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Pat Williams -
Biography
When
you introduce a speaker as well known as Pat Williams, one of America's
best known sports executives, you feel like a bellboy at a honeymoon
resort. No matter how well you do your job, people can't wait for you
to leave. I can't begin to list all of Pat's accomplishments, but for
you purists who want the full story, check out his nine column-inches
in Who's Who. Yes, this man has done so much that it's hard to exaggerate
his achievements, but I'll do my best!
- Pat Williams
was raised in Wilmington, Delaware, earned his bachelors degree at
Wake Forest University, and his master's degree at Indiana University.
He has a doctorate in Humane Letters from Flagler University and is
currently working on a doctorate in sports administration from Walden
University. He is a member of the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame
after catching for the Deacons baseball team, including the 1962 Atlantic
Coast Conference Championship team.
- He served for
seven years in the United States Army.
- He spent seven
years in the Philadelphia Phillies organization, two as a player and
five in the front office and three years in the Minnesota Twins organization.
- Since 1968
he has been affiliated with National Basketball Association teams
in Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, including the 1983 World Champion
76ers, and now the Orlando Magic which he co-founded in 1987 and helped
lead to the NBA finals in 1995. Nineteen of his teams have gone to
the NBA play-offs and five of them have made the NBA finals. In 1996,
Pat was named as one of the 50 most influential people in NBA history
by a national publication. He spearheaded the birth of the Orlando
Miracle, Orlando's entry in the WNBA.
- In his NBA
career he has traded Pete Maravich, traded for Julius Erving, Moses
Malone, Penny Hardaway, and won three NBA Draft lotteries, including
back-to-back winners in 1992 and 1993. He also drafted Charles Barkley
and Shaquille O'Neal, and he signed Billy Cunningham, Chuck Daly,
Matt Guokas and Carolyn Peck to their first professional coaching
contracts.
- Pat, a disciple
of the late Bill Veeck, is considered to be one of pro sports' most
zany and flamboyant promoters.
- Pat and his
wife Ruth, are the parents of 19 children, including 14 adopted from
four nations, ranging in age from 13 to 27. Sixteen of the children
are currently teenagers. Two of his sons are in the United States
Marine Corps.
- Pat and his family
have been featured in Sports Illustrated, Readers Digest, Good Housekeeping,
The Wall Street Journal, Focus on the Family, New Man Magazine, plus
all of the major television networks, The Maury Povich Show and Dr.
Robert Schuller's Hour of Power.
- He teaches an
adult Sunday school class at First Baptist Church of Orlando and hosts
a weekly radio show.
- In the last
three years he has run eleven Marathons, including the Boston Marathon
four times and also climbed Mt. Rainier.
- He is a weight
lifter, Civil War buff, and serious baseball fan. Every winter he
plays in Major League Fantasy Camps and has caught Hall of Famers
Bob Feller, Bob Gibson and Fergie Jenkins.
- Pat is one of
America's top motivational, inspirational, and humorous speakers,
and has addressed employees from most of the Fortune 500 companies.
He also has been a featured speaker at two Billy Graham Crusades in
Chicago and Syracuse.
- Pat is the author
of 42 books, the most recent being Ahead of the Game, his long awaited
autobiography. I am told that this book is a million seller---Pat
has a million of them in his garage, and he sells them to anyone who
wants to help put his kids through college.
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