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HASKELL, Ark. -- After a successful run as head coach of The Citadel from 1966-72, coach Jimmy "Red" Parker was ushered in as Clemson's new head football coach on December 5, 1972. Parker had already been in the coaching profession for 20 years before taking the post, and had never served as anything other than a head coach.
Though Parker is largely credited with building and recruiting a foundation that would ultimately set the stage for Clemson's longest stint ever in the national spotlight from 1977-91, the 1974 ACC Coach of the Year is somewhat of an overlooked figure from the modern era in Clemson lore.
That is until now, following the coach's candid, exclusive interview with Tigerillustrated.com where he revealed a story gone bad due to a climate of distrust, backstabbing and scheming which led to his firing on the day of December 1, 1976.
I met with Parker on the morning of May 11, 2011, where for several hours he placed himself back in Upstate South Carolina one more time to revisit his tenure as the Tigers' head coach.
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: When I first began covering Clemson in 1993, I remember writing down a list of 10 figures in Clemson football history I wanted to interview. No. 1 on the list was former head football coach Red Parker.
Of all the figures in Clemson history, certainly in the modern era, I felt Parker was the most overlooked. I felt there was a lot still left untold and unspoken with regard to his time here, specifically his tumultuous final season and subsequent departure.
I can honestly say of all the projects and interviews I've had the pleasure to work on throughout my career, this was by far my favorite. I remember leaving Mr. Parker's office five years ago following this interview and before I could get out of the town of Haskell, Ark., I phoned Tigerillustrated.com senior writer Larry Williams. I said to Larry, "I just got done with the best interview of my career. Red Parker was incredible."
And it wasn't close.
In my entire life, I've never known any individual with the sheer recall and memory bank Red Parker possessed. It's as though he never left Clemson, South Carolina. To see this 79-year old man - without hesitation - reel off names, dates, conversations, direct quotes (which I later corroborated in my research) from the mid 1970's was nothing short of remarkable. It spoke to not only Mr. Parker's aptitude and recall, but also indicated to me this was a man still hurting and not yet at peace with the way his head coaching career had come to a close in Clemson, South Carolina.
Two days prior, I had just left Tommy Bowden's home in Panama City Beach (Fla.). I had put in roughly 25 hours of research into the Parker interview back in Clemson. I had never spent more time on a single project for Tigerillustrated.com. I remember going over my notes on the 11-hour drive from Florida to Arkansas and several things began to concern me about this interview.
I knew that Parker had always felt former Clemson head coach Charley Pell took his job. I knew that he was still carrying that with him. Pell wasn't around to defend himself, but Parker could certainly give me his perspective and possibly a blow-by-blow account of precisely what transpired in 1976. The question was whether he would be willing to go on the record with it. And was he ever!
Each former Clemson head coach I interviewed wanted to go off the record at times during the interview process. Parker wanted me to cut the recorder off on three occasions, one of which was to give a very candid, unfavorable opinion of a former Clemson figure, though he expressly told me he preferred I not release it in the interview because a family member of this individual was still alive, a family member he respected. He told me I was free to release his appraisal of this Clemson figure only if the relative were to pass away. That has not happened as of this writing, so we will continue to comply, of course.
In addition, I knew Parker had some health issues. At the time of this interview (well before his death in January of 2016), he was 79 years old. In fact when I phoned him from my hotel room in Mississippi the night before, he said, "There's something wrong with me and I'm not sure what it is. The doctors aren't even sure. I've not been feeling well but I'm looking forward to seeing you, son. I just hope I don't let you down."
When I walked into his office the following morning, I told him I had become a Red Parker expert and I knew many things about his past. I told him I'd recite a lot of it in my questioning in an effort to jog his memory. He just smiled and pointed to the crown of his head, saying, "I don't need those notes. It's all up here. It never left."
He couldn't have been more right!
