CLEMSON -- Late last November, Clemson's basketball team was in Daytona Beach, Fla., and Brad Brownell was catching up with an old friend from Indiana.
That old friend, Carl Heldt, lived in Jacksonville at the time and has followed Brownell's teams closely since way back in the early 2000s when Brownell became head coach at UNC Wilmington.
BECOME A TIGERILLUSTRATED.com SUBSCRIBER!
At some point during the downtime that accompanied the Tigers' wins over San Francisco and Penn State in the Sunshine Slam, Brownell asked Heldt how the family back home was doing.
"He said one of his nephews played football at Purdue," Brownell recalled. "I was like, 'Oh great. Is he any good?'"
Carl's response: Yes, actually he's quite good.
Brownell, knowing the realities of the transfer portal and knowing that Purdue pretty much stunk the last two seasons, next asked Carl if his nephew was going to remain with the Boilermakers.
Carl's response: "I don't know. Who knows?"
By now you've probably deduced that Carl's nephew is Will Heldt, the big-ticket defensive end that Dabo Swinney identified and landed just a few weeks after that conversation in Daytona Beach.
And it's a small world after all for Brownell and the Heldt family that he knew growing up in Evansville, Ind.
"When I saw that Will was coming to Clemson for a visit, I called Danny Pearman and texted Jordan Sorrells and Dabo and just said: 'Hey guys, I've got a relationship with this family. I've known them since they were kids. The uncle just went to the tournament with us in Florida.'"
Brownell certainly isn't trying to take any credit for helping Swinney lock up his first major portal addition, though the 15th-year Clemson basketball coach has certainly made an impression on Swinney and everyone else in these parts for his ability to find game-changing transfers who fit perfectly into the Tigers' culture.
This is more a case of happenstance leading to a stumble upon a good story -- a Heldt of a good story, if you will -- from connections dating to the 1980s.
Carl Heldt was two years behind Brownell on the basketball team at Harrison High School in Evansville. He was in the same class as Calbert Cheaney, who went on to be a star at Indiana and is currently the Hoosiers' director of player development.
"I've known Brad since probably grade school," Carl said. "We go way back. We both loved the game of basketball, so we stayed in touch."
Brownell played college ball at DePauw University, and then was an assistant at the University of Evansville from 1991-92 before moving to an assistant's job at the University of Indianapolis from 1992-94.
"We kept in touch through college, even playing on the same summer softball team," said Carl, who attended Indiana University. "He was even trying to recruit me to go to DePauw and I darn near went there. We'd get together now and then, and we kept in touch. I followed his career when he was an assistant."
Brownell moved a long way from his comfort zone in 1994, taking an assistant job at UNC Wilmington under Jerry Wainwright.
"I remember living in Atlanta in 2002 when my Hoosiers went to the Final Four, and Brad and I met up there," Carl said. "Shortly after that he got the head job at UNC Wilmington."
For Brownell it was on to lead Wright State in 2006, and then to Clemson in 2010 after Oliver Purnell's abrupt departure.
Carl Heldt is a banker and has bounced around to a lot of different places -- he's currently living in Dallas and attended last week's commanding victory over SMU.
"I was living in Delaware for a while when he was at UNC Wilmington, and when they would play up in that area I would get to a lot of games," Carl said. "Didn't get to too many when he was at Wright State. And then Clemson, I just get to games when I can. I'm a big basketball fan, a big Brownell fan. It's just enjoyable to watch them play. He's a heck of a coach.
"You kind of get invested in it. I didn't know anything about Clemson until he took the job there. And now I'm as big a Clemson basketball fan as there can be."
Will's father Tommy is four years younger than Carl, so there wasn't as much of a connection there with Brownell. But when Will and his family made the visit to Clemson and went to dinner at Swinney's house, Brownell was of course a part of it.
"I think they had just come into town, and Dabo had a big shindig at his house," Brownell said. "Pearman came and got me and we went down there and spent a bunch of time with them, meeting the family and talking to Will a little bit and talking to Will and his girlfriend. Ironically the girlfriend is a Kappa Delta at Purdue. My wife Paula was a Kappa at Purdue. And Will's mom and dad both went to DePauw, where I went.
"As soon as I walked into Dabo's house, Tommy came running across with Dabo and wanted to come say hello. Tommy was younger than I was, so it wasn't like we were friends or anything. But Carl was just two years younger and was a sophomore when I was a senior.
"Kind of a cool deal."
Will still had to make a decision on Clemson, Texas A&M or LSU, but a note from Tommy to Brownell the next day brought a good vibe.
"He told me it was a really good visit," Brownell said. "They seemed really excited and happy."
Carl remains a big Indiana fan; he has season tickets to Hoosiers football games, and he said watching his alma mater have a dream season last fall was a thrill. But he's highly devoted to Clemson too, as he was in Clemson for several days to watch the Tigers' conquest of Duke and the trouncing of North Carolina 48 hours later.
Join Tigerillustrated.com subscribers on The West Zone message board!
What was Brownell the high school senior like on the basketball court?
"Coach is a good way to put it," Carl said "He was like a coach on the floor. An all-city caliber player. Great leader, as you might expect, on and off the court. Excellent shooter. He would go to shooting camps and he just had a really sweet stroke. His dad was a coach for many years, including at a couple of schools in Evansville. Brad just knew the game, and that really translated to the basketball court. He would direct people. He just knew -- just like he does now, he saw things on the court that others didn't see. So he was an excellent leader and just a great guy to play with."
Carl points out that in games that he's attended this season Clemson is 6-0 with two Quad 1 victories and three Quad 2 wins.
"He's just one of those guys that loves it," Brownell said. "He'll be at the NCAA Tournament, all that. He's been doing it for 20 years."
BECOME A TIGERILLUSTRATED.com SUBSCRIBER!
Carl has been to a few Clemson football games over the years. He'll be at more of them now that his nephew is a Tiger.
It's a Heldt of a story.
"Happy for Will," Carl said. "He's a hard worker, good kid. I know he's excited to be there."
TODAY: BIG DEALS on a ton of Clemson gear at The Tiger Fan Shop HERE!
(Checkout code: 24SHIP)
