University of North Carolina Athletics
Williams To Be Profiled On
December 6, 2007 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 6, 2007
FSN South on Wednesday announced the debut of In My Own Words: Roy Williams, a 30-minute interview special spotlighting the University of North Carolina's Hall of Fame coach.
Williams, the man in charge of the Tar Heel nation, chronicles his true blue pedigree - From humble beginnings playing basketball on a dirt playground to his college days at the University of North Carolina to finally cutting down the nets as the head coach of his alma mater, one of the most storied basketball programs in the nation.
In My Own Words: Roy Williams debuts on FSN South on Sunday, December 9 at 10 p.m. ET following ACC Sunday Night Hoops and replays on December 11 at 7 p.m. ET, December 15 at 7 p.m. ET and December 17 at 10 p.m. ET.
Williams on what it took to pursue his passion of coaching
"It was financially extremely difficult the first couple of years {as an assistant at North Carolina}, and I was doing every odd job I could possibly find to feed my family. I ran a little basketball camp for the faculty kids. I drove copies of the football coach's TV show around the state. 504 miles every Sunday. I ended up selling calendars... I wanted to stay here because I wanted to be with Coach Smith... I knew from the summer after my ninth grade on, I was going to be a coach."
Williams on what coaching at North Carolina means to him
"With me, as long as everybody knows how hard I work and how hard I try and that every day it's my heart, my body and my soul to be the coach at North Carolina, as long as they understand that and as long some people will say I will always be their coach, I will be fine."
Williams on what winning the national championship did for his career
"What it did for me was enable me to stop answering the question of what it was like being the best coach who had never won a national championship, and I jokingly say that but it was true. I mean it was something I got tired of answering, but I said as long as I can have relationships with my players that I was going to be okay. But winning it {the national championship}, its amazing what it did to the other people. I don't think it changed me. I don't think I woke up that next morning and said `Wow. I'm big time.' I never had that thought. In fact, we lost all those players so I went back to work at 6 a.m. the next morning or two mornings after, and I was on the road recruiting, but it did change other people's perception and that was so strange to me."
Williams on being head coach at Kansas
"I had no clue about the passion and the history of Kansas basketball, and they are very similar to what we have here at North Carolina. And it was 15 marvelous, marvelous years, and each and every day I appreciated a great deal of that passion that their fans had for their program, the tradition that the program had and it was a great fit for me."
Williams on being named to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
"When it was announced I was finalist, I didn't know about it until we {the basketball team} got together at the end of practice one day and I said `Everybody in,' which we do at the end of every practice. And Wes Miller said, `Coach, before we do that, we would like to be the first to congratulate you for being a finalist for the Hall of Fame.'...It was something I won't ever forget."
FSN South, the nation's largest regional sports network, reaches more than 12 million homes in seven states in the Southeast. SportSouth reaches 9 million cable and satellite subscribers across a six-state region. Through its affiliates and other Fox Networks Group-owned networks, FSN reaches more than 82 million homes through 22 regional networks. Headquartered in Los Angeles, FSN owned or affiliated regional sports networks serve as the TV home to 64 of the 82 MLB, NHL and NBA teams based in the United States.
