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Ford to Hatfield 

 - Video File Link, if you have not seen this before you should.

Jan 9 1990, Clemson reveals it is under NCAA inquiry also here

The Clemson University football program is being accused by the National Collegiate Athletic Association of more than a dozen illegal recruiting contacts and of giving players up to $150 in cash from 1984 to 1988, an N.C.A.A. report released today said.

In the most damaging recruiting allegation, the N.C.A.A. says that from November 1984 to September 1987, six coaches made 11 illegal recruiting contacts, which included meeting with four high school juniors and one sophomore. The N.C.A.A. does not allow college coaches to recruit players in person until after the players are no longer juniors.

Jan 19, 1990 from the NYT

Danny Ford, armed with a $1 million settlement from Clemson, resigned under pressure today, ending an 11-year coaching tenure that attracted national prominence and a National Collegiate Athletic Association inquiry.

''I deny any wrongdoing on my part,'' Ford said today. ''And I am confident that an impartial review of the facts will so prove.''

''We have honest differences of opinion on certain basic aspects of the football program,'' Robinson said. ''A separation under any terms would be difficult. An amicable parting is certainly less painful for all involved. That is why we felt it was in the university's best interests to agree to a fair settlement under the terms of Ford's contract and bring the matter to a close.''

While the last post was backed up by more fact, there is much more to the firing of Ford than will ever be written anywhere and factually proven to be true. Some of it shouldn't be written about. Per Ford himself, Robinson wasnt even in the room when he was let go, it was between him and President Max Lennon. The NCAA investigation was a cover and an excuse for Lennon to remove him, and a plausible one after SMU had just been demolished by the Death Penalty. 

All we know for sure is that Ford was kicked out and later 1988 recruit and top player in Louisiana, QB Michael Carr, transferred in Spring of 1990 to UTEP, and later got on dope, and quit football altogether in 1991.

How hard others in Ford's program have worked is apparently up for debate, because just before this season began the NCAA opened a preliminary inquiry into Clemson's recruiting of redshirted freshman quarterback Michael Carr from Amite. La. In August, Carr's high school coach, Gary Hendry, accused Clemson of cheating when it wooed Carr, specifically questioning how Carr, from humble environs, had obtained a Toyota Supra. Later, Carr's brother said the car was his. Carr left campus and went home briefly to Amite. When he returned to Clemson, he called Hendry a liar and said Hendry was merely bitter because the coach had wanted Carr to go to LSU. The furor has died down, but the NCAA is still investigating the program.

From SportsIllustrated dated 10-23-89, also dated August 21 1989 is another news article about Carr where he denies anything, as well as his brother.

Most of these articles require you to be a member/subscriber or to purchase the article to read the full extent, but the general idea is pretty clear.


Bobby Robinson had little to do with hiring Ken Hatfield, but that doesn't make me forgive him, you see his weaselness in the clip. His first choice for the job was probably Fisher DeBerry, instead of DC Bill Oliver or Chuck Reedy. I believe if you're going to fire the best coach in school history, you should stick to hiring from within the first time. As such, Lennon picked Hatfield, and most of us despised him from day one. The Board publicly stated in 1990 that they backed Lennon 100%. I doubt Robinson could've come to the conclusion of Hatfield within 4 days, even in the midst of recruiting season, so I lend some belief to this argument.

Even if some BOT members opposed the firing, as I'm sure some did, they are on record with this statement. They share Lennon's guilt. Robinson's weaselish comments at the time implicate him in my eyes too, no matter what any other fan or former player says. He only refused Hatfield's contract extension because IPTAY donations had fallen like a rock.

On May 31, 1990 Clemson was given a slap on the paw.

