The following story was written by Weber State Media Relations Director Paul Grua for an upcoming book commemorating 50 years of Weber State men's basketball. The book will be available later this fall through Weber State's Wildcat Club. Willie Sojourner ranks 23rd on the Big Sky’s all-time scoring list with 1,563 career points. He ranks second in rebounds with 1,143. His average of 14.1 rebounds per game remains a Big Sky record. Three times Sojourner was named First Team All-Conference. Sojourner ranks 36th on the Big Sky Conference’s list of “50 Greatest Male Athletes.’’
Willie Sojourner came from Philadelphia but was be a long way from Pennsylvania where he would make his mark. Along the way became one of the best Wildcats ever and established himself, not only as a star, but as a beloved player in Utah and around the world.
Willard Leon Sojourner was born Sept. 10, 1948, to George and Dorothy Sojourner in Philadelphia, one of 11 children. He graduated from Germantown High School in Philadelphia where he was a multi-sport star. He not only played basketball but also played football, ran track and was on the swimming team. In fact, he was more of a swimmer than a basketball player in high school and only played one year of high school basketball. He later became Weber State’s intramural champion in swimming and horseshoes his senior year at Weber State. In high school his father and coach both encouraged him to give up competitive swimming and concentrate on a sport which more suited his size.
Basketball was where Willie became a star, but he didn’t get many offers coming out of high school. “He was really not that highly recruited out of Philadelphia,” said his future coach at Weber State Phil Johnson. “There were some schools after him but he really wasn’t that highly recruited but he came out here and really liked it. He liked the area and the situation.”
Weber State was located in Ogden, Utah, some 2,100 miles from Philadelphia. But it was Ogden where Sojourner would end up. Weber State, in its early years as a Division I school, discovered Sojourner through a former Wildcat.
“We found out about him through Hugh Sloan who was my manager for four years,” said Dick Motta, Weber State’s head coach at the time. “Hugh went back to Philadelphia to get his master’s degree. He read about Willie and went over and saw him play and then he called me. We checked him out but his ACT scores weren’t quite high enough. We called him and he was interested. He took the ACT test again and we followed up after him and he had improved enough on the test. We flew him out and he was one of the first players we had recruited from across the country. We had him here in the summer and he was a little afraid of the mountains and wondered if they would fall down on him.”
Motta knew how big a recruit Sojourner was and tried all he could to lure the young star to Weber State. “We had the “W” up on the hill and I knew they were going to add an “S” to the hill after we were named Weber State,” Motta recalled. “I told Willie that was his hill and I told him I had them put the “W” up there for him. I told him if he comes and play here I would have them put “S” up there and it would be Willie Sojourner hill.”
Sojourner made the decision to come to Weber State but Motta was still worried he might lose him until school started. “After he decided to come here he came out a week early before school started,” he said. “By then everyone else had found out his scores were good enough and they were after him. I just had him live in my basement for a week until he registered and then he was in.”
Ogden would become home for Sojourner and his future family. His younger brother Mike followed him to Utah and played basketball at the University of Utah. Mike was drafted in the first round of the 1974 NBA Draft and played three seasons with the Atlanta Hawks.
Sojourner’s son Matt said his father told him there were a few reasons why he decided to come all the way out to Utah to play basketball. “He said he came to Weber for a few reasons: lack of humidity, no bugs, the people treated him like ‘a white person’, and he wanted to put a smaller school on the map.”
Willie came to Weber State for the 1967-68 season but at the time freshmen were not eligible to play varsity basketball so Sojourner had to join the freshman team which was coached by 26-year old Phil Johnson, an assistant to Dick Motta.
Sojourner was tabbed as the finest freshman prospect to ever enroll at Weber State and as a freshman he led the team to a 14-4 record and averaged 21.3 points and 14.4 rebounds per game while shooting 60 percent from the field.
He finally made his debut as a Wildcat on the varsity team starting with the 1968-69 season. However, Weber State would experience a change before he took the floor as Dick Motta left to become the head coach of the Chicago Bulls, following eight years as head coach at Weber State. Sojourner’s freshman coach Johnson replaced Motta as head coach of the varsity team. “Willie was the first one I told that I was leaving for the Bulls,” Motta remembered. “I knew I was leaving Phil a better team than I had.”
Johnson took over at the young age of 27 and Sojourner made his debut with the Wildcats. Over the next three years the two would combine to lead the Wildcats to a 68-16 record, three Big Sky titles, and three trips to the NCAA Tournament.
Sojourner was known as a physical specimen and was touted in the Weber State media guide as “big and powerful, sometimes massive and was blessed with huge hands at the end of tree-trunk arms.”
“He had tremendous hands and was a good passer,” Johnson said. “When he got here he wasn’t very refined as a player but he developed his post moves. It took him a lot of work to develop his skills as a player. He was a really good passer for a big guy and a great, great rebounder.”
