Williams Gives Full Court Press for Scholarships

Story by Nancy Grund
Portrait by John T. Consoli

As defined by Webster’s Dictionary, an icon is an object of uncritical devotion. For University of Maryland Men’s Basketball Head Coach Gary Williams ’68, who has earned the adulation of scores of passionate Maryland fans as well as the scrutiny of contentious critics in the fiercely competitive Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), that designation may not be technically correct. Still, one is hard pressed to find a better word to describe the heartfelt love and devotion that Williams has earned in his 16 years as head coach at Maryland.

Williams bonds with members of his team at the NCAA tournament in 2002.

When Williams was hired by Maryland in 1989, he inherited a team that had won only nine games the year before and finished in last place in the ACC. To put it mildly, the program was in shambles, morale was low and many felt that nothing short of a miracle would turn the program around. Enter Williams, who within one year helped the Terps reach 19 wins while advancing to the second round of the National Invitation Tournament—making him the first coach in the history of Maryland basketball to lead a team into the postseason in his first year.

Williams recalls the somber mood on campus when he returned to the university in 1989. “It seemed to me the university needed an attitude adjustment,” recalls Williams. “As a coach, I am always looking at attitude and I felt the university was afraid to say how good it was, afraid to say our programs were among the best in the country.”

Those first years were difficult ones for Williams, but he coached himself through it—often returning to his office at the end of a long day of dealing with lawyers and NCAA sanctions to give himself a much-needed pep talk. “I can get stubborn; remember I am from New Jersey. When you are backed into a corner, you just fight your way out. My experience as a player helped in that situation,” he admits. “I stayed positive about the fact that we could be a great program and I wasn’t afraid to talk about it and to work through it.”

A Method to the Madness

The breakout for Williams came in 1994 when the Terrapins rejoined March Madness and gained a coveted spot in the NCAA Tournament. “That gave everybody a jolt,” says Williams. “We showed people good things could happen.”

Gary Williams was captain of the Maryland basketball team and lettered as the Terps' starting point guard.

The rest is history. Williams has led the Terrapins to national dominance, including 11 consecutive NCAA tournament berths, seven Sweet Sixteen appearances, a pair of back-to-back Final Four showings, the coveted 2002 NCAA national championship, the first of its kind in Maryland basketball history, and the first ACC tournament title (last year) in more than two decades with the youngest team in college basketball.

His accomplishments are even more meaningful given his strong ties to the school. He lettered as the Terps’ starting point guard from 1964 to 1967 under head coach Bud Millikan, serving as team captain during his senior year. “The greatest lesson I learned during my undergraduate years at Maryland was that I was good enough to compete with my peers,” shares Williams. “I was from a small town in New Jersey and was not well-traveled, so I had doubts about my abilities.”

Following graduation, Williams channeled his love of basketball into a potential career. At the age of 22, he was leading his own high school junior varsity team and knew that coaching was his calling.

Throughout his academic and professional career, he has always believed in “following your dream” and has supported and encouraged all of his players and coaches to do the same. “If you set a realistic goal, you have to do everything you can to get there.” For Williams that meant coaching a men’s soccer team in order to coach the men’s basketball team at Lafayette College, his first college coaching position.

Williams takes his piece of the net—a symbol of achievement—after the Terps win the NCAA tournament.

Williams still stays in contact with the man who introduced him to Maryland and accompanied Williams on his first trip to campus, his high school basketball coach John Smith. Smith traveled to Atlanta in 2002 to share in the excitement of his former player’s extraordinary accomplishment—winning the NCAA national championship.

That victory came after a devastating loss just a year before to Duke in the 2001 Final Four. Following that painful defeat, the usually cautious Williams went out on a limb to tell his team, “You are good enough to win a national championship and we can do it.” His confidence in the team never wavered and in 2002 they gave Williams one of his greatest wins ever.