Mr. Parker was meeting with a couple of high school players. He quickly ushered both out, telling them, "This guy from Clemson, South Carolina has come all this way to see me. I've got to spend a few hours with him."
He then gently took off his hat, sat back in a chair and asked, "Son, are you ready?"
I said, "Yes sir, I am. We've got a lot to talk about."
And he replied, "Yes we do. I'm ready for you, son. Let's do it."
This is Red Parker, in his own words.
This is his story.
PART IV
Ard. When did you know that you were out as Clemson's head football coach? Tell me how that happened.
Parker. (Pausing) "Cris, this exposes the whole thing, but I will tell you. This is the whole deal, as God as my witness.
"Bill McLellan called me into his office about 9:30 a.m. on December 1, 1976. He said, 'Red, if you are not going to say what staff changes you're going to make, I believe they're going to fire you.' I said, 'Bill, I haven't made changes yet, but I'm going to make some changes soon. I'm just not going to fire them.' He said he was going to talk to someone and would let me know how the outcome was."
Ard. Who was he going to talk to at this point? Dr. R.C. Edwards?
Parker. "I assume the president. But I don't know.
"But here is the killer. About 11:30 that morning, he (McLellan) and one of my assistant coaches (Charley Pell) get in a car together and drive to Laurens, SC and they meet with the school's athletics committee. At that meeting - and I am not going to be vague anymore about this - they go ahead and appoint Charley Pell as the new head football coach. This was around 12:30-1:00 p.m.
"Now, nobody has come back to me yet and has said a word to me whatsoever. I had gone to the basketball game and had heard a buzz that I had been fired. It was all over the coliseum. I thought, 'Well dog, if I've been fired, I might better get on up out of here.'
"Before the end of the basketball game, I'm back home and Dan Foster, a friend of mine and a respected member of the media, is at my door and comes in and we start talking. He's asking me for a quote about it. I said, 'Dan, I don't really feel like I need to be quoted until I know I've been fired.' And he said, 'Fired? Hell, they've done got a new coach.' I said, 'WHAT?' He told me that McLellan had said he had talked to all these coaches throughout the night and had gotten recommendations on Charley Pell and they decided at 7 p.m. to hire him. Well ... that was a put-up, because I later found out that this had been done already by lunch time earlier that day.
"About that time, Admiral McDevitt from the university had come to my home. I assume they sent him to tell me that I had been fired. But he was afraid to speak up because there's a member of the news media sitting right there in my house. So he didn't really say anything."
Ard. So when did you get word from McLellan that you had been fired?
Parker. "I never did. To this day, I've never been told by him or anyone at Clemson I was fired. Dan Foster of the Greenville News is the one who told me. I learned about it from the news media."
Ard. So talk about your exchange with McLellan the next time you faced him.
Parker. "I had it out and told him what I thought. I told him what a dirty deal I thought this was. And then I got out of there. I left."
Ard. Did you fight for your job at this point or demand an explanation?
Parker. "No. I could tell this was coming on, looking back. I could tell by the secrecy that had been going on. I thought some of my staff members were also being undermined by certain people."
Ard. What was McLellan's reaction when you confronted him?
Parker. "Nothing. Not one word."
Ard. This seems so different from the McLellan you described to me earlier, the athletics director who hired you. Why?
Parker. "Well, it was obvious that he had been turned. It was obvious."
Ard. So you were not at the press conference. Did you watch any of it later on television once this hit the fan?
Parker. "No. I just had two good Clemson friends, two dear friends come to my home the next day. They asked me - out of respect for the kids I recruited - if I wouldn't say anything derogatory at this time. I said OK. But I told them the day would come when certain people leave when I would tell everything."
Ard. Did you have an opportunity to address your team?
Parker. "No, I did not. I did go that night when I found out they were going to introduce Pell to the team, but I was gone before he got there. They wanted to make sure I was gone when he got there. I was looking forward to saying a few things to him. Now, I'm glad I didn't."