In brief, the committee found that on at least two occasions during the fall of 1985, one student-athlete in the sport of football received and distributed cash payments ranging between $50 and $70 to another student-athlete in the sport of football under circumstances that the university acknowledged as a violation and for which the university accepted responsibility. In addition, the committee found that in the spring of 1987, the same student-athlete who received the foregoing payments received an additional $50 cash payment from a representative of the university's athletics interests. Finally, the committee found several secondary violations, including: a violation concerning the length of official visits; an illegal recruiting contact by a representative of the university's athletics interests; two instances in which student hosts furnished souvenir items to recruits during official visits, and several instances of members of the athletics department staff providing impermissible local automobile transportation and, on one occasion, arranging a meal for a prospective student-athlete who was attending a session of the university's summer football camp.

 

The committee determined that the three instances of cash payments to an enrolled student-athlete in the sport of football constituted major violations of NCAA legislation.

Since Carr was in HS at this time, he does not appear connected in any way to the NCAA violation. However, as you'll see below, the violations occured at the Independence Bowl in 1985.

1990 Sanctions against Clemson - full document

Normally major violations would've subjected us to further punishment, but the NCAA deemed the case unique.

Three factors led the committee to find that this case was unique to some degree and to impose penalties that differed from the list of minimum penalties set forth in NCAA legislation. First, as mentioned previously, the case presented to the committee for hearing consisted of only two major violations, involving three limited cash payments to an enrolled student-athlete, together with several secondary violations that were not argued to amount to a major violation. Absolutely no evidence of any other violation was presented to the committee. The two major violations were somewhat limited in nature, and no pattern of cash payments to enrolled student-athletes was established. Secondly, the major violations that were established do not, in and of themselves, demonstrate a lack of institutional control under the circumstances found in this case and were violations that otherwise could have occurred in a program that was operating in accordance with NCAA legislation.

The Specific rules violations

A. [NCAA Bylaw 16.12.2.3]

 

On at least two occasions during the fall of 1985, a student-athlete received and distributed cash payments, which ranged from between $50 [Page 4] and $70, to a selected member of the university's intercollegiate football team; further, at the hearing, the university admitted that given the circumstances surrounding the payments, a violation had occurred, and the university accepted responsibility for it. Specifically, during the fall of 1985, at the time the university's intercollegiate football team was participating in the 1985 Independence Bowl football game, the student-athlete gave an undetermined amount of cash to another student-athlete in the young man's motel room in Shreveport, Louisiana; further, on one other occasion during the fall of 1985, the first student-athlete gave an undetermined amount of cash to the second student-athlete for the young man's personal use.

An enrolled student-athlete giving money to another who happens to be on the football team? Possibly related to the bowl payout or prize.

B. [NCAA Bylaw 16.12.2.3]

On one occasion in the spring of 1987, a representative of the university's athletics interests gave $50 cash to a student-athlete for his personal use. Specifically, the representative gave $50 to the young man on the university's football practice field at the conclusion of an intrasquad football scrimmage.

A booster gave money to a player.

C. [NCAA Bylaw 13.6.2]

 

In November 1985, following the official paid visit to the university's campus of a prospective student-athlete, the young man was permitted to use the airline ticket provided by the university to return home, even though the young man remained on the university's campus for one night after the permissible 48-hour period.

D. [NCAA Bylaws 13.1.2.1 and 13.1.3.5-(c)]

 

During the summer of 1987, a representative of the university's athletics interests (booster) personally contacted a prospective student-athlete off campus for recruiting purposes at the young man's home during a period in which an in-person recruiting contact was not permissible.

 

There is no record I can find of who this booster might be, or which player is involved. It could possibly be Carr. The 1985 violation could not have been Carr.

The rest of the violations are secondary to my knowledge, and involve things like gifts of hats or apparel to recruits from assistant football coaches, or a ride to the airport, or a cheap meal. These things continue even today and are self-reported.

Ford's staff was fully cleared in 1990 of wrongdoing, as they had to be at the time to attain another NCAA job within 5 years. Why do you think Danny was able to even be hired at Arkansas?

