Ex-Clemson star McFadden dies of cancer

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Posted 7:44AM on Sunday, June 5, 2005

CLEMSON, S.C. (AP) Banks McFadden, the only athlete in Clemson history to earn All-American honors in football and basketball, died Saturday morning after a long battle with cancer. He was 88. McFadden died in Ormond Beach, Fla., at the home of his daughter, Lil Arrants, Clemson spokesman Tim Bourret said. Bourret said he and Clemson athletic director Terry Don Phillips called McFadden about 10 days ago to check on his health. ``He sounded great, like he was getting better,'' Bourret said. McFadden was generally regarded as the greatest athlete in Clemson history and his mark remains all around campus even though he hadn't played a game there since the 1940s. The school's football building is named in McFadden's honor. He was part of the first class inducted into the Ring of Honor, his name high up at football's Death Valley stadium. McFadden will be buried next to the football stadium on Cemetery Hill, where Clemson's all-time great coach Frank Howard was laid to rest nearly a decade ago. Charlie Bussey, executive director of Clemson's Letterman Association, was coached by McFadden and remembered him as someone easy to admire. ``Everybody held him in awe, even in his later days,'' Bussey said. Need proof? Bourret remembered a standing ovation McFadden received after he was introduced at a Clemson-Duke baseball game two years ago. And then McFadden got a final warm reception this winter as a guest at the Clemson-Virginia Tech basketball game at Littlejohn Coliseum. Bussey says McFadden kept in good spirits despite his failing health. ``He was usually very, very alert and his jovial self,'' Bussey said. Officials planned a moment of silence for McFadden before Clemson played College of Charleston in the NCAA baseball tournament at Doug Kingsmore Stadium on Saturday night. McFadden was a standout at Clemson in football, basketball and track. He was an All-American in basketball in 1938 and 1939 and in football in 1939. The Tigers won the Southern Conference basketball tournament title in 1939, still the only postseason crown for men's basketball in school history. McFadden led Clemson to a 9-1 record and the school's first bowl bid, a 6-3 victory over Boston College in the 1940 Cotton Bowl. McFadden's feat of 22 punts of at least 50 years during the 1939 season still stands as a school record. In 1959, McFadden was inducted into he College Football Hall of Fame. McFadden, of Great Falls, didn't look like an athlete when he arrived at Clemson as a skinny, 6-foot-3, 165 pound freshman. A story told by the late longtime sports information director Bob Bradley was Howard joked that ``if McFadden drank a can of tomato juice, they could've used him for a thermometer.'' Even after his playing days, McFadden couldn't stay away from Clemson. He coached defensive backs for Howard in 1941 and, after four years in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, from 1946-49. McFadden became freshman football coach at Clemson for five years before returning to coach defensive backs in 1955, a position he held until Howard retired in 1969. McFadden also coached track and was head men's basketball coach for 10 years. After retiring from coaching football, McFadden directed the school's intramural department for the next 15 years. McFadden was a charter member of the Clemson Athletic Hall of Fame and the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame. He'd had his basketball number, 23, and football number, 66, retired by Clemson. In an article for the Clemson football program a few years ago, McFadden was asked what his biggest honor was. He said when the 1939 football team voted him the Tigers most valuable player. ``To me, when your teammates vote you something, then you feel pretty good,'' he said. McFadden was married to the former ``Angie'' Rigsby of Manning for 55 years until her death in 2001. The couple had four daughters, Lil, Patsy, Marcia and Jan. Funeral arrangements have not yet been completed, the school said. (Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)