Max Williams

[MrMustang1965]

Former SMU bball standout Max Williams is mentioned in a piece on WFAA-TV about the west Texas real estate boom. Here's an excerpt:

A few years ago, Max and Carolyn Williams of Dallas bought a house on part of T. Boone Pickens' former ranch in Guthrie, population 160.

It's more than a country retreat for Mr. Williams, a former Southern Methodist University basketball star who spent part of his childhood in Guthrie, about halfway between Dallas and Amarillo, and in Avoca, northeast of Abilene.

Mr. Williams wants to help local kids. He offers a scholarship to every Guthrie senior to help pay for higher education, from trade schools all the way up to a four-year university.

"My life has changed from going to college," he said. "I've thought a lot about where I'd be without an education."

Brothers Zane and Jeff Daniel are among Mr. Williams' latest scholars.

Both want to remain in Guthrie. Their family owns four acres and leases another 10 acres, and the boys have seen an already small community become smaller as neighbors sell to absentee hunters.

Rising land prices are a concern, they said. But they are reconciled to the difficulties of rural life.

Zane Daniel is using the Williams scholarship to study agricultural finance – "how to manage my money," he says – to give him an advantage previous generations didn't have.

"You have to have a job in town and run cattle on the side," said Zane, who will begin his junior year at West Texas A&M University in Canyon in the fall.

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/b ... 42860.html

[OldPony]

Max Williams is a winner in every way. I'm guessing the acorn didn't fall far from the tree.