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All-In [40088]
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On Jimmy "Red" Parker
Sep 15, 2017, 4:02 PM
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In my new civilian job which is in Arkansas, my new colleague found out on day 1 that I'm a Clemson fan. Related a story to me about Red Parker. Basically he is friends with his son and met him recently. He says he is a neat guy. He brought me a book today. Should I read it? I was too young back then to know anything about him so I don't know the history and feelings towards him. I only know the one sided point of view passed through my colleague. What is the collective memory? Love him, hate him, or meh?
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All-TigerNet [10589]
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Re: On Jimmy "Red" Parker
Sep 15, 2017, 4:04 PM
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I liked Red Parker a lot and thought he was an excellent coach. A lot of people give Red credit for putting together the team that eventually started the Tigers on the road to success.
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Orange Blooded [4142]
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Re: On Jimmy "Red" Parker
Sep 15, 2017, 4:20 PM
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This is how I felt about him , too . He did wonders at the Citadel . He did a great job recruiting here , but things eventually worked out pretty good .
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Asst Coach [731]
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Re: On Jimmy "Red" Parker
Sep 15, 2017, 4:21 PM
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Loved Red Parker....considering where he started, facilities etc. he was probably the best recruiter
ever at Clemson. He was too easy on the players discipline wise and that was his undoing. Charlie Pell came in and coached Red's players tough and that was a good recipe.
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Standout [333]
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Re: On Jimmy "Red" Parker
Sep 15, 2017, 4:32 PM
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I also liked Red. A punter from that team hurt his knees. When he walked into Reds office, Red called him by name. He said he was the only coach that knew all the players names! I think Pell stabbed Red in the back. Trying to build resume to get Alabama job.
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Legend [16646]
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Re: On Jimmy "Red" Parker
Sep 15, 2017, 4:48 PM
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^^
This! Pell was trash and there were more than a few 'rumors' during the '76 season of Pell 'stabbing' Red. That '76 team was competitive, young...couldn't buy a break, but drilled the ##### in the 'silent' game. Pell used Red and Clemson...period. Then again, he abused Florida, so I guess we got off lucky!
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Orange Blooded [4505]
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I used to talk a lot with Dr. Edwards when I traveled
Sep 15, 2017, 4:57 PM
[ in reply to Re: On Jimmy "Red" Parker ] |
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with the football team. Pell had nothing to do with Red losing his job. He could have saved his job by firing certain assistants. He refused and Dr. Edwards and Bill McClellan fired him. Dr. Edwards told me this more than once, including while we were having refreshments.
Message was edited by: leo®
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Oculus Spirit [96771]
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Must have been quite an experience being
Sep 15, 2017, 5:01 PM
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refreshments with Dr. Edwards
AND DON'T BOTHER EDITING I TOOK A SCREENSHOT
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1st Rounder [638]
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Re: Must have been quite an experience being
Sep 15, 2017, 10:01 PM
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An RC cola and a moon pie.....
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Legend [16646]
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Orange Blooded [4505]
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I used to talk a lot with Dr. Edwards when I traveled
Sep 15, 2017, 4:58 PM
[ in reply to Re: On Jimmy "Red" Parker ] |
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with the football team. Pell had nothing to do with Red losing his job. He could have saved his job by firing certain assistants. He refused and Dr. Edwards and Bill McClellan fired him. Dr. Edwards told me this more than once, including while we were having "refreshments".
Message was edited by: leo®
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Varsity [222]
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Re: On Jimmy "Red" Parker
Sep 15, 2017, 4:27 PM
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Red Parker was a good football coach and a GREAT recruiter. He brought in the players who went 11-1 in '78 - Steve Fuller's senior year. After a 3-6-2 season in '76, Charlie Pell, asst Coach, convinced AD Bill McClelland that Red's other assistants were sorry and should be fired. McClelland bought it and told red to fire some of them. Red refused so Mc Clelland fired him. Guess who was made Head Coach - Pell! He deserted us for Florida before the '78 bowl game.
