Clemson Football: 3 more Disney movies just waiting to be made

1. ‘All In’ The story of William Christopher Swinney

To end our list, we have another ‘against all odds’ story that Clemson football fans have come to see unfold right before their eyes.

William Christopher Swinney- also called Dabo- has about as much of a Disney-esque story than anyone. Swinney’s nickname ‘Dabo’ came from his older brother Tripp, who called him ‘That Boy,’ which in some parts of Alabama sounds like ‘Dabo.’

Before he was born, Swinney’s mother battled polio for more than a decade and, at one point, her body was so disfigured that her head could touch the side of her feet. She spent 14 months in a knee-to-neck body cost and doctors told her mother that she would never walk normally.

"“Miraculously, after undergoing more than a decade of treatment and two surgeries to straighten her spine, McIntosh walked out of the hospital. She was home-schooled for a couple of years and then attended Woodlawn High School. She was a majorette in the marching band and featured on the cover of the Birmingham News Sunday Magazine,” ESPN’s David Hale wrote in an article that featured Dabo Swinney."

Just for Swinney to be born seemed like a miracle, but that wasn’t all that would happen. Swinney’s father (Ervil Swinney) battled his own demons and fell into more than $250,000 of debt due to a failing business. All the while, Swinney’s brother Tripp was a victim of a car crash that left him with severe head injuries and was in a coma for a couple of weeks.

Swinney’s mother Carol made the decision to leave her husband after he continued to fall victim to drinking that made him violent and Swinney and his mother were forced to fend for themselves as his older brothers had moved away to begin college.

"“With his older brothers gone, Dabo and his mother stayed in motels and then moved into a condominium. They were evicted after only three months because they couldn’t pay the rent. McIntosh, who had always been a homemaker, earned $8 an hour working at a department store,” Hale wrote."

Swinney eventually walked on at the University of Alabama, where he played special teams and wide receiver. He never gave up on his father, either.

"“Every time Dabo saw Dad, he was trying to influence him,” Tracy Swinney said. “He’d tell him, ‘Why don’t you stop drinking? Why don’t you go to church? Why don’t you put all of this behind you?’ One day, God put his hand on him and he did.”"

Swinney went on the receive his MBA from the University of Alabama and coached as a graduate-assistant during his time. He eventually found himself as the Wide Receivers coach at Clemson- though he actually was in real estate before coming back to coaching- and the rest, they say, is history.

You can read more about Swinney’s childhood in this article from ESPN. 

There’s so much more involved to Swinney’s life than what we could ever even list here, but it all comes back to the fact that he never gave up on his faith and he continued to put God first. He has kept those same principles in place- no matter how high or how low he may have gotten- and there’s no doubt that Dabo Swinney would be considered the ultimate ‘underdog’ story to be featured in a major Disney blockbuster.