When you look at the history of Clemson football, there are two moments that changed the course of the program’s history.

The first came in the summer of 1975 – that’s when Steve Fuller chose Clemson over Georgia and Tennessee. After the Spartanburg High School star picked the Tigers, others soon followed.

In 1975 there were no recruiting rankings or anything like that, but Fuller had offers from everywhere, as he became the biggest recruit to come to Clemson since Frank Howard convinced Fred Cone to do the same nearly 30 years before.

By the end of 1977, Clemson was once again a power in college football. Fuller led the Tigers to their first bowl game in 18 years while being named ACC Player of the Year. In 1978, he guided Clemson to its first ACC Championship in 11 years and a No. 6 national ranking, and, oh yeah, he won ACC Player of the Year, again.

Three years later, Clemson won its first national championship. The football program went on to have the fifth best record in college football in the 1980s.

After falling to mediocrity in the decades of the 1990s and 2000s, the fortunes of Clemson Football began to change again in 2006. That’s the year C.J. Spiller stunned everyone, including his mother, as he picked Clemson over Florida and Florida State.

Like Fuller, Spiller was highly coveted. He was a five-star recruit and was considered the best running back coming out of the 2006 recruiting class.

Spiller went on to win ACC Player of the Year honors in 2009 and was a unanimous First-Team All-American. He even on MVP honors in the ACC Championship Game, though the Tigers lost the game.

Once the big-time high school players saw Spiller’s success at Clemson, they soon started to follow his lead. By the time 2011 rolled around, guys like Sammy Watkins, Nuk Hopkins, Dwayne Allen, Andre Ellington and Tajh Boyd were leading the Tigers to their first ACC Championship in 20 years.

Later on, more stars like Christian Wilkins, Dexter Lawrence, Mike Williams, Wayne Gallman, Hunter Renfrow and Deshaun Watson led Clemson to its first national championship in 35 years, while others like Travis Etienne, Tee Higgins, A.J. Terrell and Trevor Lawrence led the Tigers to major college football’s first undefeated 15-0 team since 1897 and another national championship.

All of that success happened because two young men took a chance and came to Clemson, changing the narrative on Clemson football forever.

Isn’t funny how history repeats itself.

Well, it has done it again.

However, this time, it is on the basketball court.

PJ Hall is to modern day Clemson basketball, what Spiller was to the football program. A top 50 recruit out of Dorman High School in Spartanburg, Hall took a chance on Clemson, and it paid off.

In the last two years, Hall helped lead Clemson to 23 wins in 2023 and 24 wins in 2024 and an appearance in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament, the first time the basketball program has accomplished that since 1980.

“He’s obviously very special because he’s a top-50 kid that chose Clemson from our state,” Clemson men’s basketball coach Brad Brownell said. “And we’ve tried on a bunch of other guys, and he’s one of the first ones to stay home.”

Besides taking Clemson to great heights on the basketball court, Hall has earned All-ACC honors in each of the last two seasons, including a first-team selection this year. He was also runner-up for ACC Player of the Year honors.

“We’ve been selling this same thing to all these other guys. You can come to Clemson and have a chance to play in a Final Four. You’re going to get a great education. You can be a pro. You can be an all-conference player. You’re going to be around people that care about you,” Brownell said. “That kid’s been through the war. He’s had major surgeries. Our athletic department has flown him to see the best doctors to take care of him and treated him like the superstar he is.

“But the best thing about him is that he’s just a regular guy. He’s the same every day. I coach him harder than anybody in our program. He allows me to do that. And one of the reasons why our team is in the Elite Eight is because our best player allows the head coach to be demanding of him.”

Like Fuller and Spiller before him, Hall has already made a positive impact on Clemson Basketball going forward.

“The tone is set for everybody in our program. And so we have discipline. We have accountability. We have respect,” Brownell said. “And a lot of it is because he’s the way he is as a young man. And his parents deserve an unbelievable amount of credit. And it’s been a pleasure to coach him.”

A limited number of signed footballs from Clemson’s 2022 class are still available.  Get yours while supplies last!  Visit Clemson Variety & Frame or purchase online!