Today, well-established Kansas basketball coach Roy Williams tools around Lawrence in a maroon Lincoln Town Car.
Back in the old days in the early ’80s as an assistant at the University of North Carolina Williams sat behind the wheel of a … well, let Tulsa coach Buzz Peterson tell the story.
“He had this light blue car. We called it the ‘Blue Goose,”’ said Peterson, a former Tar Heel standout who was tutored by Williams from 1981-85.
“I don’t know what kind of car it was, but if we saw it sitting behind a building on campus while we were walking to class, we knew he was out there somewhere.
“We’d always look for the ‘Blue Goose.’ We’d say, ‘The Blue Goose is out. We’ve got to get to class because coach Williams is checking.'”
One of Williams’ jobs at North Carolina was to patrol campus and make sure Peterson and his teammates didn’t skip class.
Williams did his undercover police work in his trusty blue car.
“It was a 1973 Mustang,” Williams recalled. “It had over 200,000 miles on it when I finally got rid of it. It went everywhere. It drove copies of coach (Dean) Smith’s TV show. It sold calendars. It went recruiting. It did everything. In 1987 and ’88 it was a ’73, but I still had it.”
Williams was the bad guy on Smith’s staff during Peterson’s career.
“During Buzz’s career, I did all the conditioning,” said Williams, who grew up in Asheville, N.C., as did Peterson. Williams, in fact, first met Peterson when the future Tar Heel was in sixth grade. “Al Wood (ex-Heel) used to say, ‘You are the most powerful man in the world when you walk out of that building with a whistle in one hand and a stopwatch in the other hand.’ One thing it did was it made me have an even closer relationship with the new guys because I had them three days a week for conditioning,” Williams said.
Peterson said he and his UNC teammates a group that included Michael Jordan and Matt Doherty knew Williams would be a great head coach someday.
“M.J. will tell you he really respects coach Williams. We all saw how hard he worked and the time he put in with the pay very low,” Peterson said. “He served his time (10 years on Smith’s staff).
“He had job offers from UT-Chattanooga, Furman, George Mason, whatever and he’d turn ’em all down. We’d say, ‘Golly, what’s coach Williams doing turning down jobs?’ Then the Kansas job came open and shoot … the people of Asheville were so proud of him. He’s taken that program to be one of the best in the country.”
Williams and Peterson aren’t thrilled about tonight’s matchup.
The series was scheduled last year when Bill Self was Hurricane coach. Self took the Illinois job last summer, and Peterson left Appalachian State to fill the Tulsa opening.
“When I saw the schedule, it’s a game I really didn’t want to play,” Peterson said. “Coach Williams is one of my mentors, somebody I always looked up to. You don’t like to go against your friends.”
Williams has a policy of not scheduling his buddies or former assistants unless they request a game to help their programs.
Tulsa will return to Allen Fieldhouse next year; the Jayhawks visiting UT in the 2002-03 season in a two-for-one deal.
“Buzz is like a little brother or son,” Williams said. “He is a special young man. He’s as good as you can get. He did a great job at Appalachian State (79-39 in four years). He’ll do a heck of a job at Tulsa. In saying it, there’s a lot of pressure on him. They won 30, 32 games last year and made the final eight.”
Self led UT to a 32-5 record and Elite Eight berth. The Golden Hurricane lost to North Carolina, 59-55, in Austin, Texas, falling four points shy of the Final Four.
Interestingly, Tulsa played UNC this season, dropping a 91-81 decision in Chapel Hill.
Peterson’s former teammate, ex-KU assistant Doherty, is first year coach at UNC.
“It was a weird feeling,” Peterson said. “You are there coaching in the Smith Center, you expect to see coach Smith or (Bill) Guthridge to be down there. You look and there’s one of your old teammates.
“I’m happy for him. He will do a terrific job there. Nobody will outwork Matt. He is a very hard worker.”