day.
“I'm a little upset, because after 31 years I finally saw the story published in your papers out in Oklahoma. That was the first time I saw some of the responses to what I said.
“In the St. Louis Dispatch he said, `Look at the University of Colorado and its players. They got rapists.'”
In February 1989, Sports Illustrated wrote about the rise of crime connected to Colorado players as the program improved on the field.
“Wait a minute,” Williams said. “What does that have to do with Alfred Williams or anything? I'm not part of any one of those SI stories or I wasn't part of anything like that. As a matter of fact, I'm part of the College Football Hall of Fame. So why would I be part of anything that is dishonorable?
“The fact that he tried to discredit me, it's 31 years later and I just saw the article for the first time today, so, yeah, I'm a little upset.”
The Daily Oklahoman's story from Nov. 12, 1989, addressed the accusations in the bottom half of the game story with six paragraphs, including Colorado's Kanavis McGhee, Bruce Young and Okland Salavea all joining Williams in saying Gundy used racial comments.
“He said it to me and a couple of other guys on the field,” McGhee said at the time. “It got me real upset.
“Here's a guy in the spotlight all the time, to say something like that is not cool at all. All it did was fire us up.”
Gundy emphatically denied the accusations to The Daily Oklahoman reporter Mac Bentley.
“I didn't say it,” Gundy said. “It's just not true. I've been here four years, and well over half of my friends are black.
“I just did not say that; I wouldn't say something like that.”
Williams said he was never called the N-word during a game throughout the next nine years he played in the NFL, winning two Super Bowls and playing in a Pro Bowl with the Denver Broncos.
“One time and one time only,” Williams said. “But I would have hoped Gundy had some growth since that day. That was a bad day. It was a really bad day.”
Williams has spent the past 17 years as a broadcaster. He hosts a radio show in Denver. He never talked about the incident with Gundy on air until Wednesday.
That doesn't mean Williams didn't talk about it at all.
He said he's pushed at least four high school coaches of recruits to send their kids elsewhere. All chose different schools.
“I can tell you this: He's been on some high-profile kids in Houston and I've certainly told those coaches don't send them to him,” Williams said.
Williams said he was surprised 15 years ago when Gundy was promoted to head coach.
“It's incredible, right, because the way I look at it was Oklahoma State must have done their due diligence before hiring him and thought he was an appropriate coach for them, after everything that was alleged by me and validated by my teammates,” Williams said.
“They still hired him, so whatever.”
Williams saw the photo of Gundy in a shirt sporting the logo of OAN Network, a far- right, pro-Donald Trump cable news network rated by Media Bias/Fact Check as being “not a credible news source.” He also saw Gundy's apology video Tuesday night.
Now, Williams is wondering where his apology is all these years later.
“That speaks to the heart of everything, right,” Williams said. “What's wrong with saying, `I'm sorry'?
“He could have apologized to me 31 years ago. But I guess when you don't have to apologize you get to do whatever you want.”