Fred Cone is living proff that recruiting services and all their accompanying hype aren't what they are cracked up to be. Cone was inducted to Clemson's Football Ring of Honor in the Fall of 1997, just the fourth Clemson football player in history to receive the honor.
But, he came to Clemson without having played a down of high school football. It is perhaps the most unusual story concerning an athlete's journey to Clemson. Cone was visiting his sister at Biloxi, MS, far from the haunts of his hometown, an obscure place called Pineapple, AL.
Unbeknown to Clemson Head Coach Frank Howard, Cone's sister lived next door to Howard's sister, Hazel, in Biloxi. On years when Clemson would play Tulane in New Orleans. Howard would send Hazel a pair of tickets. "One year she sent the two tickets back," Howard remembered, "and said she'd like to have four tickets because she wanted to take the next door neighbor to the game."
That was in 1946, Cone's senior year in high school. After Cone graduated, Hazel wrote him a letter. "Brother, I have you a good football player, but he's never played football."
Howard recalled that he had told the Clemson registrar to save him 40 beds in the barracks and that he would turn in the many names on September 1st.
"When Hazel wrote me about Fred Cone, I had 39 names on that list. So I just wrote Fred Cone' in as the 40th name. And that's how I got probably the best, if not the best, football player I ever had."
Cone graduated from Moore Academy in Pineapple and came to Clemson in 1947 as a freshman, but first-year players were not eligible to play then. It was probably best for Cone because he had not played high school football. He needed a year to get aclimated. When Cone became eligible for the varsity in 48, the football program took on a different air.
In the second game of his career, against NC State, Cone had the first of his eight 100-yard career rushing games, leading Clemson to an important victory. He was Clemson's top rusher (635 yards and seven TD's) that season, a regular season that saw Clemson compile a perfect 10-0 record and an invitation to the Gator Bowl against Missouri.
Clemson ended up on the long end of a 24-23 game. Cone rushed for 72 yards and scored twice int he first quarter, but it was his effort on a fourth-down play that was the difference in the game.
Clemson held a one-point lead and faced a fourth-and-three at the Mizzou 45. It was either gamble for a first down, or punt and give Missouri another chance to score. As Howard would say later: "We hadn't stopped them all day so I took my chance with a running play."
Cone hit a stone wall at left tacklet, but kept digging and slid off a little more to the outside, found a little wiggling room and mustered six yards and a first down at the Missouri 35. Clemson retained possession those few remaining minutes and ran outthe clock. Years later Howard said it was the most memorable play of his 30-year career.
Despite a down year in '49, Cone gained more yards (703) rushing and scored more touchdowns (9) than his sophomore year. But, 1950 was to bring about another, undefeated season. |
