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. 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 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 is what I was doing. And so then he caught me again later and that's when took me to the 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 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 like you could accomplish things that 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, that that was the first time that anybody had ever been openly very positive about me. It's the first time somebody had ever 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 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 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 then you start staying after practice to watch Coach Smith and the the varsity 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.
Coach Smith said he's OK and let Roy 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. 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 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 statement, she said, OK, when do we 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 day in 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 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. 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 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's really important so but I also, my wife says I have more useless information in my brain than 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.