SJ Sports: Inside Haddon Sports

Panther Pride
It’s a long way frok Collings Avenue to College Park. When Collingswood’s Gary Williams was growing up, he was known for his fierce intensity on the playing field. It did not matter if the game was basketball, baseball or softball or marbles for that matter. Williams wanted to win.

Williams has traveled a long way from Collings Avenue to College Park, Maryland. The self-proclaimed gym rat-turned-coach guided his Maryland to team to the pinnacle of college basketball last season, the national championship.

One might think that the speaking engagements, the camps, the book deal might make a guy become a little full of himself. Perhaps even forget from where he came.

Not Gary Williams, despite a 3:15 practice in College Park and a 9:30 departing flight, the coach of the year last season showed up at the 99th Annual Philadelphia Sportwriters Banquet in Cherry Hill’s Hilton Hotel. Williams didn’t just show up. He thanked all of his Collingswood connection of loyal friends and fans and paid tribute to the hard work of his players.

Some people just get it. Gary Williams remembers his roots. He knows how many people helped him get to where he is today. He’s a South Jersey guy and a Collingswood Panther and proud to say it.

There were a lot of people who knocked Gary Williams for not winning the big one. The 900 sports fans at that banquet found out when they heard him speak what many friends already knew: Gary Williams, with a 481-271 collegiate coaching record prior to the season, was a winner long before he captured the National Championship.

Hall Of Famers
The Collingswood Hall of Fame held their 13th Annual awards dinner at the Hilton Hotel in Cherry Hill on Saturday, March 29th. The Collingswood Athletic Hall of Fame currently awards $39,000 per year to deserving student athletes.

The 2003 inductees were: Bob Wilkins 1924, Charles “Chick” Reinert ‘24, Jack Robertson ‘35, Ken Redmer’55, Barry Magee ‘59, Nancy DeChristofor Kirlin ‘76, Leo Bridgeman ‘78, Vic Falls ‘47, Ed McQueston ‘47, Bonnie Bax DiDonato’ 65, Kevin Scarborough ‘69, Karen Stevens ‘80, Ken Kline ‘81, Meritorious Service Bob Hughes, Community Service Ralph Daugherty’39, Lifetime Achievement Award Doris Pike Hand ‘35, Team Award Girls SJ Champs ‘50 Field Hockey.

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Author: SJ Sports Club-J.T. Marcellus