The Norfolk Forum presents Roy Williams, former basketball coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels and Kansas Jayhawks.
Roy Williams retired on April 1, 2021, with the third-most wins by a Division I head coach and the sixth-highest winning percentage in college basketball history. In 43 seasons on the bench as a college head and assistant coach, Williams was part of 1,178 wins in 1,503 games, a win percentage of .784. Inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007, Williams was a college head coach for 33 seasons at two of the three winningest programs in the sport’s history. He won 418 games in 15 seasons at Kansas from 1988–2003 and 485 games in 18 seasons at UNC, his alma mater, from 2003–21. He is the second-winningest coach all-time at Carolina and is third at KU. He is the only coach in college basketball history to win 400 games at two schools.
Williams is a member of the NABC College Basketball Hall of Fame, North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame and the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame. He is a recipient of the John R. Wooden Legends of Coaching Award (Los Angeles Athletic Club), the Naismith Award for Contributions to the Game, the NABC Foundation Court of Honor, the UNC General Alumni Administration’s Distinguished Service Medal and the UNC Board of Trustees’ William R. Davie Award, for which he was co-honored with his wife, Wanda. The homecourt of the Tar Heels, was officially re-named the Roy Williams Court at the Dean E. Smith Center in 2018.
