A coaching pioneer: Willie Jeffries helped blaze trail for black coaches and players

ORANGEBURG, South Carolina  -- Oh, the irony of it all. Willie Jeffries, raised by a mother who was a servant to white families in Union for more than 50 years and the product of the segregationist South, scheduled a recent lunch meeting at the Orangeburg Country Club.

When Jeffries entered South Carolina State University as a freshman in 1953, the only blacks at the Orangeburg Country Club were caddies, cooks and waiters. Even as S.C. State’s head football coach – during his first stint from 1973 through 1978 – Jeffries was not allowed to so much as dine, let alone be a member at the all-white, private club.

So, his lunch in the Club’s dining room on that steamy hot afternoon served as an example of how far race relations have advanced over the decades. The color of a person’s skin no longer is important to the Club’s membership. Dining at the adjacent table were three black women. Both waiters were white.

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