Max Lennon was forced to resign in the February of 1994, when the faculty finally became fed up with his policy of hiring more and more administrators and giving them much bigger raises than faculty members were getting. It was the Faculty Senate President at Clemson who persuaded the Senate to call off a resolution of no confidence, then upped the ante by telling President Lennon that he would call a General Faculty meeting to consider the no-confidence resolution if Lennon did not resign. A major rumor about why Lennon was let go has to deal with his "cooking the books," there may be some truth to this, but we may never know. Lennon eventually ended up at Mars Hill.

Rumors say Danny was asked by a few Board members in 1999 to take it after Tommy West was fired, and told what he had to do to get it back. They've (people like Joe Cobb, or Scott Rhymer) heard the words from Ford himself. I never asked the man to find out when I had breakfast with him to confirm or deny any of this, because I figured it was best to let it be and he'd be tired of such talk by now. Some say Robinson tried in vain to get him back. The public proclamation of doing it for free, before Bowden was hired, was part of that. Then quickly, in secret, they held a meeting whose outcome was the statement that "the new coach cannot have been investigated by the NCAA."

They stabbed him in the back again. It was the members of the BOT, who had the final say, who were also still in Lennon's corner (though he was fired in '94) over the ordeal, who stabbed the man in the back. Still, they were scared of this man and what he could do with the support of the Clemson fanbase. What other reason is there?

Had this not happened in '99, Danny Ford would be back in some capacity for Clemson right now. If the University is going to allow Dabo Swinney to create support staff positions, then why don't they get their act together and give Danny Ford something? Its time to heal those wounds.

Frank Howard was an "Ambassador" for Clemson from the time he retired until the day he died, and Coach Ford's legacy will live longer than any administrator we've had in the last 75 years, the man deserves to be acknowledged.

There would be nothing better for me than to see Coach Ford rolling around campus on a golf cart shaking hands in his muddy high-water jeans.

Make it happen Dabo.

Danny Ford Retirement Banquet - Rodney Williams

Danny Ford Retirement Banquet speech

I don't understand why Clemson won't give Danny Ford the freaking respect that he deserves, as the ACC has given him the LEGEND status.  Read this article for the Q&A by Bob Gillespie (credit www.thestate.com).  My favorite portion is:

Q: Clemson hasn't won an ACC championship since 1991. Why has it been so long?

A: In my opinion, a lot of them didn't play Clemson football. I mean, if you say Ohio State to me, I know what Ohio State football is, I know how they play through reputation, what it meant. And I know what Clemson football was about, and I never saw it (in recent seasons).

Clemson football isn't fancy. Clemson football is having a good kicking game, winning with the kicking game, hit(ting) you on defense, don't turn the ball over and be(ing) able to control the ball. Now, they do it different than we did; they control the ball with the pass better than we did; we did it with the run, shorten(ed) the game.

(In recent seasons) it was always trying to be too cute, outcoach you. You don't outcoach people. You might outwork people, might out-hit people, you might out-fundamental people. But if you think you're smart, there's always someone on the other side just as smart, maybe smarter. It ain't what you know, it's how those kids perform. You got to have that philosophy, and I think I've seen it more (this season).

They've gotten back to it a little bit - not enough for me, but I don't coach anymore (laugh). If they win (the ACC), more power to them, congratulations, and don't forget how you got there.

You all know how much respect we have for Coach Ford (see Danny Ford section), and how pissed we still are at Lennon and Robinson and the BOT for the early 1990 debacle--which, BTW, that '90 team probably would have won it all had they left Frod alone, but that is a different story for a different day.  I am extremely eager to see Coach Ford get honored this weekend.  Clemson ought to have his name and a big Block-C on the side of the stadium.  It is a travesty that my university shuns the man who put Clemson football on the map.

Coach Ford is the man who gave us hope, dreams, championships, and my favorite Clemson moment:

Danny Ford can be in the ACC Legends Class, but not in the Ring of Honor alone itself?