Ard. When was the next time that you saw Pell?
Parker. "I don't think I ever saw him again."
Ard. Did you ever talk to him again?
Parker. "Yes I did. I called him when I found out he was dying (Pell died May 29, 2001). I called him and he was, 'Hey coach, how are you doing? I've always wanted to talk with you.' He said, 'I just want you to know everything that happened at Clemson wasn't the way you thought it was.' I said, 'Look here, Charley. You know what happened and I know what happened. Please don't make it harder for me. I want to say that I forgive you. I won't ever forget it. But I do forgive you.'
"That was hard. I mean, it was hard. I call myself a Christian, but that was a hard phone call to make."
Ard. What was your reaction when you learned he passed away.
Parker. (Pausing) "I probably shouldn't say. (Pausing) I didn't feel any remorse. I'm ashamed to say that. That makes less of me as a person. But that's the truth."
Ard. He goes on to have a good run in 1977 and 1978 with kids that you recruited. First of all, in 1977 and 1978, where were you at this time?
Parker. "I moved back to Arkansas and bought a Chevrolet dealership. I was in the process of getting that up off the ground, but I was never cut out for that."
Ard. But you were aware of what was going on back at Clemson, right?
Parker. "Oh yes. I have friends back at Clemson that to this day call me and let me know what's going on."
Ard. How did that make you feel ... seeing the success that he was having with an eight-win season in '77 and then an 11-1 season in 1978?
Parker. "Well, I was proud for the kids. I was proud because I knew they deserved it. I tried to get my feelings of resentment out of that because it was a different equation at this time, by 1977."
Ard. I want to go back to something here for a moment. Looking back on the '76 season, there wasn't a part of you that felt things were slipping away, something that might have prompted you to move forward and begin discussing a fifth year with McLellan before November?
Parker. "No. I didn't. And I might have been at fault for not doing that. And there was no question that the whole thing came about because certain people knew I wouldn't fire some people on my staff. The whole thing had been planned (behind my back) because they knew I wasn't going to fire some people to save my tail."
Ard. This is a hypothetical, but is it safe to say that had you been given a fifth year, you would not have retained coach Pell?
Parker. "Well, I would have had to get the money to buy out his contract, because one thing he insisted on - which I found out later on - was a two-year contract. I found out way later. (Then Virginia Tech head coach) Jimmy Sharpe told me."
Ard. The next decade, the run that Danny Ford had, what did you think about that?
Parker. "I was proud for Danny because I liked Danny. I always liked him a lot. Danny and I talked a lot at various times, even when he was at Arkansas. And I still talk with Danny."
Ard. When you were fired at Clemson, how long was it before you left town?
Parker. "I left as fast as I could get out. I got out actually before I sold my house."
Ard. Have you ever been back to Clemson for a game?
Parker. "I went back to one a few years ago."
Ard. What did you think when you came back?
Parker. "I was pleased and impressed. The plans that we had made, all the things that we felt like had to be done, had now been done. These are the things that I envisioned when I went to Clemson, when there were 43,000 seats there. Now, to me, it's how it should have been then. It's the way it was meant to be."
Ard. Ford took some criticism abroad for the program getting slapped with probation in the fall of 1982. Some of the NCAA's findings occurred during his watch, however many violations were committed under Pell's watch. As you observed the program from afar in 1982, I get the impression that you weren't overly surprised when you learned of the amount of unlawful action that had occurred from 1977-1978 under Pell.
Parker. "Overly isn't the word. The least bit (surprised) would be the words."
Ard. Talk about the media back then when you were at Clemson. Were they fair to you?
Parker. "Yes sir. They were good. I don't have a thing in the world to ever complain about regarding the average fan, the media, loyalty in the fan base, nothing. It was a great experience except for some parts here and there and obviously what happened at the end."
Ard. Bob Bradley was the sports information director then. He would go on to be considered a legend in his profession. Talk about him. How was he to work with?
