As you walk into Dabo Swinney’s office inside the WestZone of Clemson Memorial Stadium, you will notice the life-size poster of former running back C.J. Spiller on his wall. The poster, which was used as a promotional item for Spiller’s Heisman Trophy Campaign in 2009, is just one of the many collectibles Swinney has on display.
His most prized possession sits on his desk, a glass paper weight with a business card inside. On the back of the business card is a written agreement between Swinney and Spiller that says, “I, C.J. Spiller, agree to visit CU on the 13th of Jan. 06.”
It’s an informal contract Swinney made on the spot when he visited Spiller in Lake Butler, FL. Swinney, then the wide receivers coach at Clemson at the time, knew Spiller was a man of his word and drawing up this impromptu contract would guarantee the five-star running back was going to at least come and visit Clemson.
Spiller kept his commitment and visited Clemson that day. Three weeks later, he slipped his mother, Patricia Watkins, a note as he walked to the podium to make his announcement on where he was planning to play college football. Then in front of all of his high school peers, and an auditorium full of Florida fans, he told them he was coming to Clemson.
The rest is history you might say. Spiller broke countless Clemson and ACC records and even a few NCAA records in his four years in Tigertown, but what the running back and former ACC Player of the Year actually did was greater than that. Because this young man from Lake Butler, FL, who was recruited by just about every school in the country, took a chance to come to a school that had not won much of anything prior to his arrival, he changed the program, much like Steve Fuller did in 1975.
In 1974, Fuller, who played high school football at nearby Spartanburg, was one of the more coveted high school products in the State of South Carolina. Everyone wanted him, but he chose to come to Clemson, a program that appeared to be on the rise under then head coach Red Parker.
The Tigers were coming off a 7-4 season, including a perfect 6-0 mark at home. Clemson might have gone to the Peach Bowl that year had it not been for a controversial play in a 29-28 loss at No. 20 Tennessee.
Though his first two years at Clemson didn’t go too well, ultimately Fuller led the Tigers to an 8-3-1 season in 1977 and to an 11-1 year in 1978. The 1977 season was Clemson’s first bowl appearance in 18 years, while the 1978 year marked the first time since 1967 the Tigers won an ACC Championship.
Fuller was named ACC Player of the Year after both seasons, still the only player in ACC history to do so. But like Spiller, Fuller’s legacy was more than just about setting records and winning games. His presence and then his success at Clemson led to other big-time athletes following in his footsteps. Guys like running back Lester Brown, fullback Marvin Sims, defensive tackle Jim Stuckey, linebacker Bubba Brown, safety Rex Varn, offensive tackle Lee Nanney, wide receiver Perry Tuttle, defensive tackle Steve Durham, linebacker Jeff Davis, quarterback Homer Jordan, running back Chuck McSwain, fullback Jeff McCall and you get the point.
Fuller’s presences and the amount of success he was able to have at Clemson, allowed other top athletes to believe the same could happen for them at Clemson as well. Eventually, the Tigers were signing some of the best players in the country and the results showed on the football field.
From 1977-’91, Clemson won 133 games, did not have a losing record for 15 straight seasons, won seven ACC Championships, appeared in 11 bowl games, won seven bowl games, recorded six 10-win seasons, and most importantly won the program’s only National Championship in 1981.
Clemson had seen this act before in its lustrous history. Fred Cone, who Frank Howard called his greatest player, had the same affect in the late 1940s, which began a decade that saw the Tigers post a perfect season in 1948, win three ACC Championships, play in six bowl games, while winning three of them.
Before Cone, there was Banks McFadden, who led Clemson to the program’s first bowl appearance and victory following the 1939 season with a 6-3 victory over Boston College. McFadden is still considered the greatest athlete to play at Clemson.
So what will Spiller’s legacy be? I think we are already seeing the results of that. Current players like Tajh Boyd, Sammy Watkins, Travis Blanks and others have said Spiller’s success at Clemson played a big role in why they chose to come to Clemson.
Since Spiller put on the orange and white in 2006, the Tigers have won 60 games, won the program’s first ACC Championship since 1991, won the ACC Atlantic three times, played in the ACC Championship Game twice, played in seven bowl games, played in a BCS game and has posted back-to-back 10-win seasons.
No one really knows how long this current stretch of good fortune will last for Clemson, but with new state of the art facilities, like the WestZone and the new indoor practice facility, odds are good Clemson isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, especially if players with the character and skills that Spiller has keep proving that they can have just as much success at Clemson as they can anywhere else.
Swinney’s business card with Spiller’s agreement written on the back to come visit Clemson seven years ago should one day be placed in the future museum inside the WestZone. I just have a feeling it will be remembered as one of the more significant items in Clemson’s long football history.