Former local player’s new film explains ‘Who is Boo’
Connecticut women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma said it best when the Naismith Hall of Fame coach was talking about legendary AAU basketball figure Boo Williams.
“Anywhere you go around the country and you say, ‘Boo,’ they know exactly who you’re talking about,” he said. “And it’s not Casper the Ghost.”
Former North Carolina coach and Hall of Famer Roy Williams said this about Williams: “There’s a lot of guys that tried to be Boo,” he said. “But there’s only one Boo.”
Both clips are part of a new film on Williams entitled, “Who is Boo? The Legend Behind the Name.”
It was 40 years ago that Williams, on a $400 investment, founded the Boo Williams Summer League in Hampton Roads.
Since then, Williams has coached and mentored thousands of male and female athletes. He also helped fund and build the Boo Williams Sportsplex, which is a multi-purpose, eight-court, sports facility in Hampton that hosts basketball throughout the year.
And in 2013, Williams received the Mannie Jackson Basketball’s Human Spirit Award at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Enshrinement Ceremony for his grassroots work.
Daryl Towe, once one of Williams’ players, felt it was important to honor the man who has touched so many lives.
“I’m just a hometown guy telling the story about the biggest immortal from my area,” said Towe, who starred at Princess Anne High in Virginia Beach and Norfolk State. “I’m just proud to be telling his story, and doing it the right way. I want to give him his flowers while he can still smell them.”
Towe, who isn’t a professional filmmaker, always felt that Williams was impactful.
“I knew he was powerful. And I knew there was a story there,” he said.
After getting Williams’ blessing a year and a half ago, he went to work.
And on March 23 at 7:57 p.m. — 757, as in the Hampton Roads area code — he released the 3-minute, 43-second trailer.
It wasn’t nearly long enough, but it achieved its purpose — to leave you wanting more.
The trailer included a “who’s who” in basketball, including Roy Williams, Auriemma,
Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim, Kentucky’s John Calipari, former NBA great Alonzo Mourning, current NBA star Bam Adebayo and many, many others.
“I didn’t know just how connected he is. I didn’t know just how powerful he is,” said Towe, who interviewed 85 people for the film. “I think that’s what people are going to get out of it. And he does it from a heart of gold.”
Even Williams was impressed by the star-studded cast Towe was able to assemble.
“The people he got on the trailer, you’re talking about Sonny Vaccaro and Howard White,” Williams said about Vaccaro, a former sports marketing executive for Nike, Adidas and Reebok, and White, the former Kecoughtan High star who became Vice President of Jordan Brand for Nike. “Yeah, I was surprised. There were four or five Hall of Famers on there, too.”
Towe had thought about this idea for a film five years ago, but it was only a year and half ago that he approached Williams with the idea.
“It brings tears to my eyes to be telling his story; to know that I was the elected one he said yes to,” he said. “That’s why I don’t take it lightly. It had to be done right. It had to be done with excellence. And it had to be different.”
Williams was honored that Towe wanted to do a film on him.
“He told me what the idea was; I felt like it was a good idea,” he said. “I felt like he could do a good job with it.”
After seeing the trailer, Williams was pleased.
“He has done a great job working on the video,” Williams said. “He did a great job in showing that it’s a bigger game than just basketball. I really liked it. I think it told a story. I think it tells my story. And they did it the right way.”
Unfortunately, no one — not even Williams — will get to see the entire film right now.
“They won’t be able to see the whole thing until it’s picked up by a network,” Towe said. “Prayerfully, that’s sooner than later.”
He does plan to show a private screening Aug. 26 and 27.
“But other than that, it’s literally when it gets picked up,” he said. “From now until it gets picked up, I’m just going to be shopping it in the hopes and the prayers that it will get picked
up, which I’m very confident it will.”
If the documentary is anything like the trailer, then it will be worth the wait.
“It’s so many ways I can go with it,” Towe said. “Boo is an
innovator and always thinking out of the box. He and I are very similar. So when we came together, we had to be innovative. We had to be different. There’s so many components to it, which is going to make it like
the best basketball documentary ever filmed. I totally believe that.”