Famed basketball coach Roy Williams pays tribute to Budig

A Hall of Famer with three national championships and a familiar face at the Final Four, it would seem Roy Williams was destined for big things in basketball.

The way the North Carolina coach tells it, a lot of credit goes to a future baseball leader who really went to bat for him.

Williams paid tribute Wednesday to Gene Budig, a day after the former American League president and head of three major universities died at 81.

“He was the guy that gave Roy Williams a chance,” Williams told The Associated Press. “He made it OK for the athletic director to hire this no-name assistant coach from North Carolina as the head basketball coach at the University of Kansas.”

“Every day I understand if he hadn’t been tough enough and comfortable enough, Roy Williams may never have gotten a start to be a head coach in college basketball,” he said.

A chancellor at Kansas and president at West Virginia and Illinois State, Budig became the AL president in 1994.

Williams recalled visiting Budig at his residence at Kansas and telling the coach he was on the verge of being hired as either the AL or National League president.

“I thought he was crazy,” Williams said, laughing.

Williams remembered joining Budig to throw out the first balls before a home game for the Charleston RiverDogs, a Yankees affiliate in the Class A South Atlantic League. Budig became a part-owner of the team when he moved to South Carolina in 2007.

“He was a baseball guy deep down,” Williams said.

Williams and Budig were among a group that included many present and former college and high school coaches in basketball and football who regularly met for breakfast in the Charleston area.

“Chancellor Budig, I still call him chancellor. I never called him Gene a single time in my entire life. It...