In the 1968-69 season Sojourner led the Wildcats to a 27-3 record, still the best winning percentage in Weber State and Big Sky history. He also guided the Wildcats to a perfect 15-0 record in Big Sky play, winning the conference title and advancing to the NCAA Tournament where they defeated Seattle in the first round for their first ever NCAA Tournament victory. As a sophomore Sojourner averaged 18.8 points and 13.3 rebounds per game and was a unanimous selection to the Big Sky All-Conference First Team. He was rated as one of the top five sophomores in the country and was seen by some as the best center in the region. He did all that despite not being allowed to dunk, as dunking was outlawed by the NCAA in 1967.
Not only was Sojourner becoming known as a star on the floor, he was known as a great guy off the court by coaches and teammates. “As a person he was one of the greatest guys you could ever meet,” recalled teammate Sessions Harlan. “He laughed all the time and I never saw him have a down day. He was my roommate for the two years I was here. Whenever he walked in the room he would just light up the room with his smile and laughter.”
“He was a fun-loving guy and a jokester,” said teammate Justus Thigpen. “When I met Willie he told me that he never really was a basketball player he was a swimmer. He said his dad told him no one makes money swimming. He had a great sense of humor.”
He was developing his game and had all the attributes to make a great player. “He was very soft-spoken and had a really great sense of humor,” Johnson said. “He got a little more serious later on than when he was younger. He always wanted to win. Willie had the reputation of being kind of a loosey-goosey guy but once you started playing basketball he was serious and he was a hard worker in practice. He really dedicated himself to being a good player and would really work hard in practice. I knew that about him as a freshman. He had unbelievable talent for his limited playing experience. He had some great attributes. People forget how great a passer he was and that’s a lost art a lot of times by big guys. He was an imposing player, even as a sophomore. The older guys accepted him and brought him into the fold and he had a terrific year.”
He returned as a junior in the 1969-70 season and improved from his previous season and averaged 21.2 points per game while leading the Wildcats to a 20-7 record and another Big Sky title and a trip to the NCAA Tournament. That season he averaged 15.8 rebounds per game, still the highest rebounding average in a season in Big Sky history. He also shot 52.6 percent from the field and was another unanimous choice as a first team All-Conference player. He was an honorable mention All-American selection by the UPI and AP and became Weber State’s career leading scorer after just two seasons. In one game that season he pulled down 25 rebounds in a win over West Texas State, which still ranks as the Weber State school record. He also scored a career-high 39 points in a win over Montana State that season.
Sojourner was not only a star on the basketball floor, but he excelled in another sport at Weber State. He became the school’s first Division I All-American in any sport, but he did not earn the honor in basketball. He was known for his performance on the basketball floor but he also was a champion in track and field. He captured the Big Sky title in the high jump as a freshman in 1968, jumping 6-10.50. The following year, as he was beginning varsity basketball, he came to new WSC track and field head coach Chick Hislop and told him he wasn’t sure if he would continue to high jump. “When I came in he told me he didn’t want to go out and high jump every day,” Hislop said. “I told him he only needed to come two days a week and he really liked that.”
He came back the following year and repeated as Big Sky champion and then his junior season he won his third straight conference title, reaching the seven foot mark, the first Weber State athlete to ever high jump seven feet.
Willie went on to compete at the 1970 NCAA Championships in Des Moines, Iowa. At that meet he reached a mark of seven feet and finished third in the national championships to earn All-American honors. Hislop recalls Willie’s excitement in reaching the standard. “After the event he ran across the field and came up to me in the stands and grabbed me and hurled me around. He just kept saying, ‘I’m an All-American, I’m an All-American.’ He was really excited for that and proud of what he had done. This was his junior year after he already had a lot of recognition for basketball, but he was just so excited to be an All-American.”
Sojourner didn’t compete in track and field his senior season as he prepared for a professional basketball career but he still is listed as one of the top high jumpers in school history. As of 2013, more than 40 years later, he still has the sixth best mark in the high jump in Weber State history at 7-00.50.
As he entered his senior season Sojourner was becoming known across the country as one of the top centers in the country.
“I always figured there was no one in the Big Sky and really no one out west that could handle him, except maybe Lew Alcindor,” Thigpen recalled. “He was above and beyond everyone. Willie was a great player. He had a hook shot that to us was unstoppable plus he was tenacious on the boards. He was a very unselfish ball player. When he got it inside he didn’t have to kick it back out but he passed the ball back out when he didn’t have a shot. He was a good guy to play with.”
“He was so dominant in the middle and the coaches took advantage of that,” Harlan recalled. “They knew how to get the ball into Willie and take advantage of him. We won a lot of games because we got it into him and it opened up things for me and Justus too.”
As a senior Sojourner averaged 17.8 points and once again led the Big Sky in rebounding at 13.6 per game. The Wildcats won their fourth straight Big Sky title and once again advanced to the NCAA Tournament. He was another Big Sky All-Conference first team selection, becoming the third player in conference history to earn three All-Conference first team honors.
Sojourner’s incredible three-year career had come to an end at Weber State. He left as the school’s all-time leading scorer and rebounder. As of 2013 he still ranks first in career rebounds with 1,143 and is fifth in scoring with 1,563 points. He came as the most anticipated player in school history and left as its best ever. But his basketball career would not end in Ogden.
