Bio
- Pat Williams
Pat Williams
is the author of 41 books, the most recent being Ahead of
the Game, his long awaited autobiography. This well-known
sports executive is now a premiere professional public speaker.
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 Pat Williams has been affiliated with NBA teams in Chicago,
Atlanta, Philadelphia, including the 1983 World Champion 76ers,
and 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.
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. 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.
Pat is
the author of 41 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.
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.
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