Willie Bethea

Bethea was a fullback who played his entire eight year CFL career with Hamilton from 1963 to 1970.  The Tiger-Cats used a pretty balanced offense during that time with two or three running backs shairing the load, so Bethea never piled up any one thousand yards seasons.  Bethea, however, was a steady performer at running the ball and also put up good numbers catching the ball and running back kickoffs.  Bethea's best season came in 1967 when he set career highs for carries (147), yards rushing ( 737), receptions (40) and yards reeeiving (520) and was named to the East All-Star team.  Bethea finished his career with 3919 yards rushing. 

Games Played and Rushing
Year Team GP TC Yds Avg TD Long
1963 HAM 9 89 435 4.9 3 51
1964 HAM 7 83 408 4.9 1 33
1965 HAM 14 117 598 5.1 4 45
1966 HAM 14 95 531 5.6 0 55
1967 HAM 14 147 737 5 5 39
1968 HAM 14 127 607 4.8 3 17
1969 HAM 14 109 543 5 3 19
1970 HAM 4 14 60 4.3 1 11
Receiving
Year Team Rec Yds Avg TD Long
1963 HAM 11 105 9.5 1 26
1964 HAM 6 129 21.5 2 34
1965 HAM 8 77 9.6 0 21
1966 HAM 20 338 16.9 2 49
1967 HAM 40 520 13 1 42
1968 HAM 32 381 11.9 2 51
1969 HAM 26 305 11.7 1 28
1970 HAM 2 45 22.5 0 35
Kickoff Returns
Year Team KOR Yds Avg TD Long
1963 HAM 5 99 19.8 0 22
1964 HAM 11 356 32.4 0 59
1965 HAM 10 176 17.6 0 43
1966 HAM 12 327 27.3 0 36
1967 HAM 13 320 24.6 0 43
1968 HAM 6 120 20 0 23
1969 HAM 0 0 0 0 0
1970 HAM 0 0 0 0 0
Fumbles
Year Team F FL
1963 HAM

1964 HAM 3
1965 HAM 3
1966 HAM 1
1967 HAM 5 5
1968 HAM 3 1
1969 HAM 3 1
1970 HAM 1 1
Fumble Recoveries
Year Team FR Yds Avg TD Long OFR FF
1963 HAM 0 0 0 0 0 0
1964 HAM 1

0
0
1965 HAM 0 0 0 0 0 0
1966 HAM 0 0 0 0 0 0
1967 HAM 0 0 0 0 0 0
1968 HAM 0 0 0 0 0 1
1969 HAM 0 0 0 0 0 0
1970 HAM 0 0 0 0 0 0
1970 OPC