Having written extensively about the coaching career of Willie Jeffries from 1976, when I first covered his South Carolina State football teams, until his retirement nearly three decades later, I figured there wasn’t a lot I didn’t know about the 87-year-old Palmetto State icon.
There’s a lot to cover there, from a hardscrabble youth in Union, as the only child of a widowed mother, whom he helped buy a home when he was just 8; his accomplishments as a three-sport athlete in pre-integration high school sports and later at S.C. State; his rise in coaching, from high school to North Carolina A&T and Pittsburgh assistant, and then head coach at his alma mater, where he led the Bulldogs to Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and Black National championships from 1973-78, before becoming the first African-American football coach at an NCAA Division I school (Wichita State).
A new documentary film on Willie Jeffries’ life, “Success Has No Zip Code,” features vintage photos, film and re-enactments, plus on-camera in…
And that was just the start. He went on to win at Howard University before returning to S.C. State in 1988, where he piled up more wins, sent more players to the NFL and to successful non-football careers, and built his reputation as a demanding taskmaster but also a compassionate father figure to hundreds of players.
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When Jeffries stepped down in 2001 after 19 seasons at SCSU over 29 years, he owned the school’s career wins record, unchallenged until his former player and protégé, Oliver “Buddy” Pough, surpassed that 22 years later. In retirement, “Coach Jeff” has become a sought-after speaker and master of ceremonies at touchdown clubs and banquets, and the annual host of the S.C. Athletic Hall of Fame’s awards ceremony.
I knew, and have written, all of that over the years. So when I heard about a new documentary film on Jeffries’ life, “Success Has No Zip Code,” I was eager to view it – quite honestly, to see if it had anything I’d missed.
Recently at Orangeburg’s Cornerstone Church, the documentary’s third showing statewide revealed an impressive, slickly packaged piece of video history, featuring vintage photos, film and re-enactments, plus on-camera interviews with Jeffries, wife Mary, daughter Tamara Jeffries Jackson, Buddy Pough, U.S. Rep. James Clyburn (a fellow S.C. State graduate) and former Bulldogs and NFL Hall of Famers Harry Carson (New York Giants) and Donnie Shell (Pittsburgh Steelers).
Together, they told many stories of the coach’s life – and yes, I knew most if not all of those.
But more than a comprehensive (and long overdue) recounting of Jeffries’ journey, the film also introduces viewers to his next chapter: an affiliation with, and as namesake of, the Willie Jeffries School of Excellence, a tuition-free charter school now under construction off U.S. Highway 301with a planned opening this August.
How fitting is that? As Jeffries says in the documentary, “Coaches are the best teachers.” Both he and wife Mary earned bachelor’s degrees (his in civil engineering) and masters in counseling; daughter Tamara, now S.C. State’s vice president for student affairs, holds a doctorate.
Too, Jeffries the coach always preached the gospel of education to his players, some of whom were the first from their families to attend college. “Willie has always been very scholarly,” Clyburn said in the documentary.
“He changed lives; he’s always been a life-changer,” said Carson, who put Jeffries on his Mount Rushmore along with NFL coaches Marty Shottenheimer, Bill Parcells and Bill Belicheck.
Stewart Weinberg, a board member for the new school (as is Jeffries’ daughter), said the idea of naming the school came during meetings with founders of two charter schools in Goose Creek and Berkeley County, all three under the auspices of the Erskine Charter Institute. “Ben Grambling, who donated land for Berkeley Preparatory Academy, said he wanted to talk about another project,” Weinberg said.
That led him to Jim Roquemore, CEO of Orangeburg’s Super Sod, who donated land for the Jeffries School and introduced Weinberg to the Jeffries family. “(The coach) epitomizes what we want to do with our kids and who we want as our ambassador,” Weinberg said.
He laughed. “I don’t know anything about college football and had no idea who he was. But talking to him, he’s a role model. And he loves the idea of boosting education.”
For many years, Orangeburg County has had a mixed record in elementary and secondary education, but plans are underway for a new Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School (with a $110 million price tag). Another non-traditional school, the High School for Health Professionals, has a local campus for STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education.
Plans for the Jeffries School call for classes to be held in modules on the property in 2024-25 as the permanent structure is built. Weinberg said the first year will have three classes each for K-6 (kindergarten through sixth grade), expanding to four classes each for K-8 in 2025-26.
“In years three and four, we hope to have 800 students enrolled,” he said, with students mostly from Orangeburg County, though “they can come from anywhere in South Carolina.”
Currently the Jeffries School has a location, a principal (Dr. Fabien McGill, a College of Charleston and S.C. State product), and a three-year, $3 million budget plan. What it needs now is money. Weinberg says the school will be built by Performance Charter Development, which will own the property until the school buys it back in (hopefully) three years. There’s also the question of teacher salaries, equipment and more. Fundraising, Weinberg said, is already underway.
That said, Weinberg jokes that the first question many prospective students’ parents ask is, “When will you be building the high school?” The school’s logo of its eagle mascot (representing Enrichment, Achievement, Grit, Leadership and Engagement) incorporates Jeffries’ “WJ” initials. And athletics is in the long-term plans, Weinberg said.
The documentary opens with a still shot of Jeffries, surrounded by Carson, Shell, Clyburn, his wife and daughter. In the background is a view of Oliver C. Dawson Stadium’s press box, where just below the stadium name is another: Willie E. Jeffries Field. That honor was bestowed on the coach in July 2023.
When the school opens its permanent facility, “Willie Jeffries School of Excellence” will be emblazoned on the front. That seems a perfect final touch (athletics and education) honoring an institution of a coach and man, by his school and his city. Perfect.
Bob Gillespie is a former sports writer for The State in Columbia and former sports editor of The Times and Democrat. This column was initially published by StraightUpSports.net.
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