Having covered virtually every professional and major amateur sports event around the globe, Williams' broadcasting style has won numerous awards and praise from critics. Williams took home his sixth Gemini Award in the Best Sports Broadcaster category for his work at the 2000 Olympic Summer Games an honour that was bestowed upon him the previous year for his hosting role at the 1999 Pan Am Games. In 1998, Williams also won the Gemini for his work as the prime-time host at the 1998 Nagano Olympics. He has also earned the Foster Hewitt Award twice.

In the fall of 2000, prior to the Olympic Games in Australia, Williams hosted The Olympians: A Century of Canadian Heroes, a documentary series chronicling the stories of Canadians who have made a mark on the Olympic stage.

Over the years he has covered a 10 Olympic Games beginning in Montreal in 1976. The 2002 Winter Olympic Games from Salt Lake City mark Williams' ninth Olympic hosting assignment for the network.

Williams has also hosted Grey Cup Weekend, Formula 1 Racing, World Cup skiing, World Figure Skating Championships, World Junior Hockey Championships, horse racing, championship golf and tennis. He also provides play-by-play coverage of Blue Jays Baseball on CBC.

Born in Winnipeg, Williams is a political science honors graduate of Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He began calling university basketball play-by-play in 1967, and started his professional career in radio with Toronto's CHUM. After a year at CFRB Radio in Toronto, he joined CBC Television's Toronto station, CBLT.

Williams lives in Toronto with his wife and three daughters.