Ex-Packer Williams Dead at 45 : Football: He set kick-return record in 1967 but battled homelessness and alcoholism after his career ended.

Travis Williams, who wrestled with homelessness, poverty and alcohol after setting records as a kick returner with the Green Bay Packers, has died after a long illness. He was 45.

Williams, who attended Arizona State, died Sunday of heart failure in Martinez, Calif., near his hometown of Richmond. His daughter, Marla Williams, said her father also suffered from liver and kidney failure.

Williams, known as “the Roadrunner,” returned four kickoffs for touchdowns as a rookie with the Packers in 1967, setting an NFL record that still stands. He returned two in one game that season against the Cleveland Browns to tie a league record.

He played four seasons with the Packers, and his best year was 1969, when he rushed for 536 yards and four touchdowns.

Injuries limited Williams to seven games in 1970 and he was traded to the Rams. In 1971, he returned a kickoff 105 yards.

But a knee injury suffered that season ended his career.

Williams returned to California and held a series of jobs--as a junk collector, truck driver, bouncer and security guard.

Marla Williams, who lives in Richmond, said her father became increasingly depressed in recent years, especially after the deaths in 1985 of his wife, mother and sister. His wife died of a drug overdose, and alcoholism contributed to his sister’s death. Soon after, Williams joined the ranks of street people, sometimes sleeping in his car.

In a 1989 interview with The Times, Williams, who was working in a Richmond soup kitchen at the time, talked about his battle against alcoholism. “You can ease down, if you feel like you need easing down,” he said. “Cold turkey’s cold turkey. I guess I’m chicken trying to do it that way. So I just do a little at a time.”

In 1988, Williams was arrested in Washington during a demonstration at the office of Sen. Alan Cranston. He was protesting cuts in federal housing programs.

Williams is survived by children Travis Jr., 27; Marla, 25; Antoine, 22; Mica, 21; Malcolm, 19; Melanie, 17; Monica, 16, and Mercale, 8.