SC State Head Football Coach Emeritus joined college football's elite Saturday when
he was inducted into the prestigious National Football Foundation's College Football Hall of Fame at South Bend, Indiana.
A small legion of SC State officials, family, friends and former players was on hand to share in the glee.
Jeffries, who called the latest of numerous honor the apex of his illustrious college coaching career, was among 23 inductees -- including four coaches -- to be enshrined at an elaborate ceremony at the Century Center Convention Hall. Overall, of the millions of college football players and coaches who have been involved in a game that began in1869, only 800 players and 158 coaches occupy a position in the College Hall.
Also inducted was Blackville, SC native Troy Brown, who had a record-setting career at Marshall University and played on five Super Bowls with the New England Patriots, winning three NFL Championship rings during a 14-year career.
Jeffries, who counts a number of Hall of Fame honors, coaching accolades and two of the Palmetto State's highest citations – the Order of the Palmetto and the Order of the Silver Crescent – among his many awards, found it hard to hide the pride and glee he felt on joining college football's many titans.
“I'm overjoyed to be receiving such a distinguished honor,” Jeffries said in a pre-ceremony interview. “It's just a great pleasure to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
The pride and joy was apparent as Jeffries joined the other inductees on stage, all decked out in their blue Hall of Fame blazers.
A vocal group that gave Jeffries a thunderous applause was on had to share it the glee. It included family, family friends, former players, former assistant coaches and officials from SC State. All were anxious to let the supporter for the other inductees know that “he (Jeffries) is our guy.
During the Saturday morning parade, which had hundreds of people lining the route, when Jeffries – riding in a bright yellow vintage car -- neared a group of supporters, many eagerly took out their cell phones and digital cameras and scrambled into the street to snap pictures.
One onlooker, who was waiting to get a glimpse of one of the marching bands entered, asked “he must be a real celebrity.”
“That's Coach Jeffries, our guy,” one of the SC State supporters bellowed. “That's easy to tell, the onlooker quipped. He's obviously well-liked.”
“More like beloved,” noted one in the crowd who would share in the glee of Jeffries' induction.
“Sharing in the Glee”
Making the trek to South Bend were the Jeffries family – wife Mary, his constant companion; daughters Valerie and Tammie and son Willie (Jeff) Jr.; family friends and SC State employees Gloria Pyles, Betty Boatwright and Deborah Blacknall; Jerome and Gail Walker, relatives of Mrs. Jeffries; family friend Mary Faulkner; former SC State players Harry Carson, a 2002 College Football Hall of Fame inductee, Dexter Clinkscales, Steve Latimer and his wife Vanessa, and John Bates; former assistant coach Keith Jones; former Jeffries' Union, SC neighbors Joe Farr, Jr. and Joe Farr, II; and the official SC State contingent of athletics director Charlene Johnson, head football coach Buddy Pough and his wife Josie, VP for Institutional Advancement Anthony Hollomon, athletic marketing director James McClinton; and SID Bill Hamilton. The well-wishers also included players from Wichita State and Howard and MEAC media relations director Patricia Porter. Most, along with other supporters scattered about, had journeyed long distances to share in the Jeffries moment.
Things had come full circle for a man, who earned an engineering degree from SC State in 1960 and thought he would become one of the world's best in the profession. Instead, he found coaching, a profession that has enabled him to touch many lives and mentor numerous young men.
“A Bold Move Pays Off”
When Willie Jeffries abandoned a comfortable position as a Pittsburgh assistant under Johnny Majors in 1973 after only one season to take the reins of the football program at South Carolina State – his alma mater – no one, not even the venerable coach himself, could have realized the impact he would have on the Bulldog football program, the university, the community, the state and nation.
South Carolina State was coming off a dismal 1-9 record from the year before (1972), and all Jeffries hoped to do was to start the program on a steady climb back to success and respectability. Well, that steady climb became a giant leap as Jeffries and his staff, in their inaugural season, guided the Bulldogs to a 7-2-1 regular season showing and a berth in the postseason Orange Blossom Classic against Florida A&M.
That first-year success was followed by a string of winning seasons, conference championships, postseason appearances and player and coaching honors. In fact, during his first stint at S.C. State (1973-78), and before he made a history-making jaunt to Wichita State in 1979 as the first African-American coach to head a Division I program, Jeffries and his staff compiled an enviable 50-13-4 mark, with five Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference titles and as many post season berths.
“I never dreamed that we would turn things around so quickly,” reflected Jeffries, who returned to Orangeburg in 1989 for a second stint (1989-2001) as head coach for the Bulldogs. “I didn't have any idea of the enormous success we would enjoy that first year and the years that followed.”
Jeffries, whose enviable career included five-year stints each at Wichita State and Howard, compiled an outstanding 179-132-6 overall record before retiring in 2001. He was named head coach emeritus at SC State earlier this year, and this latest honor puts a stamp on a great career.
