Reggie Williams never saw Walt Disney World as a kid, making his first trip on April 20, 1993, in his second day on the job as director of sports development.
His Cincinnati Bengals, 0-2 in the Super Bowl, never gave him reason to go.
Thirteen years as an NFL linebacker are now a blur, condensed into one great experience.
He has chosen to forget about Monday mornings, popping his thumb into place, the battered right knee that still awaits reconstruction and the minus-59-degree windchill factor in the 1981 AFC Championship Game.
He played that game bare-armed, showing the four tattoos on his right forearm and incurring minor frost bite after the victory.
Williams believes wholeheartedly in the power of positive thinking, one thing that drew him to Disney.
Sunshine was another.
There was plenty on Monday for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Atlanta Braves at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex, approaching its one-year anniversary on Saturday.
Hideo Nomo vs. John Smoltz.
Temperature in the 70s.
One of eight sellouts in nine preseason games for the Braves, who set a club record in their first spring at Disney with an average attendance of 8,190, third-best in baseball. Lots of happy faces.
Williams, now vice president and charged with flexing Disney’s sports arm into something formidable, watched the game and faces. He wasn’t thinking about the Super Bowl at all.
“The can-do attitude creatively is a very unique commodity in the corporate workplace,” Williams, 43, said. “Very akin to sports in that respect. The opportunity to be successful here at Disney would make never getting that Super Bowl ring an afterthought.”
He has a first-rate facility at his disposal, and its tenants agree.
Braves General Manager John Schuerholz called the diamond portion of the complex a “cathedral for baseball” at first glance.
Another tenant, Amateur Athletic Union President Bobby Dodd, calls it the most outstanding sports facility he has ever set foot in.
Steve Sampson, head coach of the U.S. men’s national soccer team, diverted three weeks of World Cup training to Disney after taking a look at the four multipurpose fields.
“It’s almost as if this fell out of heaven somewhere and landed here,” said Braves manager Bobby Cox, whose team closed its first spring at Disney on Wednesday. “This was probably my best spring ever. It’s like building your dream house. We built our dream baseball stadium.”
Disney’s Wide World of Sports is much like partner ABC’s old television show of the same name in one respect. Like announcer Jim McKay’s opening line, it is also “spanning the globe to bring you a constant variety in sports.”
Year One tenants included the Braves, the Harlem Globetrotters, NFL Experience, the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships and AAU.
The Orlando Magic, Indiana Pacers, U.S. Soccer, both women’s professional basketball leagues and Major League Soccer were part-time visitors.
Events at the complex ranged from team handball to tae kwon do.
Ultimately, Disney officials want the facility to be another drawing card for a diverse deck that includes three major theme parks, three water parks and burgeoning Downtown Disney.
The challenge falls on Williams to tap into the world’s love affair with sports, tweak it with a Disney slant and give the people what they want.
“We’re still working to get it into focus,” Williams said. “It’s a work in progress.
“People are here to be entertained. And because of our sports authenticity, the script changes weekly of what is being offered here. One of our top goals in Year Two is to continue to build bridges into the Central Florida community.”
In Williams, Disney has a foreman as well-rounded and diverse as the complex itself.
He was a city councilman for three years in Cincinnati. He was a psychology major at Dartmouth, where he also studied tai chi and ballet. NFL Youth Education Town, providing academic and tutorial assistance to children in at-risk neighborhoods of the host Super Bowl city, was his idea.
The common thread throughout has been the ongoing challenge.
He was a small player (6-0, 228) in a big man’s sport – not good enough to be a Wolverine, Michigan coach Bo Schembechler told him. At the 1976 Hula Bowl, George Hill, then an assistant coach with Ohio State, told him all Ivy players were worthless.
“I was acutally going to go on with my life, thinking I wasn’t worthy to be a pro football player,” said Williams, a native of Flint, Mich., who was also an Olympic-caliber wrestler and Ivy League champion. “But I had studied metaphysics in college.”
The next time Williams met Hill, one was a second-year pro with the Bengals and the other was defensive coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles.
Williams forced a fumble on the opening kickoff, ran to the Eagles’ sideline and yelled, “I’m not through!” He forced another fumble in the game, a victory for Cincinnati, and relished his running dialogue with Hill.
What does that have to do with metaphysics?
It goes back to Williams’ yin-yang tattoo, the first of four and a remnant of his tai chi studies. You get back what you put forth.
His other three tattoos are the Superman symbol, the crescendo forte as depicted on a staff of music and some Chinese calligraphy.
The meanings: answering the call of duty for kids, keeping a rhythm and pursuit of one’s goals and the Chinese symbol for family. Maybe karma brought him to Disney.
“You have to continually, consistently test your limits,” Williams said. “Learn from failure, learn equally from success. And I have had healthy dosages of both.”
