UNC Basketball: Coca-Cola gives Roy Williams custom vending machine

Former UNC basketball coach Roy Williams received a custom vending machine from Coca-Cola.

Former UNC basketball coach and Hall-of-Famer Roy Williams is a daggum soda enthusiast; one that reportedly drank eight to ten Coca-Colas a day for better than three decades. His drinking habit came to an abrupt halt in the early-2000s, however, when a trip to the Mayo Clinic showed that his triglyceride levels were more than triple the healthy level of 150.

"“The next day I stopped drinking Coca-Cola Classic, had a headache for about 30 minutes,” Williams said in 2019. “Tried Diet Coke; didn’t like that at all. Wanda said we ought to try Diet 7-Up or Diet Sprite; we tried Sprite Zero, and I liked it.. Sprite Zero is pretty good. It’s got a little bite to it, so I’m OK.”"

And according to Williams, he’s stuck with his commitment to stay away from popular cola in the nearly 20 years since, though a cup displaying the Coca-Cola Classic logo frequently sat in front of him during press conferences throughout his 18-year stint with the Tar Heels.

On Tuesday, Williams was honored by Coca-Cola with a custom-made vending machine that features a two-speaker radio, a picture of him cutting down the nets following the 2017 NCAA Championship game and the Tar Heels’ famous argyle pattern.

Although Williams’ new soda machine doesn’t dispense Sprite Zero, it does have regular Sprite. It also has his former favorite, Coca-Cola Classic, as well as its diet and zero options, along with Mello Yello and Dasani water.

Williams retired from the game of basketball on April 1 after 48 years in the sport, 33 of which were spent as a head coach. Of those 33 years as a head coach, 18 were spent at the University of North Carolina where he won 485 games, took his teams to five Final Fours and captured three NCAA Tournament titles.

Stick with Keeping It Heel for all the latest on the newly-retired and forever beloved Roy Williams, as well as everything UNC basketball.