Williams hurt after stumble in his office

Content originally published by FayObserver.com on 12 January 2008.

North Carolina coach Roy Williams arrived at practice Friday afternoon at the Smith Center wearing a USA Basketball cap. It wasn’t a sign of patriotism as much as a disguise for some earlier clumsiness.

Around 1:45 p.m. Friday in his upstairs office, Williams tripped over a cord, stumbled into a door and split the top of his head open. The blunder required immediate medical attention and forced the Carolina coach to cancel his 2 p.m. weekly press conference.

Williams received five stitches to close the cut and was wearing the ballcap to hide the blood.

“He was trying to claim that he needed 36 stitches,” UNC sports information director Steve Kirschner joked.

Williams was somewhat embarrassed but otherwise unfazed by his stumble when practice began at 3:30 p.m. He insisted he will not be wearing the ballcap on the sideline today when No. 1 UNC faces rival N.C. State at the Smith Center.

The Tar Heels coach said he suffered the fall trying to climb over a table and a pile of 26 basketballs waiting to be autographed. He caught his foot on a cord to his VCR remote and went head-long into the corner of the door.

“The office is too small for all that daggum memorabilia,” Williams said.

He also acknowledged that the technology in his office is somewhat dated.

“The VCR is the same one Coach (Dean) Smith used,” Williams said. “The table and chairs are the same ones Coach Smith used.”

According to Kirschner, the fall had nothing to do with Williams’ vertigo or any other illness but was simply a moment of inelegance.

“I’ve done a lot of press conferences in 19 years here,” Kirschner said. “But this is the first one I’ve had to cancel because a coach wiped out.”