Gary Williams had already coached his final game, held a retirement news conference and cleaned out his office, but the legendary Maryland coach still had one final public goodbye left in him.
At the urging of hundreds of students and Maryland president Wallace Loh, Williams agreed to be one of the university's commencement speakers on Thursday.
Williams delivered a brief four-minute speech, emphasizing to graduates to find a career that they love, to work hard to get better and to take advantage of every opportunity to succeed. After pausing to choke back tears near the end of his speech, Williams finished with a flourish, telling graduates he was happy to leave Maryland with them.
"Our three graduating seniors, they told me this was a great graduating class, so I thought I'd go out with you guys," Williams said. Then he punctuated the speech by shouting "Beat Duke!" and pumping his fist to thunderous applause.
Prior to Williams' abrupt retirement earlier this month, he had not been scheduled to speak at Maryland's commencement. He agreed to only after students launched a facebook campaign called "Gary Williams for Graduation" and sent dozens of emails to student government leaders urging them to ask Williams to speak.
"I'm just excited to hear him speak," senior Adam Hammer, one of the Facebook group's founding members, told the Maryland Diamondback earlier this week. "I don't know what he's gonna say ... but it's pretty much the last time he'll be speaking in front of the university like this. ... It means a lot because I think the majority of the student body is pretty excited, and it adds to the anticipation of graduation and adds interest to the ceremony itself."
Christina Milian Kelly Brook Robin Tunney Kate Groombridge Dania Ramirez
No comments:
Post a Comment