Note: The following appears in the Miami (Fla.) football digital gameday guide, available HERE.
A few days before former Clemson legendary Athletic Director Terry Don Phillips passed away on May 26, 2026, I wondered how many schools had a current head football coach and current head men’s basketball coach who were both the winningest in their programs' history.
My research determined that nine current head football coaches are the winningest at their school, but Clemson is the only Division I school whose current head men’s basketball coach is also the school’s career leader in victories.
That leads to the fact that Phillips hired both Dabo Swinney and Brad Brownell, Clemson’s all-time coaching wins leaders in their respective sports in Clemson history. That makes him the only athletic director to hire the current winningest football and men’s basketball head coaches at the same Division I institution.
You can add women’s soccer Head Coach Eddie Radwanski, and you have three current head coaches that Phillips hired who have become their sports’ wins leader at a school. Mike Noonan was also hired as the head men’s soccer coach at Clemson by Phillips. He is not the winningest head men’s soccer coach in Clemson history, but he does have two national championships on his resumé, tied for the most among Tiger head coaches with former men’s soccer Head Coach Dr. I.M. Ibraham and Swinney.
“I look at the fact that he hired Coach Swinney, Coach Radwanski, Coach Noonan and myself, and we are all still here,” said Brownell when talking about Phillips when he passed. “He had a unique ability to find coaches with the values that fit Clemson.”
Phillips’ impact on the department, from instituting “Solid Orange Friday” to the impact he had on countless students as a professor, was significant. How he had time to teach a course and serve as athletic director is amazing.
In competition during his tenure (2002-12), Clemson won 13 ACC championships in eight different sports, including five women’s sports. Only Virginia won more ACC titles in women’s sports during that time.
There were 57 top-25 national team finishes, 37 top 20s and 14 top 10s during this time. Fifteen different sports had a top-25 finish, including six different sports that had a top-10 finish. Clemson went to the Final Four of national tournaments in baseball, women’s tennis and men’s soccer. Six different programs had a top-five national finish as well.
On Aug. 22, 2019, Phillips was honored when he was the recipient of the Clemson University Honorary Alumnus Award. Over 30 of Phillips’ colleagues and friends, including former President Jim Barker and then President Jim Clements, and then Director of Athletics Dan Radakovich, were in attendance to honor a man who has had a great impact on the Clemson football program in particular, and the athletic department and university in general.
Phillips’ most important decision, one that can be directly related to the unprecedented success of the football program over the last 15+ years, was the hiring of Swinney.
“It is impossible for me to quantify Terry Don Phillips’ impact on my life,” said Swinney. “I am so thankful that God put him in my path. He was a man of integrity, faith and love of his family.
“When he hired me as the interim head coach in October of 2008, then as the head coach in December 2008, it was a bold move. He had to put up with a lot of criticism, because I had not been a coordinator.
“My vivid memory with Terry Don was at the rally in Death Valley after we won the 2016 national championship. We hugged and cried. I am so thankful for Terry Don Phillips. He is on the Mount Rushmore of my life.”
Noonan, who won national championships in 2021 and 2023, might have captured Phillips’ impact the best.
“Terry Don Phillips changed my life and the lives of so many others. He gave me the opportunity to pursue a dream I had carried for years. After the dream came true in 2021 (winning the national championship), I realized his impact was greater than championship trophies and rings.
“Terry Don had a rare ability to see what people could become and to give them the platform to chase their dream.
“He built the Clemson program on trust, integrity and a deep care for others. I will always be grateful for the opportunity he gave me, and I hope we’ve honored his belief in us. His legacy lives on in all of us who were fortunate enough to be given a chance, because he believed.”