CLEMSON — There are many landmark days in Clemson’s Football history.
There is the day the program started on September 30, 1896, when a group of students came up with the idea of having a football team in Clemson. There was that afternoon in an empty parking lot in Florence, S.C., on October 16, 1931, which led to the formation of IPTAY.
On January 11, 1940, Frank Howard was named head coach, starting the head coaching career of the man that got Clemson Football put on the national map.
December 5, 1978, when Clemson hired 30-year-old Danny Ford to run its football program. In his first game as head coach, Ford led the Tigers to a win over Woody Hayes and Ohio State in the 1978 Gator Bowl and three years later he brought home Clemson’s first national championship with a win over Tom Osborne and mighty Nebraska in the 1982 Orange Bowl.
Then there is October 13, 2008, 16 years ago today to be exact. This is the day athletic director Terry Don Phillips told Dabo Swinney he was going to be his interim head coach, replacing Tommy Bowden, whom they just parted ways with.
“This day is very special,” Swinney said when asked about it Sunday night. “It has actually been a special week because Terry Don Phillips came out to practice last week. I always think about this time of the year because Terry Don Phillips changed a lot of people’s lives.”
Phillips’ trust in 38-year-old Dabo Swinney changed the trajectory of the Clemson Football Program, a program that seemed stuck in gear and could never get out of the shadows of the 1980s.
Not even a year after having the interim label removed from his job title, Swinney guided Clemson to its first ACC Championship Game. Two years later, the program won its first ACC Championship in 20 years, and five years after that it claimed its first national championship in 35 seasons.
But Clemson was not just back, it was better.
The Tigers went on to win another national championship in 2018 and overall Swinney has guided eight different teams to ACC Championships, while becoming the most successful head coach in ACC history.
Clemson has gone on to win big-time games over national programs such as Alabama, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Notre Dame along the way.
“When they watch us today, I hope those first two or three teams take a lot of pride in who we are at Clemson and the foundation that we stand on today,” Swinney said. “They laid the first brick, if you will, and helped us build a great foundation.
“I think about (today) for sure. I was incredibly blessed to be at the right place at the right time.”
And so was Clemson.
“Sixteen years, I do not even know where (time went). To me, it seems like two weeks ago. It has gone really fast.”
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