2 Former College Football Players Dead in Marathon-Related Incidents

Two former college football stars have died after separate incidents at marathons over the weekend. 

Brian Williams, a former safety at Texas A&M, died on Sunday, May 18, after running a half marathon in Irving, Texas the previous day. His brother, Rawleigh Williams III, told The Dallas Morning News that Brian died of heat stroke. Brian was 24 years old.

Rawleigh, a former running back at the University of Arkansas, made an emotional post via Instagram about his brother’s death on Sunday. 

“B you are my heart,” he wrote. “The BEST version of us in every single way B. I don’t think I can make it without you but I’m going to try for our parents and our sister. I love you brother.”

Michael Johnson, Brian’s high school football coach at Dallas’ Bishop Dunne Catholic High School, told the Morning News that the Williams family wants to keep the specific details about Brian’s death private. 

A four-star recruit out of high school, Brian played played three seasons at Texas A&M, appearing in 10 games in both 2019 and 2020.

Bishop Dunne assistant principal Michael Alfers, who also taught Williams in 8th grade, remembered Brian as an impressive individual away from football, too.

“Everybody looked up to him not only just because of his accomplishments on the field, but just from the way he carried himself and the way he treated others,” Alfers told the Morning News. “And he just always was kind of like a model student, a model young person in general.”

On the same day, former University of Minnesota defensive Charles Rogers died while running the Brooklyn Half Marathon. 

Rogers went into cardiac arrest and collapsed at Ocean Parkway and 18th Avenue at approximately 8 a.m., according to the New York Post. He was 31 years old. 

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CPR was performed on Rogers before he was rushed to nearby Maimonides Medical Center, but he could not be saved. 

“Charles put everything he had into everything he did,” Rogers’ wife, Sydney Rogers, told the Post. “While he leaves behind a wife and family that already miss him terribly, he loved being competitive and left us being 100% himself.”

Rogers transferred to Minnesota in 2015 after spending two years at Iowa State and one at Iowa Western Community College. He played three games in 2015, making 11 tackles, but missed 10 games because of injury. Rogers missed the entire 2016 season due to injury. He transferred to Lindenwood University in Missouri for one final season of college football in 2017.

“Charles was a terrific young man who had an infectious smile and personality,” a University of Minnesota spokesperson told The Minnesota Star Tribune. “We will keep his family and friends in our thoughts as they mourn this tragic loss.”