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CENTRAL, S.C. -- Arguably the most recognizable figure in the history of Clemson Football guided the program to its first and only national championship in 1981.

It was here where 33-year old Danny Ford reached the pinnacle of college football. And it was here where Clemson emerged as the one, true oasis for serious football in the Atlantic Coast Conference. From 1981-83, Clemson posted a 30-2-2 mark, the best record in college football. Ford compiled a 96-29-4 mark, which included of course the national championship, five conference titles, and bowl victories over Ohio State, Nebraska, Penn State, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Stanford.

But it was also here where the NCAA uncovered a beehive of missteps, with many recruiting violations dating back to the Charley Pell Era in 1977-78, though the NCAA would again begin investigating the football program in 1989, later revealing its findings in 1990 that a coach and a booster gave cash to players from 1985-87. As a result, Clemson was again placed on probation in June of 1990, the second time in eight years.

Ford, still the youngest head coach in NCAA history to win a national title, would watch his tenure come to an abrupt end in January of 1990, after receiving a termination letter from then athletics director Bobby Robinson following an 'agreement' on the grounds of 'philosophical differences' with then university president Max Lennon.

In late May of 2011, I met with Ford for a three hour, exclusive interview where one more time the former National Coach of the Year placed himself back in the head coaching position at Clemson to relive his decade-long run as the program's front man.

PUBLISHER's NOTE: Five years ago when I met with Clemson's former head coaches, the last interview to take place was Ford. He had been really busy on his farm and was also in the middle of a couple of events that involved former players. One of the things I always admired about Coach Ford was his accessibility to his former players. It was after an event in Greenville where we decided to get together for nearly three hours.

I arrived at the hotel in the Upstate where the interview was to take place roughly 10 minutes prior to our scheduled meeting. The Tigers' legendary coach was already there. Ford, as usual, had already made himself at home and was just sitting on a couch reading a newspaper. Before I could put my notes and recorder down on a table, the coach had already reached out his hand. I shook his hand and it was obvious right away this was a coach who was used to hard, manual labor on his farm.

Growing up in the town of Cheraw, SC, I had always admired Ford. His 1981 Clemson team facing Nebraska in the National Championship Game was the first college football game I ever saw. I thought this was a coach who said a lot even when he said very little. Our family purchased our first VCR in 1986 and I remember recording his Sunday coaches shows. It gave me a window into how he viewed film, what he looked for in the game of football and how he critiqued performance. When he said something more than once in on-air evaluation, I could tell it was important to him. Even when he didn't really say much, you thought he did.

But that was many years ago. Now it was time to go to work. There were questions to be asked, some of which I knew Ford didn't want to answer.

For example, in this extensive four-part series, you will see certain questions appear in parts two and three, questions that were actually asked in the final minutes of the interview. One question in particular was my asking Ford this:

There were allegations of your coaches offering cash and benefits to prospects, then benefits provided for student-athletes. In the NCAA's findings, it was documented that they felt there was a pattern of improper recruiting activities, which in part led to the sanctions in 1982. How could the recruiting coordinator not know about these things? And how could the head coach not know about these things?

When I asked the question, Ford, still very much an imposing figure, just stared at me for a few seconds. I could tell right away he didn't like the question. Here I am thinking one of two things are about to happen. Either the most recognizable figure in Clemson history is about to deck me or he's going to get up and walk out of the interview. I deliberately waited until the final minutes of the interview to ask the question for this very reason. Ford, though, did indeed answer the question.

As he began talking about the NCAA probe from 1982, I could see he was getting a little frustrated, not only in discussing something that put a black mark on the program but also due to the manner in which it was handled by both the NCAA and the ACC, which levied its own sanctions against Clemson. Ford had gotten so frustrated back in 1982 when two NCAA investigators descended on Clemson one day, he told them he was about to go fishing when they wanted to question him. Ford cooperated with their questioning, of course. He simply put them in a boat with him and the three went fishing. That's essentially where he was personally interviewed by the NCAA's investigators.

There were other topics I felt needed to be discussed, such as his relationship with longtime UGA head coach and rival Vince Dooley, whether he felt Dooley had turned Clemson into the NCAA, Herschel Walker's recruitment, his relationship with South Carolina head coach Joe Morrison and a private meeting between the two days before Morrison died, his public chiding of Clemson's administration before his eventual dismissal in 1990, the termination letter he received from then athletics director Bobby Robinson, his relationship with then President Max Lennon, Ford's return to Clemson's campus where he spent time in his office at 1 a.m. the day before his departure was announced and so much more.

I wasn't sure how he would react to any of the aforementioned questions, but he was surprisingly candid. And for that reason, we have another window into Clemson's past, with additional clarity, finally.

This is Danny Ford, in his own words.

This is his story.

Ard. Coach, it's always such a pleasure to visit with you. I really appreciate your time today. We've got a lot of ground to cover, so let's get started.

Charley Pell was named as Clemson's head football coach on December 1, 1976. You joined the staff on January 3, 1977. Talk about the process where you transitioned from Virginia Tech to Clemson.

Ford. "I coached with coach Pell at Virginia Tech. Terry Don (Phillips) was on our staff at Virginia Tech, too. But coach Pell called me and offered me a job. I had known coach Pell when he was coaching at Jacksonville State. When I was recruiting North Alabama as an assistant coach at Alabama, I'd always go by and see coach Pell at Jacksonville State. We'd talk about recruiting and who we'd offer and recruit. They were a smaller school, but it gave him some idea of who they could recruit."

