CLEMSON – Clemson lost one of its legends.

Former Clemson athletic director Terry Don Phillips passed away Tuesday morning after an extended illness.

Phillips was the athletic director at Clemson from 2002-’12, where he helped build the athletic department into the national power it has become today. Phillips is responsible for the hiring of football coach Dabo Swinney, men’s basketball coach Brad Brownell, men’s soccer coach Mike Noonan and women’s soccer coach Eddie Radwanski, all of whom are the programs’ most successful and winningest coaches.

“There are no words to state his impact for me and for Clemson,” Swinney said on Tuesday.

Swinney and Noonan have guided the Tigers to multiple national championships during their time at Clemson, while both Brownell and Radwanski have taken their respected sports to heights the programs have never seen before.

“It is a very sad day because this day has come, but it is also a blessing because I know he is not suffering anymore,” Swinney said. “I know he is whole. I know he is with Jesus, so I have great comfort in that.”

Highlights of Phillips tenure include 57 top twenty-five finishes, 13 ACC championships, 77 winning seasons by athletic teams and being bowl eligible in football every year.

During Phillips’ decade as Clemson athletic director, Tiger teams were nationally recognized for its academic progression rates and had a then-record 2.99 overall grade-point-average (GPA) by student athletes for the spring semester of 2012.  On average, 53 percent of Clemson student athletes had at least a 3.0 GPA over his 10 years.

Financial stability was a hallmark of the Phillips’ era.  The athletic program invested more than $140 million in facilities, attracted and retained top coaches, built financial reserves and kept debt at a low level. In an environment where high profile college teams have faced severe NCAA compliance issues and penalties, Clemson did not received one letter of inquiry.

The last major project Phillips oversaw at Clemson was the completion of the Poe Indoor Football Practice Facility, which opened in December of 2012.

Phillips was recognized by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics as the 2005-‘06 General Sports Turf Systems Athletic Director-of-the-Year for the Southeast Region of the Football Bowl Series. Earlier this year, the Bleacher Report sports media website named Phillips one of the nation’s top 25 athletic directors.

“Clemson is a better university because of Terry Don Phillips,” former Clemson President James Barker said at the time of Phillips’ retirement. “His integrity, dedication and business insights have made Clemson’s athletics programs stronger financially, academically and competitively. Under his leadership, I believe Clemson has established a model athletics program — one that is characterized by full compliance, success on the field of competition, and recognition that student-athletes are students first. I have asked Terry Don to continue as Athletic Director until we have his replacement.”

Terry Don Phillips: Program Accomplishments the Last 10 Years:

• Won 13 ACC Championships in eight different sports, including five different women’s sports. Only Virginia won ACC titles in more women’s sports than Clemson in that time.
• Clemson athletic programs had 57 top 25 national finishes, 37 top 20s, and 14 top 10s during this time. Fifteen different sports had a top 25 finish, including six different sports that recorded a top 10 finish in that time frame.
• Clemson went to the Final Four of national tournaments in three different sports during his time — Baseball, women’s tennis and men’s soccer.
• The athletic department finished in the top five nationally in six different sports — golf, women’s indoor track, men’s soccer, women’s outdoor track, women’s tennis and baseball.
• Clemson sports that had selections, from a team standpoint, to NCAA postseason were selected 53 times over the 10 years. Golf and women’s tennis were selected all 10 years and baseball nine times.
• For the three years from 2008-09 through 2010-11, Clemson and Florida State were the only programs in the nation to be selected for a bowl game, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament and the NCAA baseball tournament each year. Clemson finished in the top 25 in the nation in football, basketball and baseball during the 2009 calendar year, the first time that had happened since 1987.
• A total of 77 sports seasons recorded winning records in this time. Baseball and women’s tennis recorded 10 straight winning seasons, while football, and volleyball had winning seasons in nine of 10 years.
• The Men’s Basketball Program had five straight seasons of break even or better in the ACC, a first for the history of that program. They went to the NCAA Tournament four of the last five years, also a first in the program’s history.
• Clemson’s football program won its first ACC Championship in 20 years in 2011 and has had five top 25 national finishes the last 10 years.
• Sports programs record a then-record 2.99 GPA for the spring semester of 2012. On average, 53 percent of Clemson student athletes had at least a 3.0 (academic honor roll) over the last 10 years.
• Clemson’s APR scores were outstanding each year since the NCAA began compiling them, as have been the graduation success rate (GSR). Fifteen of the 19 sports were at least a 970 APR for the June of 2012 report.
• Clemson did not receive an Official Letter of Inquiry from the NCAA on any issue during Phillips 10 years in Tigertown.
• A major facility enhancement took place in every program over his 10 years with an investment of over $140 million with just $25.6 million of debt. The combined unrestricted fund reserves for operations and facilities grew approximately 400 percent from 2002 — from $9 million to over $50 million.
• During Phillips’ 10 years new coaches were hired in football, track, men’s basketball, rowing, and swimming and all took Clemson to top 25 seasons in those sports. The football, track and rowing hires took Clemson to ACC championships.

A former football coach and former star player at Arkansas, Phillips served as a collegiate administrator for more than 30 years. He was the athletic director at Liberty University from 1980-’81. He also served at the University of Southwestern Louisiana—now known as the University of Louisiana at Lafayette—from 1983 to 1988 and at Oklahoma State University from 1995 to 2002 before coming to Clemson.

Phillips also served as a senior associate athletic director at Arkansas from 1988-’94.

Before being an administrator, Phillips played defensive tackle at Arkansas from 1966-’69. He remained at Arkansas as a graduate assistant for the 1970 and 1971 seasons, before moving to Virginia Tech as an assistant coach. Phillips left Virginia Tech after 1978.

While at Virginia Tech, Phillips worked with future Clemson football legend and head coach Danny Ford.