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Cheers in heaven: City loses biggest fan
Happy heckler and 7th-inning crooner, Williams was fixture at local sports events
Columbia sports fans lost one of their own Wednesday with the passing of longtime Gamecocks and Bombers cheerleader David Williams.
Williams, the superfan best known for dressing in a Capital City Bombers uniform and singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the seventh-inning stretch, died Wednesday after a period of poor health. He was 77.
“He was definitely one of a kind,” said Bill Shanahan, the former Bombers general manager who now owns the Columbia Blowfish summer collegiate team.
“He was a fixture, whether it be Gamecock football and basketball or Bombers baseball. His love and enthusiasm for local sports was unsurpassed.”
Williams had a great affection for USC’s sports teams, including a fond attachment to the women’s basketball program. He could be seen regularly at various games, good-naturedly getting on the officials whenever calls didn’t go the way of his teams.
One of Columbia’s most colorful figures, he remained a Pied Piper at the ballpark right up until professional baseball left town after the 2004 season.
“He had a great personality,” Mayor Bob Coble said. “I’d call him a unique personality who brought a lot of sunshine into a lot of people’s lives, especially young people. He was so enthusiastic.”
Another local personality, longtime WIS-TV weatherman Joe Pinner, knew he had a kindred spirit in Williams.
“David was so outgoing. He was like a big, cuddly bear. He loved people. He had that voracious smile and big voice. He sounded like Louis Armstrong,” Pinner said. “And he loved his baseball.”
Late in the 2002 season, the Bombers had David Williams Bobblehead Night, with the bobblehead featuring a uniformed Williams holding a microphone.
“I think we were the only two local people to have bobbleheads made of us,” Coble said.
Williams’ popularity would have been hard to imagine in 1983 when professional baseball returned to Columbia for the first time in 21 years. He began simply enough as the guy who walked around the old wooden bleachers chanting, “Let’s go, Mets!” and cajoled fans to spell out the team name along with him. But his persistence and affable manner soon turned into an official role.
“He became part of the act,” said Bill Blackwell, the Columbia Mets’ first general manager, who now works for the Richmond Braves.
In the early 1990s, Shanahan gave Williams a microphone and a nightly seventh-inning showcase on top of the Bombers dugout.
“He added an incredible amount of fun for fans who came to the games,” Shanahan said.
The highlight of many hot summer nights at Capital City Stadium became Williams’ rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” followed by a song of his choice, perhaps “Blueberry Hill,” “Mustang Sally” or “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay.” His soulful stylings never failed to delight fans and draw players out of both dugouts to watch.
Williams dealt with various health problems in his later years. In 1994, he had surgery to remove a tumor near his heart. For a number of years, he lived at the Babcock Center, a private, nonprofit organization that serves people with mental retardation and related lifelong disabilities.
Williams was born in Georgia, but moved to the Columbia area as a youngster. He has two surviving younger sisters in the area, Maude Smith and Lillie Mae Williams.
Blackwell believes David Williams leaves behind a unique legacy:
“He was a special character. He never met a stranger.”
Reach White at (803) 771-8643. | 
Video | David Williams sings