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Here are some excerpts from my 2011 interview with Danny Ford ...
Ard. You begin the 1989 season ranked 12th, you move out to 4-0, but you're upset 21-17 at Duke and then you lose to Georgia Tech, 30-14, at home. You get on a five-game winning streak, blow out South Carolina 45-0 in Columbia, then beat #11 West Virginia bad in the bowl game to cap off a third, straight 10-win season. When you beat West Virginia, at that time, did you have any idea this would be your last season in Clemson?
Ford. "It was on television, before the bowl, that there was going to be a coaching change at one ACC school. I called the athletics director and wanted to know where it came from."
Ard. What did Bobby Robinson say when you confronted him with this?
Ford. (Pausing) "I don't remember what he said."
Ard. You go into recruiting and in the second week of January it's revealed that the NCAA is again looking into alleged improper recruiting practices. Was it at this point or shortly beforehand where the rumors of your being gone started back up?
Ford. "I don't think the rumors ever stopped. Once we got to the bowl, I don't think it ever stopped. There are things that people will never know or understand that went on from both sides, coaching and administration."
Ard. How did you feel at this point? What were you thinking?
Ford. "I may have pushed the subject, but they would never say if they were going to come out and say that they're going to back the football coaches or not. I felt like they were going to let us recruit and bring in another class and then they may do something or may not do something. I really believed that."
Ard. But for the record, you were not told in late December or the first week in January that there was going to be a change, correct?
Ford. "Correct."
Ard. This was a period of time where some frustration was vented publicly. There are stories where you would be at IPTAY functions, you'd vent and say things like, 'They don't want me to talk about this, but I'm the head coach and I can say whatever I want.' Is that the way it was?
Ford. "No, I never said it like that. But there were times when I probably should have kept my mouth shut and bit my lip. There were times when I think I did right, too. It's tough to explain, because you weren't there.
"I had my beliefs and they had theirs. There's no sense in rehashing it. It's all over with.
"Basically, I got an opportunity to coach at 30 years old, which I probably shouldn't have had. And I probably finished before I should have. But that's just the way the good Lord planned it, so there ain't no use worrying about it. The hay is in the barn. It's over. It's over. It's done."
Ard. The prevailing thought was that you were pushing for additional facilities for your players, for your program.
Ford. "We wanted to build a dorm where we could have meeting rooms. We'd have to have study hall in classrooms and sometimes professors would get mad at our players and wouldn't let them come back in their classrooms. Sometimes we'd be getting ready for a game and it would rain and we didn't have anywhere to practice, but we couldn't go to some other facility on campus because of some event or some fraternity deal, but there we were trying to get ready for a major opponent on national T.V. and we can't even practice for it. There were all kinds of problems. And everybody has them.
"So yes, I would fight for anything that I felt would help our football program. I would fight for anything that I felt would help our players. I never asked for anything that I didn't think we needed. But they had different views. I had different views. I still have different views."
Ard. One of your assistant coaches on the 1989 staff told me y'all had been on the road recruiting and prior to that at a convention rumors were swirling that y'all were going to be fired, but that the administration kept giving off signals internally that everything was status quo. When later out on the road recruiting, there was a call for everyone to come back in because the hammer had now fallen.
I want to talk about the change or dismissal (Ford 'resigned' on January 18, 1990). At what point was it communicated to you by either Robinson or Max Lennon that you were out?
Ford. (Pausing) "I got a letter from Bobby Robinson."
Ard. You were notified by way of a letter?
Ford. "I got a termination letter from Bobby Robinson, whatever they want to call it. It basically said, 'You've been relieved of your duties as of 5 p.m.'
"I kept the letter for a long, long time and kept it in my billfold for many, many years."
Ard. Why did you keep it on you for many years?
Ford. (Pausing) "I don't know. Just to have it, I guess. Then it became so unimportant that I don't even remember where it's at now."
Ard. Were there extensive talks between you, Robinson and or Lennon before you received the termination letter from Robinson?
Ford. "Not really. My lawyer met with them."
Ard. Were you able to break the news to your staff in a meeting?
Ford. "I think it had already gotten out before that. But I did have a staff meeting."
Ard. Why do you think the administration felt it needed to go in a different direction?
Ford. (Pausing) "I never got that answer. I don't believe there was great communication between the group of people there. That was probably the biggest mistake by all parties. There was never great communication.(Pausing)
"I'm sure I was out of line. Maybe I should have worried about coaching football. But I couldn't have coached football and gotten us to where I thought we needed to be without getting some things accomplished, getting things done for our players. It would have been different had I gone in there and said, 'I need an extra half a million dollars to do my job, or this or that.' But I didn't.
