Roy Williams: How It All Started | Forward Progress

In this week’s motivational podcast, Hall of Fame coach Roy Williams lets us in on how it all started. He recalls breaking into a local elementary school to shoot hoops, finding a passion for coaching before his sophomore year in high school and accepting a remarkably low-paying position at the University of North Carolina, under Coach Dean Smith.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
As we wrap up the week, we're bringing you one of the many
positive messages from our past interviews.
Each Thursday we're sharing stories of our most watched
athletes, celebrities, and leaders.
We hope these problem solving narratives inspire you to tackle
obstacles. In your own life.
This week, Roy Williams. The Don't War Gym.

(00:23):
The policeman that caught you and what happened from there?
Well, it was a funny thing because it started on one of
those Sunday nights when my mom had some clothes that she was
ironing and it just, I just wanted to get out of there.
And so I went to Biltmore Gym and I found out for sure.
On the outside you can climb up to the second floor and you can

(00:46):
get in through one of the windows.
They were not locked. I never would turn the lights
on. They had the red exit signs on
both ends and that was enough light for me.
And so I'd play. And so, I mean, there one time
and a policeman came in and but it was good because he caught me
when I was sweeping the floor and he thought I was just trying
to take care of it. I was trying to erase my tracks

(01:06):
is what I was doing. And so then he caught me again
later and that's when took me tothe principal's principal's
home, put me in the back of the car.
You think? You're oh, I thought I was going
to jail. I was scared to death and it
takes me to the principal's house and they scold me a little

(01:27):
bit and then they hand me a key and said don't go in that way,
but don't bring anybody else. If you bring anybody else in,
you're responsible for them too.So for over a year I had a key
to the gym but I never took anybody else in with me, it
would just be by myself. What about your high school
coach Baldwin made you feel likeyou could accomplish things that

(01:51):
even your family didn't think you?
Could do. My freshman year at Robertson, I
played on the JV team, was for 9th and 10th graders.
But I had some of my close friends were in the junior class
and they came home and told or they came and told me what he
said, that he really thought that I had a chance to play on
the varsity as a sophomore, thatthat was the first time that
anybody had ever been openly very positive about me.

(02:14):
It's the first time somebody hadever remembered saying really
good things. Because you didn't really have
any goals or ambitions at. That point, no, there was no
example, you know, because again, nobody in my family had
ever gone to school. And so he that made me feel
really good and I love baseball,had always been the most

(02:36):
important until my 9th grade year and in basketball became
the most important. And so all of a sudden I
realized if he makes me feel that good, I can't be the only
person he's done that for. And so that's who I wanted to
be. And so the summer after my 9th
grade years when I decided I wanted to be a coach, so Coach
Baldwin someone, and he's the one that taught me into going to

(02:57):
college because I never even thought about it.
And I still talk to him every week, sometimes 3 or 4 times a
week. And he's just been incredible to
me my whole life. And it's, it's something I
really appreciate it. So you go to college, you're
playing in the JV team, and thenyou start staying after practice

(03:18):
to watch Coach Smith and the thevarsity teams practice is.
Why? So my sophomore year I went in
one day and had a little legal pad and went in set up in the
upper section of Carmichael. Coach Guthrie saw me and went
and said something to Coach Smith and Coach Smith sent a
manager up and the manager told the security guard.

(03:39):
Coach Smith said he's OK and letRoy come in anytime he wants to
come. And then one day the varsity
manager comes to you and says Coach Smith wants to talk to
you. There were two different times,
one that he wouldn't know if I would keep the points for
possession chart and the other one he'd know if I could come on
Saturday morning to referee of scrimmage.

(04:00):
And he ends up inviting you to work at the UNC basketball camp.
And Fast forward to end the summer of the 78, He asks to
talk to you again. Tell about the offer.
Yeah, five years at Coast High School and five years worked a
camp and they wanted a, quote, part time assistant, it's full
time job, part time pay. And so they offered me that and

(04:23):
I went home and told Wanda. And so she said, OK, so I'm
going to make 14,000 at Tuscola and you're going to make about
16,000 with your coaching deal at Owen.
So that's 30,000. And Coach Smith offered you 2700
for the year. And I said, Yep, that's about
it. And she said the famous

(04:44):
statement, she said, OK, when dowe leave?
Why did you think that was a good move for you at the time?
Number one, I felt like I was cheating the students at Owen
High School because my whole dayin basketball season, I was
thinking in my mind about planning practice for that night
or the game that night. And I didn't think I was doing

(05:06):
as good a job as I should be doing in the classroom for them.
And so that made me wonder if I should try to get into college
coaching. How?
Did you survive financially? Very intelligently so.
I was driving copies of Coach Smith and Coach Crum, our
football coach at that time, of their TV show.
It was a big old case of a film,and I would drop a tape.

(05:29):
I would drop one in Greensboro and one in Asheville and turn
around and come back. And it was 504 miles every
Sunday. But I made $113.
And Wanda was teaching. And then the next year, she only
told a couple of months because she was pregnant with Kimberly.
And that's when I started selling calendars and.
You became the world's best calendar.
Sales. That's the best calendar
salesman you'd ever seen. First year I sold 10,500

(05:54):
calendars, made $2400 and drove 9000 miles in nine weeks.
The last year I did it eight years later I sold 50,000
calendars. Instead of making $2400 I made
over 30,000. I did it in five weeks and in
5000 I. Remember this?
At that time it was really, it'sreally important so but I also,
my wife says I have more uselessinformation in my brain than

(06:16):
anybody. We'll be back with another
positive story from a past interview next Thursday, and
we'll pull it from our highest performing clips according to
our digital community. Head over to youtube.com/graham
Pensinger to join us. Thanks again for listening.