Sidney A Williams

Sidney Arnette Williams also known as “Sid” born on August 29, 1936 in Tacoma, Washington and passed away on January 24, 2018 in University Place, Washington. He was a long time resident of Tacoma, Washington.

Sid was a hardworking and amazing man who was very active in his 81 years on this earth; he believed his word was his bond. He served his country through the Air Force and became a civilian hydraulic inspector at McCord Air Force Base. He loved to play racquetball, and pickleball. He owned his own sports store in Tacoma on the Hilltop, his most recent job was being a home health aide for Lutheran community services; he helped seniors with their everyday living. Sid enjoyed people and helping out where ever he could. He enjoyed traveling with the love of his life Pamm.  They both traveled to Las Vegas, Vancouver and Hawaii. He loved his time with family and friends. Friendship meant everything to Sid. He had many different groups of friends that he treated like family. He had a racquetball family, pickelball family, lifelong jazz family in Vancouver BC. They were all very special to him. Everyone who knew Sid, knew he was a legend.

Sid leaves behind his greatest love Pamm Silver, children Paige Williams, Lisa Williams, Angela Pierce,Valerie Williams, Mark Williams &  sister Stephanie (Fred) Decree, Judith Williams many  nieces and nephews. Grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Sid is preceded in death by his parents Charles and Helen Williams, Sisters Carol Parks and Charlotte Caffee. 

In lieu of flowers please donate that money to start a "Youth Sports Fund" in Sid's name. 

Please make check/moneyorder out to Pamm Silver.  You can address the envelope to 

Weeks' Dryer Mortuary in care of Pamm SIlver Youth Fund

 220th. Street S, Tacoma, WA 98444

2017 Pickleball Hall of Fame Inaugural Year

Induction of Sid Williams

Sid – The special people that worked for Mr. Reagan as his body guards we sent the balls, the paddles, the nets, didn’t have any wood poles so the special services people said that Reagan - Mr. Reagan and Nancy were not very athletic but they said they certainly enjoyed the pickleballs.

Beverly -  Then we go on as he started the tournaments, Nalley’s Pickles was one of the major sponsors and so was Budweiser.  They had beer at the tournaments but you couldn’t have a beer unless you were 21 and you couldn’t start drinking until afternoon or something like that.  (unintelligible)… were very responsible.  But we have pictures of all the sponsors, I just thought that was a little different than what we see today.  Also when he created the ranking systems, the rating systems, and when Barney McCallum created the first rules which was only one page, that didn’t work so well for tournaments.  So Sid then created really what you might refer to as the first real rule book as far as tournament play is concerned.  And you know, we’ve come a long ways even from that with all of the interpretations.  The um, They hosted a lot of leagues, seminars and exhibitions and what I just love is that if you played in one of Sid’s tournaments and you lost, you know what you had to do?  You had to ref the next match.  Wasn’t that great, Linda?  Now if it was mixed doubles or women’s doubles, you would flip a coin or whatever, but one of you had to ref the next match.  I thought that was a wonderful idea.  And it seemed to work because Fran Myer – Where’s Fran by the way?  Ok.  Fran says she became a really good ref because she lost a few times.  I just had to add that, Fran.  Anyway um.  And, also the other thing they did in the tournaments that Sid created is that there was no double elimination.  The top two players would play for gold and then you would have someone for bronze but there was no double elimination when they first did this.  I had to write notes so I wouldn’t forget all of these.

Also, one of the things I think that Sid’s very proud of was he presented a plaque to Joel Pritchard and I know Frank has already left.  But that was pretty cool ‘cause he already planned a trip with his wife to Hawaii and they’re leaving like six in the morning so he had to leave to catch the flight so he could sleep at SeaTac to show up on his flight tomorrow morning.  But um, one of the tournaments – Joel Pritchard was always very supportive of the tournaments and when he could he would come and he would present the awards to all the different ones and Sid could maybe enhance that – but he did give Joel a plaque that said “Father of Pickleball” so I guess we have two Fathers of Pickleball because we already mentioned that before but we don’t have a picture of that because we can’t find the plaque.  But anyway, that’s true. 

Ok, in closing, one of the things that I thought was really special with Sid is that he said, “One day we’re gonna to look back at the humble beginnings with a feeling of pride at having been in on the birth of this great organized sport.”

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