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Clarence Williams (running back, born 1955)

American football player (1955-1994)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 27, 2026
Entity authorityQ5126823 ↗
Source-derived summary

Clarence Williams (January 25, 1955 – September 18, 1994) was an American professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for the San Diego Chargers and Washington Redskins. He played college football for the South Carolina Gamecocks and was selected in the fifth round of the 1977 NFL draft. On September 16, 1979, Williams rushed for four touchdowns for the San Diego Chargers in a win over the Buffalo Bills, a franchise record he shares with LaDainian Tomlinson.

College career

While attending the University of South Carolina, Williams lettered in football in 1975-76 and rushed for 2,311 career yards, including eight 100-yard games. He was inducted into the University of South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame in 2008.

NFL career statistics

Regular season

Playoffs

Death

On September 17, 1994, Williams was shot in his car while at an intersection. He died at Richland Memorial Hospital in Columbia, South Carolina, the following day.

Editorial summary

“Clarence Williams (running back, born 1955)” enters the record as american football player (1955-1994). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Clarence, Williams and running can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1955, 1994, 1977, 1979—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1955-01-25. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Clarence, Williams and running.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Clarence Williams (running back, born 1955)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Clarence, Williams and running provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5126823. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1955, 1994, 1977 and 1979.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Clarence Williams (running back, born 1955)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Clarence Williams (running back, born 1955) primary sources, Clarence Williams (running back, born 1955) archive and Clarence research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Clarence Williams (running back, born 1955)”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Clarence Williams (running back, born 1955)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.