Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 25, 1993 TAG: 9308250084
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BY FRANK VEHORN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CLEMSON, S.C. LENGTH: Medium
Frank Howard made himself a promise the day he resigned in 1969 after 30 years as Clemson's head football coach.
"I told myself that I'd never criticize another Clemson coach, and I won't," Howard said Tuesday as he sat in the den of the single-level brick house he and wife Anna built in 1951.
So the vocal fans who have been after present Clemson coach Ken Hatfield since he replaced their beloved Danny Ford four years ago get no support from Howard, the father of Clemson football.
"I've tried to get along with all our coaches," says Howard. "I will help any of them that needs help, but I am not going out and volunteering help."
You get the impression Hatfield, whose losing record last year was the first at Clemson since 1976, hasn't sought Howard's advice, either.
During an hour-long interview, the only subject Howard gave a "no-comment" to was about his relationship with Hatfield.
Howard talked freely about Ford, who coached the Tigers to their only national championship in 1981.
Ford consulted with Howard regularly and if he had taken all of Howard's advice might still be coaching the Tigers. Ford was bought out after the 1989 season because of openly opposing administration policies.
"I always liked Ford," says Howard. "He was a good coach. But, like I tried to tell him, the boss ain't always right, but he is always the boss."
Clemson fans, once the most loyal group in the ACC, have been split since that night Ford jumped into his pickup truck and drove off with a multi-million dollar settlement that stipulated he could not coach anywhere else for three years.
He is coaching this year at Arkansas, ironically, the school Hatfield left to come to Clemson.
Donations to IPTAY, Clemson's athletic fund-raising club, are down, as are season-ticket sales after last year's losing record.
"That probably has as much to do with the economy as anything," suggests Howard. "Those people will be back when times get better."
But senior tackle Brentson Buckner doesn't think they'll be back until the Tigers get better on the field and fans get over Ford's departure.
"Coach Ford was well-liked, but people need to move on and get over that," Buckner said. "They are upset with coach Hatfield, but they have to understand that we, the players and not coach Hatfield, lost those games."
Football at Clemson has not been on a smooth road since Howard retired.
Hootie Ingram and Red Parker, who followed him, were chased away with losing records. Charley Pell laid the foundation for the national championship, but he got the school on NCAA probation.
The program drew NCAA investigators like flies during Ford's time, too.
Howard, who was inducted into the College Hall of Fame in 1989, had six top-20 seasons, took the Tigers to most of the major bowls, and won eight conference titles without a hint of wrongdoings.
"But, I wouldn't want to coach, the way things are today," Howard said. "I would be like Don James at Washington [who resigned on Monday]. I'd get out, too.
"I went by the rules, but back then the rules were much more sensible, and not as many of them.
"We could legally give players a few dollars a month for laundry. Some of those players are so poor they can't afford anything."
Howard would like to see the major conferences form their own organization and be allowed to give players $50 a month for incidental expenses.
"Then, if anyone violated the rules, kick them out for life," he said. "That would stop all of the cheating."
Howard, 84, says the only thing that would interest in coaching today, were he younger, is the money. He was making only $25,000 when he retired.
"Clemson paid Ford a whole lot more for not coaching during the time he sat out than I got paid for coaching 30 years," he says.
by CNB