Gary Williams

Gary Williams began his coaching career as a graduate assistant in the fall of 1968, scarcely a year removed from his playing days at the University of Maryland. He spent only that one year in the Terrapin program before he landed his first head job at a championship-caliber high school program near his hometown in New Jersey. The young coach was on his way. In rapid succession, Williams moved up the coaching ranks taking positions at American University, Boston College, and Ohio State before resurfacing at Maryland to start the decade of the Nineties. In the spring of 2002, Williams led Maryland to the top of the college basketball mountain when his Terrapins captured the program’s first ever NCAA national championship in basketball. Standing atop the podium the final Monday of the college basketball season, Williams, along with players Steve Blake, Lonny Baxter, and Juan Dixon, hoisted the trophy in celebration. Williams won more than 600 games in his career at four different universities, but for the coach who played at Maryland and returned to his alma mater more than 20 years later, victory never tasted so sweet.