Sojourner was drafted with the eighth pick of the 1971 ABA Draft by the Virginia Squires. He was also drafted in the second round (20th overall) of the NBA Draft by the Chicago Bulls. He had two options to play professional basketball and chose to join the Squires in the American Basketball Association.
He made his professional debut in October 1971 with the Squires. As a rookie that season he played in all 84 games and averaged 6.8 points and 6.1 rebounds per game and the team finished second in the Eastern Division of the ABA. The next season Sojourner saw action in 64 games and posted 7.5 points and 5.7 rebounds a game, playing alongside new Squires rookie George Gervin.
While at Virginia Sojourner developed a friendship with a fellow rookie named Julius Erving and the two would become best of friends. Erving was a star player coming out of the University of Massachusetts and was drafted in the first round of the 1972 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks. Instead of joining the NBA, Erving went to the ABA and joined Sojourner as a rookie with the Squires in the 1971-72 season where he played in all 84 games and averaged 27.3 points a game. The following season he tried to jump to the NBA but a court ruling forced him back with the Squires where he averaged an incredible 31.9 points per game.
Sojourner and Erving were roommates in Virginia and became good friends. They even served as best men at each other’s weddings.
After the 1972-73 season the Squires were in financial difficulty and would be forced to make a move with Erving. Professional basketball was in flux at the time as the NBA and ABA were talking about a merger and players were jumping from league to league. The Squires were in need of cash and Erving was looking to play for a higher profile team. The Squires decided to trade him to the New York Nets in August 1973. However, according to Matt Sojourner, Erving didn’t want to go without his friend Willie. “My dad told me the Nets traded for Julius but he wouldn’t go without my dad so they had to do a two-player deal for a million dollars to get both of them to the Nets,” he said.
The two were traded to the Nets in return for George Carter, the draft rights to Kermit Washington and cash. Erving was now in a major market and flourished with the Nets, as did Sojourner. In the 1973-74 season Dr. J. averaged 27.3 points and the Nets went on to win the ABA Championship, defeating the Utah Stars in the championship. Sojourner played in 82 games and posted 5.6 points and
The two remained together one more season in New York as Sojourner played in 79 more games and finished at 4.6 points and 3.5 rebounds a game.
In 1976 the ABA folded and the Nets sold Erving to the Philadelphia 76ers, where he went on to play 11 seasons and capture an NBA Championship in 1983. Erving was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame and was listed as one of the top 50 players in NBA history. He scored more than 30,000 points in his combined ABA and NBA career.
Sojourner’s ABA career was over after playing four seasons and appearing in 309 games, the most games of any former Wildcat in the ABA or NBA. He decided to continue his professional career overseas and went to Italy, not knowing at the time that he would spent the majority of the rest of his life in that country.
In 1976 he signed to play for a team in Rieti, a city located about 50 miles northeast of Rome. In his first season in Rieti he averaged more than 27 points and 14 rebounds per game. Sojourner played for Rieti for six seasons and became not only a great basketball player but became a very popular athlete in Italy and a beloved star of the team in Rieti. He became known as “Zio Willie” (Uncle Willie) to the fans in Rieti. His number 18 was retired by the team. He also played for two seasons for a team in Rome. He became very popular in Italy, even appearing in movies and commercials in Italy during his playing days. He had the opportunity to come back and play for the NBA but decided he was treated so well he didn’t want to leave.
After finishing his pro career he returned to Utah and settled in Roy where he spent time coaching Roy recreational teams and, according to his obituary, he continued to play basketball by playing for every city team between Ogden and Layton. He also played basketball for Our Saviors Lutheran Church in Roy and for the Roy LDS 7th Ward. He also participated for a number of years in the annual Utah Summer Games in Cedar City.
Uncle Willie returned twice to Italy as a coach. In 2005 he was asked to return to Rieti to coach the team he once played for. He had only been back for a short time when, while serving as the coach of Rieti, he was killed in a tragic one car accident on Oct. 19, 2005 at the age of 57. A memorial marks the spot where he was killed reads, “To Willie Sojourner - Unforgettable champion of sport, humanity and sympathy. Rieti Forever.” His death stunned Weber State fans but also was a shock to his loyal fan base in Italy. A month later, on Nov. 18, 2005, the home arena for the team in Rieti was renamed Pala Sojourner (Sojourner Gym), in honor of their beloved coach. Sojourner’s family, as well as Julius Erving, returned to Italy for the tribute to Willie and the renaming of the arena.
Sojourner’s funeral services were held in Roy and his family continues to live in the area. His ex-wife Jean lives in Roy and sons Chris, Matt and Josh all still live in Utah. Several family members represented Willie at the Weber State Men’s Basketball 50th Anniversary Celebration in March 2013.
Willie Sojourner had traveled quite a path from his beginnings in Philadelphia. From Philadelphia, to Ogden, to the ABA, and to Italy, Willie touched the lives of all he met and was a special player for fans to watch. More than any player in the early history of the program, Sojourner put Weber State on the map and established its strong basketball tradition.
