Roy Williams 2022 COLLEGE FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME CLASS

ROY WILLIAMS

By Matt Fortuna

The question to Roy Williams was simple: What was your favorite memory while at Oklahoma?

Williams knows what you think his answer will be.

“You’re thinking I’m going to say the ‘Superman’ play,” Williams said of his iconic hit in the Red River Rivalry. “But I’m not that guy to boast or brag. I’d say the times I can’t get back are the greatest times I had on the field, being able to suit up in the crimson and cream.”

His off the field memories are even more indelible.

“When we went to bowl games, we’d go back to the children’s hospitals and spend time with those kids,” he said. “Being in the locker room and hanging with my teammates, goofing around and having a good time — that camaraderie is something I miss, too. But being able as a team to go to the children’s hospitals was a highlight.”

Williams is the newest member of Oklahoma’s storied football program to make the College Football Hall of Fame, as the Sooners now have 23 former players enshrined among the game’s greats.

Williams is also not your typical Hall of Famer, on or off the field.

He signed with coach John Blake’s staff, underwent the transition to Hall of Fame coach Bob Stoops (Class of 2021) and, by year three of his college career, was able to call himself a national champion.

“We went 13-0, but it wasn’t love at first sight. I’ll tell you that,” he said with a laugh. “We were a work in progress, and the new staff brought the best out of us. And dare I say it: We challenged them to be better coaches as well.”

As a redshirt sophomore during that national title season, Williams earned First Team All-Big 12 honors while leading a defense that shut down Florida State in a 13-2 triumph in the Orange Bowl, which was the BCS national title game that season.

Williams turned in an even better campaign in 2001, earning unanimous First Team All-America honors while winning the Nagurski Trophy as the nation’s top defensive player and the Thorpe Award as the nation’s top defensive back. He was named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and finished seventh in the Heisman Trophy voting as well.

His stat line in 2001 was otherworldly: 107 tackles, 14 tackles for loss, five interceptions, 22 pass breakups and three fumble recoveries. But even those numbers fail to capture the spirit with which he played. That was never more evident than when he leaped horizontally over a blocker in Oklahoma’s 2001 meeting with Texas, a play that resulted in a touchdown by teammate Teddy Lehman in a 14-3 Sooners win.

While at James Logan High in Union City, California, Williams was asked by his yearbook where he saw himself in five years. He answered by saying he’d be playing for the Cowboys. Sure enough, Dallas drafted him No. 8 overall in 2002.

Upon his retirement, Williams asked former Cowboys teammate and fellow College Football Hall of Fame inductee Eddie George (Class of 2011) why so many former players ended up back in their college towns. George, an Ohio State alum, had opened a restaurant in Columbus, which inspired Williams to return to the Norman area.

Williams did some media work before starting his own security company, Global Security Corporation, which is now 10 years old.

“Less than two percent of all college football players are going to have a chance to make an opening day roster, so 98 percent of them are not going to be able to play in the NFL,” said current Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables, who was Williams’ co-defensive coordinator when Williams played for the Sooners. “At a place like Oklahoma, that percentage is going to be a little better. But still, you will have a long life without the game of football.”

Williams has been living proof of how to maximize that life, both on and off the gridiron.