Coach Roy Williams Book Signing December 14, 2009

One of the most respected and successful basketball coaches in the nation, Coach Roy Williams traveled an unlikely path to a career that boasts the highest winning percentage among all active college coaches. Now, for the first time, he tells the story of his life, from his turbulent childhood to the North Carolina Tar Heels’ 2009 national championship season.

With unbridled honesty, Williams recounts his rough early years in the mountains of Western North Carolina. During the troubled times of his adolescence, Roy’s escape was a basketball court—whether it was a neighbor's dirt court or the local school gym where he’d shoot for hours at night. There was nowhere else to go, but as it turned out, no place he’d rather be. The first in his family to go to college, Williams wound up at the University of North Carolina with the dream of becoming a coach and learning under the celebrated Dean Smith.
He also recalls his long tenure as head coach at the University of Kansas and his two heart-wrenching decisions—to stay in Kansas at the program he built, and later, to return to UNC, to the one that built him—and the accusations that followed both.

Williams' autobiography lays plain how he recruits, teaches, and motivates his players, and how he’s
shepherded teams through some of the most nail-biting games at both Kansas and UNC. His approach
helped earn him the third-highest winning percentage in NCAA history: better than Mike Krzyzewski, Bobby
Knight, and even John Wooden. So far, the Hall of Famer has coached in seven Final Fours, winning two
NCAA championships in the last five seasons.

In Hard Work, Williams reveals the determination that took him from the humblest of beginnings to the pinnacle of coaching success, sharing his story because he believes that anyone can be inspired by its message: hard work really can make dreams come true.
In Hard Work, Williams reveals the determination that took him from the humblest of beginnings to the pinnacle of coaching success, sharing his story because he believes that anyone can be inspired by its message: hard work really can make dreams come true.

Currently the head coach of the UNC Tar Heels Men’s Basketball team, Roy Williams has won two NCAA Championships with the Tar Heels and brought his teams (both UNC and Kansas) to seven Final Fours. Inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2007, he ranks first in the country in winning percentages among active coaches. Born in Asheville, North Carolina, he rose from Assistant Coach at UNC to Head Coach at Kansas, where he coached the Jayhawks for fifteen years before returning to North Carolina in 2004. During his career, he has coached nineteen first-round NBA draft picks, four National Players of the Year, thirteen first-team All-Americas, and seven conference Players of the Year.