Roy Williams, Hall of Fame coach at Kansas and North Carolina, retires after 33 years
Roy Williams, who built a Hall of Fame coaching career at Kansas and North Carolina, announced his retirement on Thursday.
Williams won 903 games in 33 seasons, the first 15 at Kansas, which took a chance on handing its storied men’s basketball program to someone who had never been a head coach.
“I wasn’t even a household name even in my own house,” Williams once said.
But the connections between Kansas and North Carolina, where Williams was serving as an assistant, were strong. Dean Smith, a reserve guard on the Jayhawks’ 1952 NCAA championship team, was already established as one of the game’s greatest coaches. He recommended Williams to KU athletic director Dean Smith.
So did Dick Harp, the former KU head coach who was serving as a Tar Heels’ special assistant.
Williams, 70, who had interviewed at smaller schools, got the Kansas job, and began an amazing career.
The Jayhawks were coming off the 1988 NCAA championship when Williams was hired to replace Larry Brown. Kansas was on probation and ineligible for the NCAA Tournament in Williams’ first season. That was his only Kansas team that missed the big dance.
Williams’ teams started the current streak of 31 consecutive NCAA appearances for the program. The Jayhawks reached the Final Four in 1991 and 1993 with players such as Mark Randall, Adonis Jordan and Rex Walters. They returned in 2002 and 2003 with teams that included Drew Gooden, Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich.
Some of Williams’ best KU teams didn’t reach the Final Four. The Jayhawks of 1995-98 featured players like Jacque Vaughn, Raef LaFrentz, Paul Pierce and Scot Pollard. The 1997 team spent 15 weeks at No. 1 but lost in the Sweet 16 to eventual champion Arizona.
At a farewell ceremony in Chapel Hill, Williams remembered his time at Kansas.
“Fifteen years at Kansas, those kids gave me a chance,” Williams said. “We grew up together.”
Williams also thanked Bob Frederick, the athletic director at Kansas who hired Williams.
“Bob Frederick was the finest gentleman I’ve ever known in my life,” said Williams, who also gave shout outs to the school’s president Gene Budig and former KU assistants Jerry Green, Steve Robinson, Mark Turgeon and Kevin Stallings among others.
Twice the North Carolina job came open during Williams’ Kansas tenure. In 2000, Bill Guthridge stepped down and Williams’ alma mater applied the full-court press. Having just coached a freshman class that included Gooden, Collison and Hinrich, Williams decided to remain at Kansas.
His press conference originated from a press room at Memorial Stadium and was broadcast on the stadium’s big screen with some 15,000 in attendance. “I’m staying,” Williams said to cheers.
Williams might have stayed at Kansas much longer but Guthridge’s successor in Chapel Hill, Matt Doherty, was fired after the 2003 season. Again, North Carolina called.
Kansas had just fallen to Syracuse in the NCAA championship game, and speculation had been swirling about Williams’ future. During an interview with CBS after the game, Williams, tired of the job market talk, said, “I could give a (shoot) about North Carolina right now.”
But a week later, Williams accepted the job at North Carolina and was on his way to even greater success. His second North Carolina team, in 2005, won the NCAA title, defeated Bruce Weber’s Illinois team in the championship game.
The Tar Heels also won championships in 2009 and 2017.
Williams reached 900 career victories in fewer games (1,161) and seasons (33) than any coach in history. His 485 victories at North Carolina trail on Smith’s 879. Williams ranks third on the KU list with 418, behind Phog Allen’s 590 and Bill Self’s 522.
Praise for Williams’ career poured in Thursday.
“From his beginnings at the high school level through his rise to a three-time national champion at North Carolina, Roy Williams has been a coach we could all admire,” Craig Robinson, the executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, said in a statement. “He left a lasting mark on countless student-athletes and built a coaching tree that will continue to impact our sport for generations to come.
“A past president of the NABC and current president of the NABC Foundation, Roy has long been passionate about using his platform to grow college basketball and serve fellow coaches. Our profession and the game itself are better off because of Roy Williams, and on behalf of the NABC, I wish him the best in retirement.”
From NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt: The NCAA congratulates Coach Roy Williams on his remarkable coaching career, which spanned more than four decades at two of the great programs in the history of college basketball.
“The 900-plus wins, nine Final Fours, six appearances in the national title game and three national championships at Kansas and North Carolina add up to a Hall of Fame career that is among the greatest in the history of coaching, yet his greatest legacy may be the successful young men he mentored and developed. We thank Coach Williams for his many contributions to college basketball, and while we’ll all miss seeing him on the sidelines, we’re thrilled for the additional opportunities he now has to be with his loved ones.”
This story was originally published April 1, 2021 at 9:56 AM with the headline "Roy Williams, Hall of Fame coach at Kansas and North Carolina, retires after 33 years."