Roy Williams is one of the most successful coaches in the history of college basketball.
The former Kansas and North Carolina head coach ranks fifth on the all-time list of coaches’ victories with 903 victories and three national championships. Only former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski (1,202), former Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim (1,015), Bob Huggins (935 at five universities) and former Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun (920) have more. Williams, who retired from coaching at UNC-Chapel Hill in 2021, “is the only coach in NCAA history to have led two different programs to at least four Final Fours each,” according to Speakers.com. He’s also “the only basketball coach in NCAA history to have 400 or more victories at two NCAA Division I schools.”
But Williams, 73, would tell you that his greatest accomplishment was when he built a house for his mother in 1984.
Williams was in Fayetteville on June 27. He was the special guest at a lunch and fundraiser at Felton J. Capel Arena on the campus of Fayetteville State University for Fayetteville Area Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit that helps low- and moderate-income people build and own their first homes.
Though Habitat for Humanity was not involved when Williams built his mother’s home, it is an organization that is dear to his heart.
“I went through some things when I was a kid,” said Williams, whose parents divorced in 1963. “There was no home to live in. My mom didn’t own a home until I built her one when she was 60 years old so some of those kind of things make me feel like this is really a great thing.
“The thing is you’re providing something that people dream about and sometimes it’s outside their reach. And it was,” he continued. “In 1984, I was 34 years old and I was able to build my mom a home and it was the first time she ever owned a home. So for me, those are the kind of things that are the most special things in the world.”
Williams said his most precious memory is when he saw the reaction his mother — Lallage Williams, who was known as “Mimmie” — had to the home he had just built for her in Asheville.
“My mom had never gone to look at the house. She knew what road it was on. That’s the only thing she knew,” Williams told the audience. “And I said, ‘You go pick the time. I’m not going to be here.’ [My older sister Frances] said, ‘What do you mean you’re not going to be here? You don’t want to see mom when she walks in the house?’ I said, ‘No, why do I want to see my mom cry?’ To this day I think it’s the greatest decision I’ve ever made
“I said I was going to the golf course and I’m going to play 18. ‘Tell mom I’ll be back about 6:30 or 7 to eat,’” he recalled. “I’ll never forget walking into that house.”
His mother was standing at the stove, stirring gravy, he remembered.
“My favorite meal in the world is fried chicken, biscuits and gravy, green beans and potatoes,” Williams said. “She turned around because she heard the door move. She saw it was me and she jerked around. She didn’t want me to see her cry.”
While many associate Habitat for Humanity with the advocacy and volunteer work of former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn Carter, the nonprofit was actually created in 1976 by Millard and Linda Fuller. Like Carter, the Fullers resided in Georgia, living in the city of Americus. Millard died in 2009; Linda is still alive at 83 years old.
Habitat for Humanity is working to fulfill the Fullers’ initial goal.
“Our overreaching goal is to provide affordable housing for deserving families,” said Brandon Price, CEO of the Fayetteville Habitat for Humanity that serves Cumberland, Bladen and Sampson counties. “People think that we build houses and give it all away and that’s not at all what we do.
“Our families want an opportunity to be a homeowner and in exchange for them doing 200 to 300 sweating hours, which is them volunteering to build their house all while volunteering out in the community, they receive a zero to 2% interest mortgage,” he said. “But they do pay a mortgage.”
Habitat for Humanity also instructs teenagers on how to build a house, Price said. The organization runs summer camps that teach carpentry, plumbing and electrical skills to youth.
Price said it costs Habitat for Humanity about $100,000 to build a house in Fayetteville. He hoped Williams’ appearance would raise about that much, including admission, donations and selling items from ReStores that are owned by Habitat for Humanity. The organization also offsets the costs of a home by utilizing community partners like Fayetteville Technical Community College and other volunteers that assist with the labor involved, Price said.
While Williams said Thursday’s event at Fayetteville State was the first time he had spoken for Habitat for Humanity, he said he got involved with the organization while he was head coach at Kansas (1988-2003).
“When I coached at the University of Kansas, our players worked one year to help build a house. And I loved the fact that we built houses,” Williams said. “Most of the time hitting the nail, sometimes I would get excited and try to steer everything. Most of the time I could hit it and that was about it.
“But when you’re trying to get people in the trades and you’re teaching and talking and teaching young people about the trades so that’s extremely important. A place to live is the greatest thing that you can possibly give.”
Helping people become homeowners and creating housing stability is a top priority for Habitat for Humanity.
“We feel like we’re getting up every day here to help people, to help our neighbors and to remind people that they matter and where you live shouldn’t determine how long you live,” Price said. “Your zip code shouldn’t determine your life expectancy. It does, so if we can change that for families that can’t do that on their own, then we can change their lives forever.
As for Williams, he gives his time and money to various charities, but he noted that Habitat for Humanity was special to him.
“The single happiest moment of my life was when I saw my mom standing at the kitchen stove stirring that gravy and, unfortunately, she was only able to live there eight years before she had cancer and passed away,” Williams said. “So now 10 days a year I try to give to cancer, cancer research, cancer events to help that. But if I was to have to do something else and it would be something close to my heart it would be Habitat for Humanity.”
