Before UNC basketball’s 1982 NCAA Tournament run that concluded with a national championship, assistant coach [autotag]Roy Williams[/autotag] ate a Snickers bar before every game. It brought UNC good luck as they went through the tournament and eventually beat Georgetown thanks to a game-winning bucket by Michael Jordan.
Williams ate a Snickers bar before every game and the one home game he didn’t, UNC lost bad that season. Before the 1982 title game, Williams couldn’t find a Snickers bar in the arena and left to go to a convenience store to find one but almost missed tip off as he recalls via Sporting News:
“In the New Orleans Superdome in 1982, they had no candy in the arena … none,” Williams said, his voice rising four decades later at the very thought.
Assessing the situation — find a Snickers bar or risk losing the national championship because of him — Williams made his way to an exit, cleared it with security at the door to leave and come back then headed to a nearby convenience story for the Snickers.
Plot twist No. 2 for dramatic effect: “The (security) guy had left the door, the other guy wasn’t going to let me in,” Williams recalled. “I said, ‘I’ll be damned, this is the national championship game and somebody’s going to let my butt in.’ I’m standing there, I’m pleading, I’m down on my knees, I’m offering him money. … I said, ‘Get a program. I’m in the program.’ Finally, the supervisor came in and let me in.
“I was one supervisor away from not even being able to get into the dadgum arena,” Williams said, chuckling at the thought that one supervisor — OK, one supervisor and one Snickers bar — almost prevented a date with destiny.
Now the candy bar company is paying homage to Williams 40 years later with the Tar Heels in the Final Four.
Snickers sent more than 400 candy bars to the UNC hotel in New Orleans, hoping to inspire the team to a title run again this year:
In 1982, UNC assistant coach Roy Williams ate a Snickers before each win on the way to the Tar Heels title.
So @SNICKERS sent more than 400 snickers bars to the UNC hotel in New Orleans this year, hoping to inspire the same result as the UNC team 40 years ago.
Letter to team: pic.twitter.com/2ByolDS6yz
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) March 31, 2022
With Williams in attendance, Snickers bars and the rivalry, there’s a lot at stake here on Saturday.
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