I'm here in New York, the only one from Clemson or South Carolina for that matter, to bring you coverage of Danny Ford's Hall of Fame Induction. We're listening to opening statements now, and I hope to get you an interview with Coach Ford later this morning. The morning press conference goes from 9:00 to noon, and the dinner is at 8:30 tonight. Steve Spurrier is also being inducted tonight, and Dabo and his wife Kathleen will be here as as his guests. I expect to get a brief interview with Dabo as well. Stat tuned!

You can watch live coverage of the event on ESPN3.

Danny Wuerffel, announcing the winner of his namesake trophy, Courtney Love from Kentucky.

They are going to announce Coach of the Year next.

They are going to announce Coach of the Year next.

They are going to announce Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Finalists next.

All State Sugar Bowl President announcing the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Finalists, of which Daboo is one!

Danny talking to fellow inductee Peyton Manning. Matt Leinart in the background, and of course Steve Spurrier in the foreground. Great class!

Just got 20 minutes with Danny, guys! It was just myself and ESPN's Ivan Maisel. Stay tuned!

Now, this gentleman coached at Clemson from 1978 to 1989 and was then at Arkansas from 1993 to '97. He led Clemson to the 1981 national championship, won five ACC championships, and led the Razorbacks to their first-ever SEC West title. He was the original leader of this Tiger program and really put Clemson on the map back in 1981, a very special, magical time, Danny Ford. Coach, at age 33, you were the youngest head coach to win a national championship. Why do you think at such an early age you had the skills to be successful? And what were those? 

DANNY FORD: Well, I'm not so sure I had the skills to do that. I believe if you're 33 years old and you get a head coaching job at 30 and you've never done it before and your first football game is on national TV against Woody Hayes, that ain't no fun. (laughter) 

Holly Rowe: No pressure.

DANNY FORD: So I didn't learn that fast in two years, I assure you that. I think what caused that to happen is that we had some good, young men that were like a lot of these guys who were hungry and not highly recruited and overachieved and some really good players mixed in. And they got a little bit better every week. We started with Wofford because Villanova had dropped football, and we had to pick up an interstate school. And Wofford was ahead of us at halftime. We weren't setting the woods on fire like we were going somewhere. And then we just got a little bit better each week, and our players overcame our coaches. I believe they did. 

Holly Rowe: I get to cover Clemson now. And one of the things that strikes me is it's a very special place. Clemson's fans and people, there is feeling, a very unified beautiful feeling. How were you able to really capture that magic, and what did you appreciate about that time in '81? 

DANNY FORD: Well, we were a small school back in '81. We were -- our president back then, we had to stay under 12,000 students. And we played Ohio State. And the people in Ohio didn't know if Clemson was in Georgia, Tennessee, or North or South Carolina. They had a hard time placing it. We weren't very well-known. And Coach [Frank] Howard had been there for many, many years. And we were an agriculture school. And we developed a great family atmosphere there. It was really all we had, just us and our people in northwest part of South Carolina. 

So today it's grown, and I like to think that our players from back in that era and the people who played for Coach Howard and Coach [Jess] Neely, and all the other coaches, Coach [Ken] Hatfield all the way through Coach [Tommy] Bowden. They all helped to get to where Clemson is today. And today I think they can pretty much -- and I think they've proven -- that they can compete and play with anybody in the country. And that's coming a long way from where we came from, and that's what we're most proud of.

I'll post transcripts for Manning, Leinart, Urlacher and Spurrier in a bit for those of you that might be interested.