Seeing Brian Dawkins selected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame Saturday night brought back a few memories from my youth.

Dawkins and I are around the same age, I have a year on him, but who is counting right. We were both in college—though different schools—at the same time and like a lot of Clemson football players from that era, I would run into him and his teammates from time-to-time.

We weren’t friends or anything like that … I would just run into them at the mall or at a restaurant or an establishment downtown. I remember how I always thought it was cool because these were Clemson football players who ran down the Hill on Saturdays in the fall.

To me, at the time, they seemed larger than life. However, I discovered through our talks, they were just like me and you. They were college kids, too.

They were always nice and they always spoke to me. They were just normal college kids like the rest of us, trying to make it in this world.

I went to just about every game I could—if I was not working—back then. Though I did not attend Clemson, it felt as if I did because I was there all the time. Going to Clemson football games with my friends was part of my college experience, and I have a lot of great memories from it.

Dawkins, like some of you I’m sure, played a role in some of those memories. He was one of my favorite players from that era. I knew he was something special because he was always around the football. Plus he played with a different kind of energy than most on his team.

The Jacksonville native always brought the heat, if you will. He rarely took a playoff and that’s part of the reason why he earned All-ACC honors as a sophomore and junior and then All-American status as a senior.

Dawkins was always trying to get better and never seemed satisfied. Of course when he was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in the second round of the 1996 NFL Draft, it hurt me because I knew what kind of player the Eagles were getting. It hurt more because he was playing for the Eagles, especially considering I’m a lifelong Pittsburgh Steelers fan. I knew he was about to make the Eagles better.

However, I continued to follow Dawkins’ career in the NFL. I always checked to see how many tackles he had and what kind of impact he was making with his new team.

As we all know, Dawkins turned out to be the greatest safety of his era, while at the same time becoming the best player from Clemson to play in the NFL.

In 1996, he was already making an impact as he was named to the All-Rookie team. Five times he was named All-Pro, the most by any former Clemson player. Nine times he was voted to the Pro Bowl, again, the most by a former Clemson player.

Dawkins played in the NFL for 16 seasons, 13 in Philadelphia. His 16 seasons are tied with former Clemson punter Chris Gardocki for the most seasons in the NFL by a former Tiger. The 224 games he played in rank second to Gardocki’s 244.

After the 2009 season, Dawkins was named to the NFL’s All-Decade team as a first-team member. This honor came after another All-Pro season.

Dawkins finished his career as one of the greatest safeties to have ever played in the NFL with 1,131 tackles, 37 interceptions, 26 sacks, 120 pass deflections, 36 forced fumbles and 19 fumble recoveries. Of his 224 games, he started 221 of them.

The former Tiger is one of just six players in NFL history with 25 sacks and 25 interceptions in his career. He’s the only player in NFL history to record a sack, interception, fumble recovery and catch a touchdown in the same game, which he did against the Houston Texans in 2002.

So when Dawkins is officially inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame later this summer, he will be the first Clemson Tiger to be bestowed such an honor. It’s even cooler for guys like me who remember watching Dawkins play at Clemson when no one really knew who he was.

Years later, when I was working for Clemson, a year after he retired from the game, I got the opportunity to sit down and do a one-on-one interview with Dawkins. It was cool. I shared with him my time watching him play in Death Valley when I was a young college student, when he was just a kid, like me, trying to figure things out.

Dawkins was very humble. In fact, and the coolest thing about that day, he was back in Clemson helping Dabo Swinney at his summer football camp. It felt like old times. Though some fathers that were our age recognized him and asked for an autograph or a picture, the kids running around us had no idea who they were passing.

It was like we were back in college again. He was just like me. He was a normal guy walking around and enjoying life.

However, like back in the day, I knew I was walking around with someone special. I knew I was talking with a future Pro Football Hall of Famer.

—Photo Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports