All in the family

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CLEMSON -- You might say Dabo Swinney and the folks in the Clemson football offices had a lot going on six days ago.

They were in the thick of preparing for a playoff semifinal date against some team from Alabama.

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They were making final preparations for a late-morning practice.

In the afternoon, they would move what could qualify as a small town (players, coaches, support staff, family of coaches and support staff) to Greenville for an outing at Frankie's Fun Park.

Graduation was in two days. The final day of practice before Christmas was in three.

And ... oh yeah ... what would turn out to be a momentous early signing day was the next day.

That's what amazed Kathy Boone the most on her family's visit to the Allen Reeves Football Complex otherwise known as DaboLand.

Swinney, Thad Turnipseed and numerous other figures of Clemson royalty basically stopped what they were doing to make sure their visitors were having a good time.

"They didn't know who we were," Kathy said last week in an interview with Tigerillustrated.com. "We weren't anybody. We were just a family they let come hang out."

There's never an easy way to ease into this: Kathy, 44, has cancer. Last February, a month after crying in the stands of Raymond James Stadium in Tampa with her husband, their two girls, and her father after Hunter Renfrow clutched that ball in the right corner of the end zone, she noticed a growth on her left breast.

On March 6, she went in for a biopsy. Three days later, she was told it was definitely cancer. Within seven days of that news, she was undergoing surgery to have a port installed and began chemotherapy.

The Boones, who live in Charlotte, are overturning every stone to find the best chance for Kathy’s long-term survival with a good quality of life. So the day after their uplifting and unforgettable visit to Clemson, they were headed to the cancer center in Chapel Hill for another consultation with an expert for her particular type of breast cancer.

Kathy, who began going to Clemson games as a 3-year-old and remembers taking a bus from Columbia to Miami for the Tigers' win over Nebraska in January of 1982, is determined to fight it with her mind as well.

Her spirit and attitude seem torn right from the playbook of Swinney, who's gone through a hardship or 100 in his life.

"I'm not going to let this define me," she said. "Having a positive attitude is huge, the same thing you always hear Dabo say. And you can really feel it being around him.

"That's just how I go about things. I could do the woe-is-me thing a lot. But I've got too much to live for."

The Boones' visit to the football offices last week came about through a close friend who knows Turnipseed. The friend reached out to Turnipseed not really knowing what to expect but told him about Kathy's situation, the family's love and longtime support of Clemson, and how it might lift their spirits to spend some time within the walls of the Tigers' football home.

At some places they might respond to this with a routine of sending out some autographed memorabilia. Or maybe a brief tour by a staffer who's charged with giving tours while the important people go about their business behind closed doors.

But this football colossus in the foothills is so much more than just a big business run inside an impenetrable fortress. There's a personal touch, an opening of the hearts accompanying the opening of the doors to people on the outside who are dealing with various forms of struggle.

"It makes you feel even better that you're supporting a program that's about people," said her husband Brian.

This is just one of many stories illustrating how a cold-blooded wrecking machine on the field is a warm, welcoming community off it.

It's not by accident. And Kathy says it's most certainly not done just for show.

"They talk about family all the time, and you hear recruits talking about it and people writing about it, especially around signing day. It's talked about so much that maybe people might say, 'Well, that can't be real.'

"Well, it's totally real."

The Boones arrived at about 10:15 in the morning thinking they'd be there an hour or so. They left four hours later, and not because anyone suggested it was time.

On the January night of the championship game against Alabama, exactly two months before she was told she had cancer, Kathy and her husband did something they almost never do: They allowed their two girls, now 10-year-old Lindsey and 8-year-old Lillie, to drink Cokes so they could stay awake.

Kathy's grandfather graduated from Clemson in the 1920s in the same class as Strom Thurmond. Her father graduated in the 1960s, and her older brother graduated in 1993. The day her younger brother (Class of 1999) was born, she was at a Clemson football game.

Kathy, who now works in banking in Charlotte, turned down a scholarship from Clemson to attend Washington and Lee University in Virginia. That was the only time of her life she's missed watching the Tigers play at Death Valley in person.

"I had national championship wallpaper in my room when I was 9 years old," she said. "So I'm embedding that same spirit in my two girls."

Former punter Andy Teasdall, who now works in the football office, was their tour guide. When they went to visit Swinney in his office, he was trying to decide whether to hold that day's practice indoors or outdoors.

The coach who's pursuing back-to-back national championships put what he was doing on hold and engaged the family for 10 minutes, showing them memorabilia, asking about the girls and inquiring about what Kathy and Brian do for a living.

At one point the family was near the slide on the second floor and the offensive line approached after finishing a meeting. They were going downstairs, except that none of them took the stairs.

Then came the receivers, and Kathy was struck by how down-to-earth Ray-Ray McCloud and Deon Cain seemed. Kathy told McCloud she's always admired his hair and asked if she could touch it. He obliged with a smile.

The Boones were allowed to watch practice, and the girls went into the indoor facility and tried field goals with the special-teams unit.

Turnipseed came by and asked if they were hungry. So they all went to the dining hall and met the kitchen staff, including chef Donna McCain. Last summer, Clemson lured McCain away from Alabama and she's quickly become part of the family.

Said Kathy: "She told me her favorite part of the job is teaching cooking classes to players to help give them a life skill for after football."

A while later, practice was over and Sean Pollard walked by their table with a big salad and asked if he could join them for lunch. He then shared some personal stories including his trip to Haiti last offseason, and his non-profit foundation to help children battling cancer.

A while later, Swinney strolled in to pick up a to-go order and visited with the family again. The team would depart for Frankie's Fun Park soon, and Kathy remembers Swinney asking McCain if she was going. The thought hadn't yet occurred to the chef that she'd be included in the trip. Swinney was almost dumbfounded, telling McCain and other members of the kitchen staff they should come because they're part of the family too.

A caravan of buses was waiting outside, and the Boones were introduced to the bus drivers. They were surprised to see each of the drivers wearing one of the assorted championship rings from the past few years.

Yep, even the bus drivers get rings. Kathy said one of them has a Clemson degree but chooses to drive a bus because he loves being a part of the family.

The fleet of buses left the parking lot that afternoon headed for some fun.

The Boone family left the same parking lot headed back home, and then to Chapel Hill to address much more serious matters.

But they were smiling the whole way there.

"She was beside herself with joy, just elated," Brian said. "I believe it's the little things that can boost your spirits so you can tackle the big things."

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