Ard. When you were at Alabama as an assistant coach, when you were at Virginia Tech as an assistant coach, what were your impressions of Clemson's football program, judging it or observing it from afar?

Ford. "I didn't know anything about Clemson. The only thing I really knew is that we'd played them when I was on the team at Alabama. I knew they had a great tight end, Bennie Cunningham. Basically that was the only thing I knew about Clemson's football program."

Ard. How was coach Pell to work with?

Ford. "Coach Pell was very thorough. We had a lot of meetings. He was a very strong disciplinarian. He was very fair to work with. He just expected you to do your job and wanted you to make sure your people played well. He did a good job of turning it around from coach (Red) Parker. Of course I'm not so sure coach Parker wouldn't have turned it around, either. Because they had the players when we went there. I mean they had some really good players.

"I've always given coach Parker a tremendous amount of credit for what was accomplished. It was no secret when we got to Clemson that we had players. I thought we had as good a players as there were at Alabama then. It wasn't a hard job, because as an assistant coach, I had a lot of talent on my line. I had the Bostic brothers, Lacey Brumley, Steve Kenney, Billy Hudson, Anthony King at tight end who could play several different places. I had good people and a lot of talent. And the reason we had them is because they had been recruited by coach Parker. There were several of them that went professional."

Ard. Coach Parker told me he had a lot of problems with Pell after hiring him in 1976.

Ford. "Now coach Pell and coach Parker didn't get along. I do know that later on when coach Pell was going through a bunch of (health) problems, I talked to coach Parker and they talked over the phone and tried to make it right. I recommended to coach Parker that he call coach Pell, because I knew coach Pell wasn't going to do it."

Ard. Coach Parker told me it was a very difficult phone call for him to make.

Ford. "Oh it had to be. I'm sure it was. I'm sure there was a lot of distrust and maybe some hatred towards one another, but at least they did talk and tried to make it right."

Ard. Parker raved about his last three signing classes when I met with him two weeks ago.

Ford. "Oh yeah, they signed really good football players. Maybe had they given him more time, you don't know what would have happened. They had the players to win. They might have been young or whatever, but coach Pell was able to get to them and turn it around. The rest of the staff did a good job. We won a lot of football games when coach Pell was here."

Ard. I want to fast forward now a couple of years. Pell resigns December 4, 1978. You then meet with the school's athletics committee on December 5 and then you're named head coach. Talk about the transition here, your meeting with the athletics committee and then subsequently getting the head coaching job.

Ford. "I don't remember it being that long of a process. I remember Stan Olenik with the TV station was reporting on a lot of this. When coach Pell left, I remember meeting with him. He asked me, 'Do you want the job?' I said, 'Yes. Of course. Certainly I'd like to try to get the job.' Now, I had the title of the assistant head coach. Probably the reason I had that title was because I was paid pretty good to leave Virginia Tech.

"I did meet with the committee. I remember going into that room with them. They had a list of names they were going to talk to. But I know that Bill McLellan helped me a lot. He was our athletics director. He made some calls and some other people made some calls on my behalf. I remember the committee asking me if I was afraid of the job. For some ungodly reason, I said, 'The only thing I'm afraid of is snakes. Nothing else scares me except a snake.' (Laughing) I guess they were concerned about my age, but I wasn't afraid of anything back then.

"When coach Pell left, he took Dwight Adams and Joe Kines with him to Florida. And he offered me a job at Florida, so I knew I had a job either way. I had a chance to go to Florida if it didn't work out.

"At this point, I went to the other coaches who were left on the (Clemson) staff and told them if anybody wanted to try to get the job, it would be better if we don't have three or four people from the staff involved. I told them that if that were going to happen, I'd just step out. Because I wasn't going to get into a political thing and fight people for it. But they all agreed that I should try to get the job.

"Mickey Andrews would have been a lot more qualified, because he had been a head coach before. But he was gracious enough to let me go after the job without him going after it. I think the players also went to Dr. (R.C.) Edwards and they wanted to keep a lot of the staff. They didn't want a major change in the program. We had just had two winning seasons and they'd been losing before that, so they wanted us to keep winning.

"Dr. Edwards and McLellan were the main two people (that helped me). Dr. Edwards helped me a lot and listened to the players. And Bill McLellan gave me an opportunity ... which that was a big risk. They took a tremendous chance in hiring someone off the staff."

Ard. You took the job and you were just 30 years old. Did you feel that you were ready?

Ford. "Who knows? Who knows if you're ready."

Ard. But did you feel confident that you could do the job?

Ford. "That's kind of like the first time I ever coached in college. I just didn't have that much time to think. You knew what time you played and you went out and played. You had no idea how you'd handle it. I just coached."

Ard. So you're the head football coach now. Was there an initial message from McLellan for you, one outlining his plan or his objectives for you and the program in the wake of Pell's departure?

Ford. "No. But I'll say this: Bill McLellan was the best athletics director I ever had an opportunity to work with. Now, coach (Bear) Bryant was the athletics director at Alabama, but he was also the head coach. He was my boss. He was as good as there was at everything, but he didn't have the administrative stuff. Someone else did.

"Bill would let you just do your job. He'd do anything in the world for you to help you be successful. One of his favorite sayings was, 'Don't tell me what you want, just tell me what you need.' Certainly winning was important to him, because he had just hired coach Pell and we had won a lot."

Ard. Do you remember the day you were told you got the job?