Williams fully appreciates how his life has come full circle at Maryland. “When you are successful, part of that success is due to where youwent to college. Wherever you go, whatever you do, where you went to college never changes—it is always an important part of your life. I am happy to be part of a great university and to have the chance to give back.”

Williams’ Latest Challenge

From fear of failure to Fear the Turtle, the meteoric rise of the men’s basketball program tracks closely with the university’s growing recognition and enhanced reputation over the last decade. “The university has made such great strides,” says Williams. “A big part of that progress has been due to the ability to generate more scholarships to assist students in need and to attract the top scholars.”

AGE: 59 GRADUATION YEAR: 1968 CAREER: Head men’s basketball coach extraordinaire, University of Maryland, 1989 to present; co-chair of Scholarship Campaign that is part of a larger university fund-raising initiative. ACCOMPLISHMENTS: 2004 ACC Tournament title, the first for the Terrapins since 1984. 2002 NCAA National Championship, the first of its kind in Maryland basketball history. Heralded as National and Atlantic Coast Conference Coach of the Year in 2002. One of six college basketball coaches since 1980 to guide his alma mater to the Final Four and was the first coach since 1974 to lead his alma mater to a national title. One of only five coaches in the NCAA Division 1 to lead his team to each of the past 11 NCAA Tournaments. A winner of nearly 70 percent of his NCAA Tournament games while at Maryland, he ranks ninth among active coaches in the NCAA Tournament winning percentage overall. With a victory over No. 1 Florida in Gainesville on Dec. 10, 2003, he is the winningest coach in the nation against top-ranked opponents (six).

In 2004, Williams became one of the university’s top recruits to co-chair the scholarship component of the university’s upcoming fund-raising campaign. He sees his newest responsibility as a natural fit.

“So much of what I do involves traveling around the country and meeting with alumni groups,” Williams shares. “This just seems like a natural extension.”

Always looking for the fast break, Williams boosted his fundraising team’s efforts by making a significant lead gift of his own for scholarships. That commitment gave the $200 million scholarship drive a quick start and reaffirmed Williams’ personal gratitude to the university.

He admits he may never have attended college had he not received an athletic scholarship from Maryland to play basketball. The first member of his family to graduate from college, it still bothers Williams that a lack of financial resources kept his older brother, “a much better student than me,” from pursuing a bachelor’s degree.

Williams’ only child, daughter Kristen Scott, shares in her father’s excitement about the chance to give back to Maryland. “His loyalty to the university is both remarkable and admirable,” says Scott. “I only hope I can teach my children those qualities and to do what my father has done so successfully—find your passion in life and pursue it.”

Scott, too, remembers her father’s early coaching years at Maryland and the university’s unwavering support for him. She notes that a large part of Williams’ joy in the job has come from seeing the many opportunities his former players have realized, including many student-athletes who have played for the National Basketball Association and for professional teams in Europe. “He feels that the fruits of his labors have been fulfilled, especially when players complete their degrees or return to Maryland after working several years to finish their degrees.”

Former student-athlete Keith Booth ’03, is one of those success stories. Booth grew up in Baltimore watching Maryland basketball on television. It was a dream come true to play for Maryland during those rebuilding years. Now Booth feels like a “hometown hero” returning to campus as an assistant coach. “From day one when I walked on the court as a student-athlete, Coach Williams did a good job of breaking things down and teaching me to take things one day at a time. He teaches you to believe in the moment,” says Booth.“I adopted those philosophies, which are important lessons for life on and off the court.”

Many of Williams’ few spare moments are now spent winning over several new Terp fans, his three grandchildren. Daughter Kristen recalls a visit last summer when the coach tried to give his grandson, David, a few pointers at the kid-size hoop in her family’s backyard. In typical five-year-old fashion David responded with, “No thanks, Granddad. I like doing it my way.”

Williams could hardly argue that point. After all, he has done it his way for more than 16 years and the results speak for themselves. —TERP

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