JUST IN: Why a former Clemson coach still chooses to ….
CLEMSON, South Carolina — First and foremost, Clemson supporters should be aware of Danny Ford’s current state of health, which is 72 years old.
The first coach to lead Clemson to a national championship is kept busy raising cattle and taking part in South Carolina’s legal hemp programme on his 174-acre farm in Central, South Carolina. and well. He is content.
“I’m just a typical farmer,” Ford remarked over the phone. You know, it keeps you somewhat younger than simply sitting around getting older.
Second, even though Ford still attends a good number of fall tailgates in Death Valley, he still misses the Clemson community.
He clarified, “That means the people who didn’t even go to Clemson but supported the football teams.” “Anyone who was connected to Clemson in the past.”
Naturally, he’s talking about the late 1970s and early 1980s, when Ford, then thirty years old, succeeded Charley Pell as head coach of Clemson’s football programme in time for the 1978 Gator Bowl. After the regular season, Ford became the Division I football team’s youngest head coach when Pell resigned to accept the position in Florida. When the Tigers defeated Nebraska in the Orange Bowl three years later, Ford gave Clemson the 1981 title. He continues to be the youngest FBS coach to be the champion.
He remarked, “A lot of the younger folks might not know that.”
Ford stated that he “absolutely not” misses coaching now.
He dislikes technology, types with one finger when he types, and only sends texts when absolutely necessary. He doesn’t use social media or email, and he has no desire to learn about any of it. He either asks for assistance when something goes wrong with his computer or shuts it down completely. Because of all the typing coaches do these days, he thinks he would have arthritis in his fingers if he were to recruit in 2020.
However, seven years prior? How many years ago was it? When he was sixty-two years old and had not played in over ten years ago?
For the 2017 College Football Hall of Fame inductee, that’s a different story.
“I never felt like I had a big ego, so I don’t (want to) say it would be ego.” However, enjoying it, wanting to do it, wanting to be with young people, and wanting to show that you could still succeed at it—yes. You know, you always have that? till you reach a specific age,” he remarked.
Then you realise that time has gone by. It would be difficult for me to go out there and carry out my previous activities.