Remember When an OSU Basketball Player Got Picked in the NFL Draft?

As I was doing research for my piece on Monday about which Oklahoma State players have been drafted to the NFL, I stumbled across an interesting name in the archives.

Corey Williams.

Wait a second. I know a Corey Williams who played basketball for Eddie Sutton in the early 1990s. Was there another Corey Williams who played football as well? Or was this a reverse R.W. McQuarters situation where the Corey Williams I knew about played basketball in the winter and spring and moonlight as a safety for Pat Jones in the fall?

As it turns out … neither.

Here’s a 1992 article from Berry Tramel.

Corey Williams was asleep when the Kansas City Chiefs called, but Chief coach Marty Schottenheimer wasn’t asleep when he received a tip from a most unlikely source.

Schottenheimer used his 12th-round pick in the National Football League draft Monday on Oklahoma State’s Williams, the longest of long shots – a basketball player who last donned shoulder pads in ninth grade.

Schottenheimer and Chief president Carl Peterson recently ran into CBS basketball analyst Billy Packer. “He said, ‘What about Corey Williams at Oklahoma State? This is the fastest player I have ever seen on a basketball court,'” Schottenheimer recalled.

“Carl and I got back and talked to (Kansas coach) Roy Williams.

He reiterated the guy had tremendous foot speed. We talked with (OSU basketball coach) Eddie Sutton, and Eddie said he’s the fastest player he’s ever seen from baseline to baseline.” And so Williams was drafted in a sport he hasn’t played in more than seven years. [Oklahoman]

Wait … what?!

The Chiefs drafted a basketball player who hadn’t played football since his freshman year of high school because Eddie Sutton and Roy Williams said he was fast? You know your league’s draft is too long when …

It’s also a testament to Williams, who was an All-Big Eight player in 1992 and made the All-Defensive team in 1991 and 1992.

“I’m still shocked,” said Williams, who concluded his OSU basketball career in March. “I’ve had some things happen in my life, but this takes the cake. ” Williams was sleeping a little after 3 p.m. when the phone rang.

“I told my brother to tell ’em I’m not here,” he related. “I didn’t know it was the NFL. ” Ironically, Williams was the lone Cowboy selected – none of the players off OSU’s 0-10-1 football team were taken in the 12 rounds of the draft. [Oklahoman]

It turns out that Williams — who contemplated returning to OSU for a year to play football for Jones later in 1992 — also got drafted in the NBA Draft by the Bulls. He played for Chicago in 1992-93 and won a title that year.

Williams spent one more year in the NBA before heading into coaching. First with Oklahoma State, then ORU, Florida State, Stetson (where he was a head coach) and now with Arkansas back as an assistant.

After the Chiefs won the Super Bowl this year, he tweeted this (which is hilarious).

Congrats to my former team!! What a blessing to be drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs. NFL Champs!!!! pic.twitter.com/mKRH4SM7Id

— Corey Williams (@CoachWilliams12) February 3, 2020

As for how the Chiefs thing came about, here’s what Williams told SB Nation four years ago.

“Marty Schottenheimer was a Kansas Jayhawk basketball fan,” said Williams. “One of the games he watched was Oklahoma State against Kansas. Somehow, my name had come up and he came to watch me in college, and it evolved from there. They knew I was pretty quick from what they could see. I weighed about 185 pounds. One thing they did not know at that particular time was how fast I was. Once I got to Kansas City, they clocked me at 4.28 in the 40-yard dash.”

?

“You know what, if they had offered me a contract, I probably would have accepted just because I was in a position to just wait and see where I would be drafted in the NBA, so they were worried that I would go play in the NBA. Little did they know that if they had offered me a contract, my whole professional career could have been totally different.”

What a world. Charlie Ward before Charlie Ward, and yet another Oklahoma State historical tidbit I was unaware of prior to this quarantine.