Note: The following appears in the NC State football gameday program.
Since 2013, Head Coach Dabo Swinney has presented the Brian Dawkins Lifetime Achievement Award to a former Clemson football player who has consistently demonstrated the qualities of leadership, community service and other high qualities that are consistent with excellence since graduating from Clemson University.
A recipient must be out of school at least 10 years. Dawkins, who played 16 years in the NFL, was named to nine Pro Bowls and was a finalist for many public service awards, was the first recipient. He was the first former Tiger inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
This year’s recipient is former All-America linebacker Levon Kirkland, an All-ACC selection from 1988-91 who went on to a celebrated 11-year NFL career with the Steelers, Seahawks and Eagles. He was inducted into the Clemson Ring of Honor in 2019.
In his retirement from the game, Kirkland returned to Clemson to earn his degree, coached at the college level and served as an administrator working in minority student recruiting at Clemson.
Kirkland was also an administrator with the South Carolina Football Hall of Fame, working in all phases of the organization, including many community service activities. He has had a positive influence on every team and organization he has been affiliated with.
That is continuing today, as he returned to the Clemson football program on Dec. 18 to work on Swinney’s staff in capacities that provide guidance to current football student-athletes in areas that include sophomore transition and player development.
I personally am thrilled to have Kirkland back on campus working in athletics. From the time he was a redshirt freshman in the 1988 season, he has always been high on my list of respected Tiger players. He is a terrific asset to the program.
Fittingly, Kirkland was first awarded the Brian Dawkins Lifetime Achievement Award a few weeks after he began working full-time on Swinney’s staff. It was an award that meant a great deal to Kirkland, who started on the same Eagles’ defense with Dawkins in Kirkland’s final season (2002) in the NFL. They helped the Eagles to a 12-4 record and a playoff berth.
“This is a great honor, because Brian Dawkins was a contemporary who I looked up to when I was in the NFL,” said Kirkland.” He was and still is a great example of what it means to be a leader, a father, a husband and someone who is passionate about everything he does. Brian Dawkins is among the most respected NFL players in this era, and to have an award with his name on it is very special.”
If Dawkins is the most respected and most honored former Tiger at the NFL level, Kirkland is not far behind. While Dawkins is the only former Tiger in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Kirkland has been on the Hall of Fame ballot multiple years. Kirkland was an All-Pro and was named to the NFL Team of the 1990s as a linebacker.
His level of experience, which started when he came to Clemson in 1987 as a lightly recruited high school player out of Lamar, S.C., is a great asset in relating to current Tigers in his new job.
“My role in this position is to provide mentorship with the student-athletes. It entails a lot of areas, because I have a great deal of experience in all aspects of what these student-athletes are in the process of going through.
“I feel uniquely qualified. I have been through just about every phase of what they have been through in high school or are in the process of going through at Clemson, whether they are a freshman or senior, and what they will go through as they graduate and transition to professional football or another profession.”
Kirkland has had to adapt during many stages of his life. That experience helps him as he evaluates his role in the world of player development.
The adaptation has included his personal life. Not the least of which took place in 2013, when his wife, Keisha, died at age 41 after a five-year battle with cancer. She was in the midst of a career as a top weathercaster at WYFF in Greenville, S.C.
“I wouldn’t be where I am today without Keisha. She was the one who encouraged me to come back to Clemson and finish my degree. She always put me on the best path.”
Now, Kirkland’s daily task is to put Tiger football student-athletes on the best path. I cannot think of a better person to fill that role in Swinney’s program.
