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

Three more Clemson football themed Disney movies that are just waiting to be made

There have been plenty of amazing stories come through the Clemson football program over the last century, just as the one told by Disney Plus’s ‘Safety.’

‘Safety,’ a movie that will begin streaming on Disney Plus on December 11, is a sports biographical drama that features the story of Ray McElrathbey, a former Clemson football player, who finds himself in difficult circumstances when he takes on the task of caring for his younger brother Fahmarr while on campus and going through both his academic and athletic duties.

Interestingly enough, the story of McElrathbey became so big during the 2006 season that he received more interview requests than Clemson football stars like C.J. Spiller, James Davis and Gaines Adams, according to ClemsonTigers.com.

Part of the movie was filmed during halftime of the Clemson-Charlotte game during the 2019 season. Actors portraying McElrathbey, his brother and the 2006 Tiger team stood atop the hill, rubbed the rock and ran down the hill while thousands of Clemson football fans remained in their seats to cheered them on.

The teams ran a few plays for shots during the movie and the Clemson faithful watched on as they cheered for their Tiger team and experienced what it was like to be live-action background actors in a movie.

Now, as ‘Safety’ will premiere on Disney Plus in just a little less than a month, here’s a look at three more Clemson football stories that are just waiting to be turned into Disney movies.

3. The Great One: Banks McFadden

Banks McFadden was a jack of all trades and one of the most storied and decorated athletes of all time to ever put on a Clemson uniform.

McFadden was voted as the AP’s ‘Athlete of the Year’ in 1939 when he led the Tigers to a Southern Conference Championship in basketball and also was the MVP of the football team that won its first ever bowl game in the 1940 Cotton Bowl Classic. He was Clemson’s first AP All-American.

Upon graduation, McFadden was drafted No. 4 overall by the Brooklyn Dodgers but he only played one season in the NFL- despite leading the league in several categories- because he preferred the family atmosphere of Clemson.

McFadden fought in World War I and then returned to coach basketball, football and track at Clemson for another 10 years before ultimately retiring in 1969.

2. Legacy: Deshaun Watson

You can’t talk about great stories of all-time in the Clemson football program and not mention Deshaun Watson.

Against all odds, Watson grew up to become one of the greatest to ever play at Clemson. When he was just nine years old, Watson saw a flier for Habitat for Humanity in his Halloween basket. His mother, Deann, applied and, on top of a full-time job, she completed over 200 hours of volunteer service.

She donated at shelters and helped build homes and, in 2011, she was able to build her own.

That home, Watson said, changed the direction of his life. Though he was just a 4-star QB coming out of high school, it wasn’t long before Clemson football fans knew they had something special in Watson.

He would finish his Tiger career leading the program to its first National Championship in 30 years and he would break basically every single-season record there was on the way. Watson then was drafted by the Houston Texans in the first-round of the 2017 NFL Draft and has now become one of the NFL’s highest-paid quarterbacks.

Against all odds, Watson has been able to buy his mom a house and a car. He has continuously looked for opportunities to give back to the community- donating his first paycheck to the ladies who serve lunch at the Texans facilities- and has absolutely been a light to shine during his time in the spotlight in every way imaginable.

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.