Ford, who now lives just outside of Clemson in Pendleton, S.C., began his head coaching career as the youngest head coach (30 years old) in Division I football with a win over Ohio State in the 1978 Gator Bowl. Three years later, he led the Tigers to the 1981 national championship and was named National Coach of the Year. In all, Ford compiled five ACC Football Championships in his 11 seasons as head coach of Clemson. His winning percentage of .760 is the third highest in ACC history and he ranks second only to FSU’s Bobby Bowden in most bowl victories while an ACC coach with six. His 96 victories, while Clemson’s head coach, are fourth-best in ACC history. At one stretch his Clemson teams were ranked among the Associated Press’ rankings for 41 consecutive weeks and his Tiger teams earned 18 wins over nationally-ranked opponents.

Make it happen Dabo.

Its pretty obvious our current one is a dumbass, so lets get one who will inspire fear to all those entering the state, lets vote for Danny Ford.

Its about time we had another beer-chugging, chaw-spewing Governor. I dont care if he's a republican or a democrat, I know he's not stupid.

He even looks the part when he wants to...


News and links...
Strelow ranks the ACC QBs and its hard to really argue with most of it after the first 2, just based on performance last year. I'd move Ponder up to 4 or 5 though, and I suspect he's going to have a season on par with Danny Kannell's in Tallahassee after another year of Jimbo Fisher's tutelage. Its possible that T. Lewis will do much better for Puke, but they still dont have enough weapons to get past a low-tier bowl game.

Will Korn spoke with Heather Dinich about his hiring of QB coach Jerry Rhome to improve his throwing motion this offseason. Apparently Rhome thinks he has improved:

"With NCAA rules, I couldn't work with coach Napier or any of my coaches at Clemson, so I just wanted to get an extra set of eyes on me, someone who could coach me and help me out," Korn said.

"We really didn't have to spend a whole lot of time correcting stuff when I went down there because I worked so hard on it with my dad and my dad would tape me throw so I could go back to the house and watch it and see what I need to correct," Korn said. "It improved a ton before I even got down there to work with coach Rhome. He was excited to see my release had gotten quicker and shorter and it wasn't so long and I was getting the ball out of my hands pretty quickly. It just gave me a lot of confidence for a guy with his experience and his knowledge of the game to look at me and say, 'You're throwing fine, your mechanics look good,' two weeks after the spring game. It gave me a lot of confidence."

Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports gives his ACC Preseason predictions, picking Clemson 4th, behind NC State, FSU and Wake. He picks VT to win the Coastal.

Athlon has a piece on the GT triple option to complement our last post here. As does SmartFootball. The New York Times previews Wake Forest's upcoming season here.

Remember the SC coaches saying they could inflate a guy's Rivals star rating? Well it looks like Miami was recruiting solely based on that. UNC managed to yet again clear enough scholarships to fit their bloated signing class.

Another article on what the Fridge has gone through lately, and just being a larger-than-life character in Aiken and in the minds of Clemson fans.

Obviously both of us are huge Ford fans, as we both grew up in the '80s and can recall the days when we used to dominate people on the field. However, I had never met Coach Ford in person until a few weeks ago when my mother arranged it all as a birthday present to me.

Since I'm at LSU for most of the year, and thankfully this semester will be my last, I always have meetings arranged by family members at home with other prominent (read, rich) Clemson grads to help me find a job somewhere close to home after I finish the Ph.D., when I'm able to come home to visit between semesters. So, when my mother told me she had arranged for me to meet someone who was a Clemson grad in Anderson, who held a position above hers in her company, I wasnt surprised. I tend to find it odd that these people request to meet me sometimes, but thats another issue. (She probably brags too much)

On the 22nd, she said she was getting me up early to go meet this guy in Anderson for breakfast or lunch, and that he knew Coach Ford and that she was taking things along to give him to have Coach Ford sign for me as a gift. So, I picked up my favorite block-C hat and my game-used Clemson helmet.

The next morning when we got to Clemson, we went into Knickerbockers, Variety and Frame, and Tigersports Shop and a couple of the other stores to find something I wanted signed if he got the chance to sign them. I of course went in and looked for another block-C hat, but didnt find one of the style he used to wear (like the pic on the right), and I dont like the blue one that much (link). I have since found a good (close) imitation here.

