Pete Williams, one of the best rebounders in the Lute Olson era, has another memento to hang on his wall of his former coach, sent by the Arizona athletic department last week.
Williams posted on social media Monday that he received a glass-framed autographed photo by Olson of the statue outside of McKale Center.
“A UPS package, sent from the UofA Athletics Department arrived at the house this past Saturday. I figured it would be another ‘undersized’ t-shirt that I wouldn’t be able to wear,” Williams wrote. “Imagine my surprise and joy when I pulled this beauty out of the box…a glass framed, autographed photo of the Lute Olson Statue! Man, I was waaaay off on this one!”
Williams thanked Erika Barnes (Arizona’s Executive Senior Associate Director of Athletics), Chrissy Alexander (Arizona’s Senior Account Executive) and Phoebe Chalk-Wadsworth (Senior Director of Development with the Eller College of Management who is a former athletics department administrator).
Williams was not only one of Olson’s standouts who helped establish the program as one of the Hall of Fame coach’s first recruits at Arizona in 1983, he contributed to the statue fund. The statue located north of the Jim Click Hall of Champions on the Eddie Lynch Athletics Pavilion Plaza, had an estimated cost of about $300,000.
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon.
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