Huff, a former first-team All-America offensive lineman for the UNC football team, was inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame on Thursday. Roy Williams, a North Carolina native with his own connection to Kansas, was also among those inducted in the 2008 class.

"After being born in Kansas and raised in Southern California, I've always felt North Carolina is my home," Huff said. "I truly enjoyed my time here in college, moved back here in '93 and always had great feelings for the state. To receive this consideration from the state is humbling."

Huff lives in Chapel Hill and is a custom-home builder. His company is called Ken Huff Builders. He enjoys being near the university and the football program.

"It keeps you young," Huff said of living in Chapel Hill. "It's a great campus. It's fun to be down there. It keeps you motivated. It keeps me feeling fresh. I've always said I would go to a college game hands-down compared to a pro game.

"To be here at North Carolina and see the enthusiasm, the excitement of the crowd, game days in Chapel Hill are just exciting. It is really good to see. Last year you saw more of the enthusiasm coming back. It's good to see that happening again."

This has been an incredible year for Williams.

He was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in September 2007. He was an inaugural inductee into the Roberson High School Hall of Fame in January, and now he is a member of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.

For Williams, this honor was all about home as well.

"I grew up in North Carolina," Williams said. "This is my state, my home. I had a wonderful, wonderful run for 15 years at the University of Kansas, but there is something special every time I would get off the plane when I came back or when I would cross the Tennessee border, bringing my children back to school in the state of North Carolina. (His two children graduated from UNC.)

"Earlier this year I was inducted into the national Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame," Williams said. "This year I was inducted into my high school hall of fame, the first class ever in 43 years at Roberson High School. These things closer to home mean a great deal to me, and it will always be that way."

Huff and Williams are two icons of UNC athletics. Huff is one of the finest football players ever at the school, and Williams ranks among the best college basketball coaches in the history of the game.

Huff played on an 11-1 ACC championship team. He won the Jacobs Trophy as the league's top lineman. He graduated with a degree in psychology and was selected as the third overall pick in the 1975 National Football League draft by the Baltimore Colts. He played eight seasons with former UNC running back Don McCauley at Baltimore, and then moved to Washington and joined the Redskins.

"Every year in the draft, I go into mourning," Huff said, laughing. "The salaries these guys get today. I wouldn't be building houses now if I had played about 10 years later."

He played in a Super Bowl for the Redskins and retired in 1986 after 11 seasons as a pro. But that doesn't diminish his memories of UNC.

"The 11-1 season was a phenomenal," Huff said. "I was still new to the big-time college scene. I was just living the dream. My senior year we beat Duke at home, which is always good. We beat Pittsburgh with (eventual Heisman Trophy winner) Tony Dorsett. Those were two highlights I will always remember."

For Williams, who was raised near Asheville in meager surroundings by a hard-working, single mom, his life has exceeded anything he allowed himself to dream. He certainly worked for it. He scratched out a living early in his career as an assistant coach on the end of Dean Smith's bench at UNC by delivering calendars and tapes of the football and basketball head coaches' television shows around the state.

"I can't put it into words because I can't imagine it," Williams said. "I had no fantasy dreams like this growing up. I dreamed about hitting a big shot to win a game. But I didn't have these kinds of dreams. I'm about the luckiest person there is. A lot of people say that, but I really believe it.

"If you want to call it the American dream you can do that, but for me, it is even past that. I never dreamed these things would happen."