Parker. "Oh man, what are you talking about ... he and his whole staff were great. When we got together to discuss different strategies about publicizing things, it was an absolute joy to work with him and his staff. Bob had that down-to-Earth approach that experience teaches you. He just had it. He was such a great, great pleasure to be around."
Ard. What do you want your legacy to be at Clemson?
Parker. "I would like for people to remember me as a person who tried really, really hard to get things going the right way. I fully, fully realize that it was my watch that let some things slip. But I also got sense enough to know that I don't know of any human in the world that could have gotten us around the injuries that plagued us in 1975."
Ard. Did you ever talk with McLellan again?
Parker. "No."
Ard. How about Dr. Edwards? Did you talk with him again after you left Clemson?
Parker. "I'll say this; Dr. Edwards was so good to me. I haven't talked to him since that day I was last in his office. And I heard - and he didn't tell me this - that the same two guys (on the Board of Trustees) that were after me told him that if he didn't back off, they were going to go after him."
Ard. And after all these years, you don't want to mention the two members of the Board of Trustees?
Parker. "No. It wouldn't serve any purpose. One of them, his wife was a good friend and she was real good to me and very considerate, but I know for a fact, indeed, it was these two after me."
Ard. How do you think they were turned against you? How does an assistant football coach take members of the Board of Trustees and turn them against his own head coach? Help me understand how you think this was facilitated. Were there meetings? Dinners? Were they in some way bought? How did this materialize between the two and Pell?
Parker. "Well, you meet them on the top floor of the Clemson House on a Saturday night after a football game and you drink until nobody can get out the door. When you're through, you have things going the way you want them to go. My daughter lived there at the Clemson House and on four different occasions that year she asked me, 'Why is a certain coach up here on the top floor of the Clemson House with so-and-so?'"
Ard. I have to say, to be 79 years old, your recall of what happened nearly 40 years ago is outstanding. However, is some of this due to perhaps or because there's a part of you that's been stewing over some things all these years?
Parker. "You're pretty perceptive. I'm sure it is. I don't go back through scrapbooks without remembering certain things. I have always regretted the fact that I did not mention the timespan between the noon hiring and the nighttime announcement and the front that they had been looking for a coach all that time when I knew that they had gone ahead and made the hire."
Ard. The fact that you're talking about this publicly, perhaps for the last time, does it bring some closure to some of the things that took place back in Clemson, particularly in 1976?
Parker. "I don't know. I think in some ways, except for the bitterness I have for that one cluster there at the end. Everything else there was so much fun. I see the whole thing as a great experience.
"I blame myself for letting this happen. I didn't have to do some of the things that led to this. I won't make like I am not without fault, because I was."
Ard. So you're 79 years old now. You're about to enter your second year as the head football coach here at Harmony Grove High School. The question I ask is why? What compels you to still get at it and coach today, even at 79?
Parker. "I like coaching. I like working with kids. The joy of my life now is my kids and grandkids and coaching. The fact that I'm coaching a bunch of high school kids on Friday night doesn't mean any less to me than coaching in the big time on Saturday afternoon. When the game is on, it's on. It's game time. And I want to do a good job for those kids. I won't expect them to give me half of an effort, and I won't give them half an effort."
Ard. Last question. How closely have you followed the Clemson program over the years?
Parker. "I'd say pretty close, considering as far away as I've been. Danny is a friend. Tommy Bowden is a friend. His father is a friend of mine. I don't know Dabo Swinney, but I did call him and congratulate him when he got the job. I don't know Tommy West. I know Ken Hatfield.
"I've always liked Ken Hatfield. I think the reason they fired Ken at Clemson is because he wasn't Danny. But ... there ain't but one Danny."
Tigerillustrated.com will release part I of The Danny Ford Files tomorrow.
Related Tigerillustrated.com articles:
-- Wealth of Clemson Information
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