Impact Of A Scholarship: Walt Williams

Walt Williams grew up a fan of the Hoyas, while his dad was a fan of the Tar Heels. Both basketball programs dominated their competition in the 1980s. 

North Carolina and Georgetown produced must-watch basketball, boasting stars like Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing. So when North Carolina came to town to face Maryland, Walt Williams Sr. brought his son to Cole Field House for the matchup. The Tar Heels had their fair share of stars, but one player stood out the most to Williams Jr. That man was none other than Len Bias. 

He was in awe when Bias rose for a jump shot early in the game.  

“Man, it was the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen,” Williams recalled. 

Williams, a Temple Hills, Md. native, gravitated towards Bias’ game afterward. He’d go home after school and watch his Maryland highlights. He’d watch the former Maryland legend on “The George Michael Sports Machine” television program, jumping out of the gym while making defenders look silly with his smooth and silky jump shot. 

“I couldn't wait to see his highlights because he had the prettiest game ever,” Williams said. “And then when he would get interviewed, he had this humble spirit about him, but there was so much swag underneath that. He was just it for me.”

Walt Williams joins former Terp Travis Garrison on The Field of 68 to talk about Len Bias

Williams quickly became a Maryland fan and incorporated as many characteristics of Bias’s game into his as possible. Williams and his friends always pretend to be Bias when playing pickup at the park. 

Up until high school, Williams had never played organized basketball. He learned the game by shooting into trash cans up against his house or making a hoop out of iron hangers to shoot socks through. 

When his freshman year at Crossland High School arrived, he stood just 5-foot-9 and was the junior varsity team’s waterboy. 

Once his sophomore year started, he had grown 10 inches. Crossland, led by Williams, lost just six games from his sophomore to senior year. Three of those losses came to out-of-town teams, so Crossland lost three games in as many years to teams located in the DMV. 

When it came time to decide on his future, Williams ranked North Carolina, Villanova, Temple and Maryland as his top four teams. He visited all four schools, but it was an easy decision for the hometown kid. 

“I just couldn't imagine leaving home at that point in my life,” Williams said. “I wanted to play in front of my family and friends. I did not want to leave my mom. I wanted to stay around her and be around her. The logical thing for me was to choose Maryland, but I did go through the process of visiting other schools. But in my mind, it was always Maryland.”

When Williams arrived in College Park in 1988, his freshman season was one to forget. Maryland finished 9-20. Then head coach Bob Wade was fired, and the program received a two-year postseason ban for violations under Wade’s three-year tenure. Maryland’s games weren’t even allowed to be televised. 

Williams could’ve left the program if he wanted. He could’ve transferred or even gone pro. He could’ve joined Dean Smith’s Tar Heels and played for the team his dad loved growing up or even played for John Thompson and Georgetown, the team he loved growing up. 

But the Maryland kid stayed loyal to the program. In 1989, the Terps hired Gary Williams, and Maryland’s program returned to stardom. 

“I've been raised to be loyal,” Williams said. “When we had tough times at the University of Maryland when I could have left, I couldn't imagine leaving my teammates, the people, the fans and my fellow students. I couldn’t imagine leaving them behind and moving on. It was just like a family environment, [a] family atmosphere. It was one of the greatest times of my life.”

His senior year with the Terps was by far his best. He broke season records with 776 points and a 26.8 average, recorded a nation’s best seven-game streak of 30 or more points and was finalist for the Wooden and Naismith Player of the Year. He closed his career as the school’s 11th all-time scorer with 1,704 points. 

“The Wizard” was Williams’ nickname given to him by assistant coach Ralph Lee during his freshman year. He’d watch Williams handle the ball like a guard, throwing trick passes like a wizard. The nickname caught on and continued throughout his four-year Maryland career. 

One of the main reasons Williams was so successful at Maryland was his state championship loss during his senior year at Crossland. It was the Cavaliers’ only loss that season, finishing 26-1. 

The loss was ingrained in Williams’s mind. He was a quiet kid in high school but knew he was the most talented player on the court. Yet, he wasn’t vocal and wasn’t the alpha male he would soon become.  

During his sophomore season as a Terp, he promised he would no longer have a passive mentality. 

“The way you saw me play from my sophomore year on was the stirring up of internally within me the disappointment, the anger, the get back for my high school career that I thought should have been better,” Williams said. “And so when I had that opportunity to be a very impactful player, I took the bull by the horns and was very aggressive.”

Williams is often praised for reviving the Maryland basketball program. His collegiate career allowed him to hear his name called in the first round of the 1992 NBA Draft when the Sacramento Kings selected him with the seventh overall pick. 

He played for six teams in the NBA for 11 seasons and averaged 11.8 points per game. He also had a stellar rookie season, averaging 17 points per game, and was named to the All-NBA Rookie Second Team. 

In 1993, a year after Williams was drafted, the forward wanted to find a way to give back to the University of Maryland. So, he gave the university $125,000 to create a minority scholarship in his late father's name. 

According to Williams, the scholarship is designed for a worthy and qualified young minority, particularly African American students, giving them a chance for higher education when they may not have had one.

“I know it would have been next to impossible for me to attend college without a scholarship,” Williams said. “So I wanted to give opportunities to kids like me who otherwise would struggle to attend college. I wanted to put in my father's name. I thought that would be a great idea, a great way to honor the man who inspired me more than anyone else. So, I thought the combination of that would be great.”

Along with the scholarship, Williams owns Clutch Spirits, a vodka brand. For every bottle of vodka sold, a percentage goes to the One Maryland Collective, the NIL collective that serves student-athletes at the University of Maryland. This allows Maryland athletes in all sports to profit in this new age of college athletics. 

Williams was selected to the university’s Foundation Board of Trustees in June. He volunteers to serve while advocating and advising the university. 

The Wizard has always been about giving back. His mom didn’t care much for sports and wanted Williams to receive an education. That was valuable to him. Williams’ mom was a vital reason for him staying as a Terp. She raised him to be loyal. He couldn’t take the feeling of leaving behind his teammates, classmates or fans. He developed hundreds of relationships both on the court and on campus. There’s no place Williams saw himself being other than in College Park. 

“I want to be a beacon of aspiration and give a vote of confidence that you can do it kind of spirit,” he said. “[College], it was just so much fun, and I thought that I would do what I can to help others experience those types of times as well.”

Williams has three sons who were major Maryland fans but didn’t attend. However, his nephew, Brayden Martin, is a sophomore on the baseball team. Although Williams wasn’t the biggest baseball fan, he said the game is growing on him, and it's “fantastic” they can connect both being student-athletes at Maryland. 

The Wizard can often be found on campus assisting Maryland Sports Radio Network broadcasts. His jersey is hanging in the XFINITY Center, and he was honored while he was still playing. 

Williams played his college games in Cole Field House and said it was a great environment to play in despite it being inadequately lit and hot and having fans stand on the top row because they didn’t have enough seats. It differs from XFINITY Center, which boasts a new video board and sound system. But there’s one feeling that will always be familiar to Williams. 

“When the team runs out, the music starts to play and the crowd starts to scream and get into it,” Williams said. “That part was just the greatest feeling in the world to run out to those cheers. That always sticks in my mind and will always be a fond memory of my college days.”