Note: The '78 team, Red's boys, was one of the best teams we ever had. We slipped up in the second game and lost to UGA, or we may have been national champions. We beat Ohio State in the bowl game. That was the game which got Woody Hayes fired for slugging Charlie Bauman after Charlie intercepted a pass which sank the Buckeyes chances.
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110%er [6223]
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Re: On Jimmy "Red" Parker
Sep 15, 2017, 4:32 PM
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We students liked him. He coached the team to the 7-4 undefeated home record in 1974. At the time it was huge. Unfortunately two losing season followed. As I recall we went to Oklahoma for a paycheck early in the 1975 season. At the time Oklahoma was huge. The players took a beating and never recovered.
He refused to fire his assistants and was fired. Many feel he set the foundation of what followed. Just imho.
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Legend [17577]
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Red came to Clemson in my Sophomore year.
Sep 15, 2017, 4:41 PM
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He led us to a winning season in 1974, the 1st and only winning season of my time at Clemson. I still have the Pepsi bottle from our 7-4 season commemorating our "undefeated home season".
How far we've come since then!
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1st Rounder [628]
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Re: Red came to Clemson in my Sophomore year.
Sep 15, 2017, 5:11 PM
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All the fans loved Red. He was a charismatic speaker. Kind of in the Jerry Clower vein.Remember him coming to Rock Hill (Joslin Park) after the 75 beatdown and and saying, "Every morning I get up and thank God 'cause we're one day closer to playing carolina". He got that payback but it couldn't save his job. He taught the triple option to Lou Holtz when Lou was going from Will & Mary to State and that, too, came back to bite him.
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Scout Team [190]
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Re: On Jimmy "Red" Parker
Sep 15, 2017, 5:00 PM
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Red Parker was a fantastic man. The man loved football. He continued to coach in his last years at Harmony Grove HS in Benton, AR. It was the HS' first team. He resigned 2 months before he died - he just lived the sport and loved coaching young men and never wanted to give it up. His funeral was what you'd expect from a life of coaching - players from all his years of coaching, from the citadel, from Clemson, from the other colleges he coached at, and the entire Harmony Grove team in "Red" shirts. If any legacy Red would leave behind is how he treated and taught the players and coaches around him.
Outside of football, he was a very funny man. He was a fantastic story teller and his sense of humor was great. I'd give the book a read - is it titled "Red: Beyond Football"?
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Associate AD [813]
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Re: On Jimmy "Red" Parker
Sep 15, 2017, 5:30 PM
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I lived in Thomasville, Ga for over 45 years and one day I receivdd a call from someone in IPTAY asking if I could pick up Coach Parker at the Thomasville Airport. I guess I was the only Clemson Grad in the county back then. I met him and a couple of assistants and brought them into Thomasville. He was recruiting William Andrews and when he saw William, he began patting him down, the likes of which would make a TSA agent jealous. I guess he was checking to see if those thighs were real or padded. They went off with him and his High School coach and l waited and took them back to the airport layer on. Great experience I will always remember!
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Associate AD [813]
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Re: On Jimmy "Red" Parker
Sep 15, 2017, 5:32 PM
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I lived in Thomasville, Ga for over 45 years and one day I receivdd a call from someone in IPTAY asking if I could pick up Coach Parker at the Thomasville Airport. I guess I was the only Clemson Grad in the county back then. I met him and a couple of assistants and brought them into Thomasville. He was recruiting William Andrews and when he saw William, he began patting him down, the likes of which would make a TSA agent jealous. I guess he was checking to see if those thighs were real or padded. They went off with him and his High School coach and l waited and took them back to the airport layer on. Great experience I will always remember!
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All-TigerNet [12016]
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In my opinion, Red pulled the
Sep 15, 2017, 5:36 PM
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greatest psych job in Clemson history against the Coots in '76 by not bringing the team to DV until kickoff. The team ran down the hill late, received a delay of game penalty to start the game, and then proceeded to kick the favored chickens up and down the field all afternoon.
For that alone, he should forever hold a special place in Clemson history.
