The Hammer

This week's guests are Chaya Boone, a figure competitor who recently won her pro card at the NPC Junior Nationals in suburban Chicago, and Fred "The Hammer" Williamson. For those unfamiliar with Williamson, he is a former Northwestern University standout who played professionally, mostly in the American Football League with the Oakland Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs. He went on to a movie career as an actor (among his credits is “M *A*S*H) and director. He also played Diahann Carroll’s love interest in “Julia” (a television series that ran 1968-71).

Episode Segments:

Sports and Torts: Chaya Boone It wasn't an easy journey, but the lovey Chaya won her pro card at the NPC Junior Nationals. But don't think she's going to stop there - this figure pro is ALWAYS in prep mode!
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Sports and Torts: Fred Williamson Williamson went from being a standout offensive player at Northwestern to becoming a top defensive back in the American Football League with the Kansas City Chiefs and Oakland Raiders. He then went on to a successful career as an actor and director in television and movies. It’s a career that he still continues today. In this great interview, we talk with the Hammer about all of it, from his humble beginnings, to being the action star who always wins the fight, and always gets the girl.
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Guest(s) Appearing on this Episode

Fred Williamson After playing college football for Northwestern in the late 1950s, he was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers number two overall. When during training camp he was switched to their defense, his attitude over the switch prompted him to play his position with too much aggression, the coach of the 49ers asked him to quit "hammering" his players. The quickly acquired the nickname "The Hammer", and that stuck with him for decades. Williamson played one year for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the National Football League in 1960. Next, he moved to the new American Football League. Williamson played four seasons for the AFL’s Oakland Raiders, making the AFL All-Star team in 1961, 1962, and 1963. He also played three seasons for the AFL’s Kansas City Chiefs. During his period of playing for the Chiefs, Williamson became one of football’s first self-promoters, nurturing the nickname "The Hammer" because he used his forearm to deliver karate-style blows to the heads of opposing players, especially pass receivers. Before Super Bowl I, Williamson gathered national headlines by boasting that he would knock the Green Bay Packers starting receivers, Carroll Dale and Boyd Dowler, out of the game. He stated "Two hammers to (Boyd) Dowler, one to (Carroll) Dale should be enough".[3] His prediction turned out to be an ironic one because Williamson himself was knocked out of the game in the fourth quarter, with his head meeting the knee of the Packers' running back Donny Anderson. Williamson finished his eight-season pro football career in 1967 with a history of many hard tackles, passes knocked away, and 36 pass interceptions in 104 games. Williamson returned his interceptions for 479 yards and two touchdowns. After a short period with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League during the 1968 season, Williamson left from pro football, never to return. Following his retirement from football, Williamson decided that a career in architecture wasn't his calling and tried his hand as an actor, much in the mold of star running back Jim Brown. He also acted alongside Mr. Brown in films such as 1974's Three the Hard Way, 1975's Take a Hard Ride, 1982's One Down, Two to Go, 1996's Original Gangstas and 2002's On the Edge, along with guest starring with him in a handful of episodes of various television programs. Before Jim Brown did it in 1974, Fred posed nude for Playgirl magazine in the October 1973 issue. One of Williamson’s early television roles was a part in The Cloud Minders, a 1968 episode of Star Trek, playing "Anka". Williamson also played Diahann Carroll’s love interest in the sitcom Julia. In an interview for the DVD of Bronx Warriors, Williamson stated that the role in Julia was created for him when he convinced the producers that the Black community was upset that Julia had a different boyfriend every week. Williamson's early film work included roles in 1970, M*A*S*H and Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon. He also got to play, in 1973, an African-American mafioso in Black Caesar and its subsequent sequel, Hell Up in Harlem. He is also noted for portraying "Boss Nigger" in the 1975 blockbuster hit, Boss Nigger. After this he appeared as an actor in several films, most of which are considered to be of the "blaxploitation" genre. In 1974 he starred alongside Peter Boyle and Eli Wallach in the movie Crazy Joe. In 1974, he was selected by the ABC television network as a commentator on Monday Night Football to replace Don Meredith, who had left (temporarily, as it turned out) to pursue an acting and broadcasting career at rival network NBC. Williamson was used on a few pre-season broadcasts, but he was judged to be unsuitable by ABC. He was relieved of his duties at the beginning of the regular season, becoming the first MNF personality not to endure for an entire season. He was replaced by the fellow former player (and fellow Gary, Indiana, native) Alex Karras. Since that time, Williamson has continued his career as an actor and director, recently appearing in the feature film version of the 1970s television series Starsky and Hutch. During the mid-to-late 1980s and early 1990s, Williamson frequently appeared on television as a spokesman for King Cobra (“Don’t let the smooth taste fool you.”)...as did fellow actor/martial artist Martin Kove. In 1994, Williamson, along with many other black actors from the 'Blaxploitation' movie era (namely Antonio Fargas, Pam Grier, Rudy Ray Moore, and Ron O'Neal) made a cameo appearance on Snoop Doggy Dogg's music video "Doggy Dogg World", where he appears as himself using his pro-football nickname "The Hammer". Williamson co-starred with George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino in 1996's From Dusk Till Dawn, directed by Robert Rodriguez. He was in the cast of 1978's original The Inglorious Bastards, which inspired Tarantino's 2009 film of a similar name. Alongside acting, Williamson has since the middle 1970s appeared as a director and producer as well. His first film as a producer was Boss Nigger (1975), a Western directed by Jack Arnold. With the second film he produced he also debuted as a director, Mean Johnny Barrows (1976), was a significant predecessor of the Rambo films with its violent Vietnam vet story, however the novel First Blood (Rambo I) was written in 1972. He has since directed over 20 features. In the middle of the 1970s, Williamson relocated to Rome, Italy and formed his own company Po' Boy Productions, which started to produce actioners like Adios Amigo (1976) and Death Journey (1976), both of which starred and were directed by Williamson. Although his most recent efforts as director and producer have mainly gone straight to DVD, Williamson has continued working actively with films. Fred on IMDB

Chaya Boone Wellness coach and Owner/Founder of Definition Fitness and Epic Figures Competition Team. I hold a B.S. degree in Kinesiology and a M.S. degree in Exercise Physiology. I achieved one of my dreams of becoming a IFBB Pro at NPC Jr. Nationals 2012. I maintain a blog at fitchiq.blogspot.com. I hold monthly posing workshops and camps in the Chicaoland area for Figure, bikini, physique and bodybuilding and train figure athletes for competition year around. Chaya's facebook Fanpage