Former Clemson Tigers Athletic Director Terry Don Phillips Passes Away

The Clemson Tigers received some sad news regarding one of their most important figures in athletics in recent memory.

Head coach Dabo Swinney told the media on Tuesday morning that former athletic director Terry Don Phillips had passed away earlier that morning. He was the AD of the Tigers from 2002-12, which was a tenure defined by growth and laying the foundation for Clemson’s recent successes.

“It’s a very sad day because this day has come, but it’s also a blessing because I know that he’s not suffering anymore,” Swinney said. “I know he’s whole, I know he’s a man of faith and I know he’s in heaven with Jesus, so I have great comfort in that.”

Most notably, Phillips decided to make Swinney the interim head coach of Clemson in the 2008 season after former head coach Tommy Bowden resigned. Then, in the offseason, Phillips signed Swinney as the permanent head coach of the program.

It wasn’t perfect for Swinney when he was promoted to the interim job. In fact, he quit two days in after seeing the true struggles of building a program. After getting more resources, the Clemson head coach shared a message that Phillips had after a battle between the two.

“Later on that night, he came into my offive and he sat down, and he just said, ‘This is why you’re going to be a great head coach,’” Swinney said. “‘You fight for what you believe in, and I’m just glad that we were able to work this out.’”

And the rest is history when it comes to football. However, Phillips made key hires in men’s basketball with Oliver Purnell and Brad Brownell as well. On the soccer field, he was responsible for hiring the two most-winningest coaches in both programs’ history: men’s head coach Mike Noonan and women’s head coach Eddie Radwanski.

With Phillips at the helm of the athletic programs, Clemson won 13 ACC Championships in eight different sports. Five of those were in various women’s sports. That also included the Tigers’ ACC Championship in 2011, which was the program’s first in 20 years on the football field.

The fun was in the winning for plenty of programs under the former athletic director, with 77 seasons of winning records occurring over his 10-year tenure. That was headlined by baseball and women’s tennis, which each had 10 straight winning seasons. Football and volleyball had winning seasons in all but one year.

While Clemson mourns one of its best leaders, the groundwork that he was able to lay on the various athletic programs will never be forgotten.

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