Australia rugby league player David “Wolfman” Williams is the 2009 King of the Hardwood winner, besting 63 other athletes in the NCAA tournament-like contest. Williams was declared the winner when contest organizer Layne (Mariner Duck Guy on our Discussion Board) threw out the votes for fellow finalist Brad Ausmus for suspected vote stuffing. Yes, someone tried to rig the King of the Hardwood contest! Is nothing sacred?

Layne used a poll software that can be manipulated by someone voting numerous times and this was the case of someone who favored Ausmus. The baseball player won four of his six prior matches by 2 percentage points or fewer, often with a rush of last-minute votes that suggested cheating. Williams was winning the finals handily, 58% to 42%, then overnight Ausmus took the lead, not possible given the amount of votes cast, prompting Layne to make his decision. Williams would easily have won the final under a fair vote. In his previous five rounds, Williams received the following percentages: 80, 90, 78, 71 and 58.

Australia rugby league player David “Wolfman” Williams is the 2009 King of the Hardwood winner, besting 63 other athletes in the NCAA tournament-like contest. Williams was declared the winner when contest organizer Layne (Mariner Duck Guy on our Discussion Board) threw out the votes for fellow finalist Brad Ausmus for suspected vote stuffing. Yes, someone tried to rig the King of the Hardwood contest! Is nothing sacred?

Layne used a poll software that can be manipulated by someone voting numerous times and this was the case of someone who favored Ausmus. The baseball player won four of his six prior matches by 2 percentage points or fewer, often with a rush of last-minute votes that suggested cheating. Williams was winning the finals handily, 58% to 42%, then overnight Ausmus took the lead, not possible given the amount of votes cast, prompting Layne to make his decision. Williams would easily have won the final under a fair vote. In his previous five rounds, Williams received the following percentages: 80, 90, 78, 71 and 58.

Williams, 23, caught the eyes of gay sports fans this winter when he was one of the players to grace the "Gods of Football" calendar, where Aussie jocks pose naked to raise money for breast cancer research. For the calendar and accompanying video he shed his scraggly facial hair (hence the "Wolfman" nickname) and appeared sleek and buff.

In an interview last year about doing the calendar, Williams said the decision to strip for photos was easy: "It's for a good cause. Plus, I usually get nude for a lot less."

We will try and get some comments from Williams and post them on the blog. For now, all hail the 2009 King of the Hardwood:

David Williams

David Williams

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