Anyway, the only thing I picked up for him to sign there was a few tiger rags and a lithograph from Variety and Frame and went back to the car, where I saw her pick up her cell and call someone. When she said the words "Coach Ford" my jaw hit the floor.

He said to meet him over at Dyers Restaurant (a little ways from Mac's) and not a couple miles from his farm. Of course I'm flipping out at this point.

So now the back story:
My mother is a member at a driving range in Boiling Springs where the owner is friends with the director of the Spartanburg Touchdown Club, so he gave his number to her. She then called him and asked if there was any way she could set up a meeting between me and Coach Ford as a birthday gift. She had joked about this to me a couple times in the past, but I never paid her any attention.

He gave her Coach Ford's number, saying "Be sure to tell Danny that you gave me $20 for it."

Well she just called him up one day, and told him about me, and how I gave up playing football the day he was fired by Max Lennon.

When she said she gave $20 for his number, he said "you better not have, I'll kick his ass."

He said that he'd meet her one day and they'd talk about how to set the whole thing up. This was back in October, and although I did get to come home for the GT game, she couldnt arrange it for then.

But she called him again late in November, and asked if they could set it up for my birthday (end of Dec.). He said he was speaking in Union that night at the Armory and that he was on his way to Spartanburg to see his dentist. She called and tried to get a ticket, and couldnt, then called him back and he said to just follow him from the dentist's office down there and he'd get her in. She asked him which dentist, and he said, "Hell I dont know, some foreigner"...she asked him what time and he said, "I dont have an appointment, I just show up" but he did tell her where it was so she met him over there and followed him down to Union, where he pulled up at the front door onto the grass. Danny Ford don't need no damn parking spot.

When he walked in the door, that cocky arrogant attitude we all remember came back, and its a definite change from the approachable man he is otherwise.

So after the meeting she talked to him just a minute (since people hound him) and said she'd call him in a couple weeks to set it up. It turns out that he was going to get his grandkids in after Christmas, so we'd have to do it before my birthday.

Now, we're driving over to Dyers that morning, and I see this old Ford diesel with no bed sitting outside, covered in mud and thought to myself "That's gotta be his."

I walked inside and saw him surrounded, by waitresses and old folks just jabbering in his ear, and shook his hand. He didnt want breakfast at first, but after I ordered mine he piped up. He said he ate lunch there just about every day and it was usually packed. He asked me what my degree was in and figured I was a "pretty smart fella" to be getting the doctorate in this stuff.

We sat there with him for about an hour, where we talked about horses (we used to raise them), his farm, and what he thought about Dabo Swinney and the way things were going. I asked him what he thought of Dabo and he just said, "Well we'll see in a couple weeks. He's got some of my old boys on his staff now." I didnt get the sense that he felt sure about the Dabo hire, but that's just my impression, not words from his own mouth. After meeting him I can tell that he's pretty measured in what he says, since most stuff gets published (and I guess I'm doing that here, but I wouldnt post that he didnt like Dabo even if he'd said it).

She asked him about Arkansas, and he said, "...didn't have no players...but the last year (97) we played alot of freshmen who did well later" (Ford commented back in the day how shabby the program was when he came in 94). Nutt's first team in '98 won 9 games.

Of course all I wanted to ask him was about 1989 and the rumors about 1999, but I didnt muster up the courage. I figured that he didnt want to or wouldnt answer, or is just tired of hearing that stuff again and again. Most of the time with him I was just sitting there listening.

He was going to a funeral of a UGA booster that day, and I asked him "Why would a Georgia fan want you there? I figure he'd hate you," to which Ford chuckled and said, "Well he cain't now, he's dead."

After I had him sign some things, and took the pictures, he commented on my size and I told him that if that sumbitch Lennon hadn't run him off, I'd have played for him. He said, "Yeah, he was a piece of work wasnt he?"

She did ask him if he missed coaching, saying that she could still see it in him, and he just winked and looked at me, "Your mama's pretty smart."

Well I was lucky to get a good one.