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Orange Blooded [4180]
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Re: In my opinion, Red pulled the
Sep 15, 2017, 5:51 PM
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Yes, maybe my all time favorite Clemson- Carolina game. If I remember Carolina was a 17 point favorite.
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Scout Team [190]
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Re: In my opinion, Red pulled the
Sep 15, 2017, 6:04 PM
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Could you pull that these days?!? ESPN would have a cow if we showed up 2 mins late
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Orange Blooded [3286]
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Re: In my opinion, Red pulled the
Sep 15, 2017, 6:24 PM
[ in reply to In my opinion, Red pulled the ] |
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In 1976 we were 2-6-1 going into the SC game and had out scored every team we played in the second half. Red skipped the typical warm ups and had the team live scrimmage on the practice field, so when they took the field it was their second half!
Also in 1974 we played UNC 2 weeks before the SC game and bowl bids were given out 2 weeks early with UNC invited to the Peach Bowl before our game. To aggravate things further, UNC coach Bill Dooley made a comment on his TV show that he expected to score a lot of points against Clemson. Red fired back that the way UNC played defense he better bring an RC and a moon pie because it was going to be a long day! Result Clemson 54 UNC 32.
I always felt that coming from The Citadel and Arkansas A&M, both military schools, he expected players to have more dicipline than seventies college students had. But boy were his teams fun to watch, like a 99 yard TD pass from Mark Fellers to Craig Brantley against UVA!
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Orange Blooded [4142]
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Re: In my opinion, Red pulled the
Sep 15, 2017, 8:19 PM
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I remember that play well ... last minute of first half . We ran a couple of running plays up the middle .
It looked like we would let the clock expire when Fellers dropped back and completed the long one to a wide open receiver .
I've often wondered why that's not been tried again in that situation .
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110%er [8091]
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That was my senior year. GREAT GAME!
Sep 15, 2017, 9:18 PM
[ in reply to In my opinion, Red pulled the ] |
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Downtown was rocking after that upset victory.
Rumor had it before the game, that if Clemson won that game, Red would keep his job. We won, but Red lost his job.
I was there for all of the Red Parker era. And as someone recalled, we went 7-4 in 1974, winning all home games, and missed a bowl game because they assigned bowl games early. Clemson being cheated out of a bowl was one of the primary reason they changed the timing of bowl assignments the next year.
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110%er [6223]
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Re: That was my senior year. GREAT GAME!
Sep 15, 2017, 10:33 PM
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I remember that season as well. The 99 yrd pass play was set up perfectly, a true thing of beauty. Would love to see film of that one.
As I recall we defeated several bowl bound teams that year. We even chanted "Sun Bowl" to UNC at the end of their game.
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Scout Team [196]
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Re: On Jimmy "Red" Parker
Sep 15, 2017, 6:06 PM
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He loved Clemson and represented himself and our University in that manner. I agree with a previous poster that credits Red Parker started things rolling.....
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CU Medallion [58313]
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Love him. He basically "bridged" Clemson out of the dismal
Sep 15, 2017, 7:51 PM
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Hootie Ingram years and laid the foundation (mainly with recruiting) for the great success that followed under Charlie Pell and even Danny Ford. He was quite a character on top of that.
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All-In [27366]
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I only talked to Red one time, but found him to be a
Sep 15, 2017, 8:41 PM
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friendly down-to-earth man (and as said a few times above, ten times the man of Pell.)
I know Edwards and McClellan both liked him and hated to have to let him go.
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Orange Blooded [2504]
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Red recruited Steve Fuller...
Sep 15, 2017, 11:53 PM
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...and Jerry Butler, et. al. and essentially changed football history at Clemson. The '78 team that went 11-1 and retired Woody Hayes with the famous Charlie Bauman punch...was essentially Red's boys even though Charlie Pell was at the helm by then.
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Orange Blooded [3044]
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Different Twist
Sep 16, 2017, 3:52 PM
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I grew up in Charleston and know the superior abilities of him at The Citadel and Clemson. He had good teams at Clemson, but was becoming too popular. Without saying too much, no one was going to be allowed to reach that status in that era.
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