ORANGEBURG, SC — South Carolina State University was three years into the fledgling new HBCU conference — known as the MEAC — in 1974. That gritty squad brought home the first MEAC title in the school’s history.
Fifty years later, on a brisk Friday night, a group of nearly three dozen former players — including Pro Football Hall of Famer Harry Carson and recently retired SC State coach Buddy Pough — filed into the SHM Gymnasium to commemorate that championship season that laid the foundation for the most dominant program in the conference’s history.
In the middle of it all was Willie Jeffries. The now 87-year-old may not walk as swiftly as he did at age 37 as a young head coach, but his mind — and wit — was as sharp as ever and on display. He shared that he took an $8,000 pay cut to come back to his alma mater after serving as an assistant at the University of Pittsburgh.
“I went to the President and he said ‘that’s all we got,” he said as the crowd laughed. “But money isn’t everything. Look at you guys — got on new suits, dressed up, lovely wives, you have families. And coach is proud of all of you.”
Jeffries arrived to find a team that had won just one game during the 1972 season.
“Everybody had us on their homecoming. Everybody,” Jeffries said at the podium. “So many of ‘em — we took our own float.”
But he had talented players like Carson, Donnie Shell and a young man named Oliver that would go on to be better known as “Buddy.”
“He was cutting edge and approach to doing all of the latest techniques and fundamentals and all that kind of stuff of that time,” Buddy Pough, an offensive lineman on that 1974 championship team recalled. “He had been on the big time. He coached at Pittsburgh and some of the other places that way. So he had all of the different opportunities to be exposed to the latest trends in the game — that kind of stuff.”
The team nearly won it all Jeffries’ first season, but a tie against North Carolina A&T kept South Carolina’s HBCU from claiming the MEAC title that season.
Ironically, North Carolina A&T’s internal issues helped SCSU land Harry Carson. Carson was headed for NC A&T — or so he thought.
“I was offered a full scholarship,” Carson told the crowd on Friday. “But a week later, I got a message. I got a letter from North Carolina A&T. A letter to rescind the scholarship. I didn’t have anything else to do. I was looking at going to the military.
Luckily for Carson and South Carolina State University, a teacher helped him land in Orangeburg. A year later, Jeffries arrived and the rest is history.
As for the team, it came back more determined than ever the following year, knocking off two-time defending league champion North Carolina Central in an early November matchup to take control of the league. It clinched the title on Nov. 23, 1974, earning a bid to the Pelican Bowl — the first attempt by the MEAC and SWAC to create an HBCU title game.
Less than 24 hours after Friday’s gathering, the current South Carolina State football program was set to be crowned as MEAC champions for the 19th time in school history — the most for any MEAC program. And it will do so under the leadership of head coach Chennis Berry, who was hand-picked by Buddy Pough to keep the tradition going.
Bill Hamilton has worked at South Carolina State University in sports information for all 19 of the championships. He’s seen the program switch hands several times and he says there is a direct thread that combines the greatness of Jeffries and Pough — and now Chennis Berry. He related how Jeffries handed the program to Pough to how the keys were handed over to Chennis Berry.
“Coach Jeffries took him around, introduced him to you… know, he’s from this area, but took him to some to the powers that be and supported his every effort. And that’s unusual because a lot of times when a new coach comes in, he does not want the former coach hanging around looking over his shoulder and maybe sabotaging his success,” Hamilton said.
“And then now, 21 years later, Coach Pough, same thing. He reached out to coach Barry and he shown him around and offered him opportunities to be successful. So it’s a wonderful trade. That’s something you don’t see a lot. Not only in HBCU but in college athletics at all, because most people don’t want to go hanging around. But at South Carolina State, that’s a tradition.”
It is a tradition that is built upon what the 1974 team built in helping South Carolina State become one of the landmark programs in HBCU football and college football as a whole.