"The house that was built (for me), there was a lot of jealousy for stuff like that. I didn't care about having a coach's house. I just wanted to have a place to recruit. I asked Clemson to loan me the money at a good interest rate and let me build a nice house to bring prospects in for recruiting. That made some people upset because they didn't have one. It was just ... jealousy, some (Clemson) big shot didn't have one or a big swimming pool. I can still hear that now. There was so much jealousy and cry-babyish things said. I don't even like to go back there. I don't want to hear it or even think about it."
Ard. You meet with your team to deliver the news to them in person. What do you remember about that?
Ford. "I remember going over there to the dining hall and meeting with them. I just tried to do the best that I could. I wanted them to do the best they could for Clemson, keep working and keep winning.
"I had always told them that I'd never quit on them. Brentson Buckner stood up and said, 'You told us you'd never quit on us.' And I told them, 'Well, I'm not really quitting.'"
Ard. The day comes and at least publicly the information is that you resign after reaching an agreement to part ways on the grounds of philosophical differences. You go in and you begin to clean out your office after having an office in the Jervey Athletics Center since 1977. How did that feel?
Ford. "The night before, I couldn't sleep. I had done told my family. I left my house about 1 a.m., went over to my office to start cleaning out my desk in the middle of the night. I didn't have a job. I didn't have anything else to do, so I did that. So I back my truck up to my office and about that time a police lady drives by and comes up. This was about 3 a.m. She asked, 'What are you doing?' I'm there in the middle of the night, ain't nobody up or alive and she's out patrolling, and I'm looking like I'm stealing from Jervey. She asked me again what I was doing and I said, 'Well ...' And then her eyes got big and she knew. I guess she was the first one that had any indication that something was going to happen."
Ard. It was widely speculated that your being pushed out was due in part to the ongoing NCAA investigation, although you said at the time you parted ways with Clemson that your leaving had nothing to do with that. In your talks with them or your attorney's talks with them, was that ever given as one of the reasons why they were going to go in a different direction?
Ford. "No."
Ard. You had a tremendous amount of support, as people began to march to the president's house, your players were on television standing up in your defense and telling the media that they wanted you back. Your successor, Ken Hatfield, arrives the following week and as he and his wife step out of a car to walk into the stadium where he would be announced at a press conference, there is a horde of fans booing and yelling obscenities. How did this make you feel?
Ford. "Well everybody that was pro-athletics felt like we had everything going the right way.
"You know, whenever you're through, you're through. It doesn't matter what you think. I'm sure there's shock, you're trying to figure things out, but I didn't spend a great amount of time thinking about things. I didn't want my players losing their scholarships and say something to cause them to lose their scholarships."
Ard. Hatfield told me he drove out to your farm to talk with you after he got the job. What do you remember about that?
Ford. "I told him I'd help him any way I could help him. He had kept Clyde Wrenn, so Clyde knew a lot. I had never met coach Hatfield, but I do see him now when I go to Arkansas some. He's always been nice to me and I've always been nice to him."
Ard. Have you spoken to Max Lennon since the NCAA hearing in May of 1990?
Ford. "No. That's probably been the last time I've seen him."
Ard. If he were here in this room with us today, this moment, what would you say to him?
Ford. "Dr. Lennon?"
Ard. Yes. Lennon.
Ford. (Pausing) "I don't know what I'd say.
"I'm sure - well I'm not sure of anything - but I have to believe that in this whole deal that every party in every situation could have done a whole lot better. I mean everybody, and that includes me. If there had been just someone there to grab the situation and say, 'Hey, everybody get in a room and let's talk,' then maybe ..."
Ard. In talking with you, it sounds as if you feel McLellan had been a good buffer between yourself and the administration.
Ford. "Things were structured a little bit differently. Bobby was not as strong a personality as Bill. Bill ran the athletics department when he was there. And that's not to say anything negative about Bobby."
Ard. Have you spoken with Robinson in the years since you left?
Ford. "Yes. I speak to Bobby. I've talked to him.
"Bobby couldn't help anything that happened, I don't think."
Ard. A lot of people channeled a tremendous amount of criticism towards Lennon, a couple of members of the board of trustees and Robinson. But for the record, you don't think this was Robinson's doing or that he wanted you to leave, do you?
Ford. "No. I just don't think he was strong enough of a personality. And that's nothing against Bobby.
"You can never go backwards, but if everybody would have just slowed down and talked, you never know. Maybe we had too many people looking in too many different directions."
Ard. Is that one of the biggest regrets, the line of communication from the football office to the administration in the late 1980's?
Ford. (Pausing) "Well, I think I communicated just fine, but they didn't like what I communicated. I never thought I was too big for my pants, but it's what I thought we needed to get us another national championship. If it were personal, it would have been different."
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