Center for HealthCare Governance - Speaker

Pat Williams
Senior Vice President, Orlando Magic

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.  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 is also a member of the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame.



 

  • He served for seven years in the United States Army.

  • He spent seven years in the Philadelphia Phillies organization, two as a minor league catcher 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.  Twenty-three 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. 

  • 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, Shaquille O’Neal, Maurice Cheeks, Andrew Toney and Darryl Dawkins and signed Billy Cunningham, Chuck Daly, and Matt Guokas to their first professional coaching contracts.  Twelve of his former players have become NBA Head Coaches and seventeen have become assistant coaches.

  • Pat, a disciple of the late Bill Veeck, is considered one of pro sports’ most zany and flamboyant promoters. One of Pat’s books, Marketing Your Dreams, is a motivational book about Veeck.  During his 40 years in sports, Pat has worked with and for George Steinbrenner, Lamar Hunt, Ted Turner and Rich DeVos.

  • Pat and his wife Ruth, are the parents of 19 children, including 14 adopted from four nations, ranging in age from 19 to 33.  For one year, 16 of his children were all teenagers at the same time.  Two of his sons have served in the United States Marine Corps, another son is the manager of the Washington Nationals Single A Team, and a daughter formerly worked for the Tampa Bay Lightning of the NHL.

  • Pat and his family have been featured in Sports Illustrated, Readers Digest, Good Housekeeping, Family Circle, 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 helps teach an adult Sunday school class at First Baptist Church of Orlando and hosts a weekly sports radio show.

  • In the last six years he has completed thirty three marathons, including the Boston Marathon ten 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, Fergie Jenkins, Rollie Fingers, Gaylord Perry, Phil Niekro and Tom Seaver.

  • Pat is one of America’s top motivational, inspirational, and humorous speakers, and has addressed employees from most of the Fortune 500 companies and the Million Dollar Round Table.  He also has been a featured speaker at two Billy Graham Crusades and two Peter Lowe Success Seminars.  He has also spoken on many university campuses.

  • Pat is the author of 38 books, the most recent being Coaching Your Kids to Be Leaders.and How to Be Like Jackie Robinson.

Presentation/Facilitation Topics

  • Leadership
  • Teamwork
  • Motivation
  • Ethics
  • Values
  • Management
  • Sales/Success
  • Parenting
  • Marketing
  • Basketball
  • Goal Setting
  • Coaching/Mentoring

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