All in the family

Despite their pure orange pedigree, each of the Jeffcoat sisters married Carolina men

The Hammett-Jeffcoat family is a tangled, interwoven web of Carolina and Clemson football history. But Lawrence Hammett IV took three simple letters as a sign that he was born to be a Gamecock.

O-r-r. As in Lawrence Orr Hammett IV. As in Stephen Orr Spurrier.

“When I heard that, I immediately called my son on his cell phone and said, ‘Coach Spurrier's middle name is Orr,’ ” said Lawrence Orr Hammett III, a Carolina student in the late 1960s and early 1970s. “My son said, ‘I bet he's a cousin. Let's write him a letter and see if he'll upgrade our tickets.’ It was just kind of odd, and that even more sealed his desire to go to school down there.”

Hammett III is one of three Carolina men to marry into the Jeffcoat family of Anderson, S.C., whose patriarch, Roy, is a 1955 Clemson graduate, a diehard fan, and a longtime friend of former Tigers football coach Danny Ford. Somehow, though, Jeffcoat let his three daughters marry men with garnet and black in their veins.

Chuck Allen, a Gamecock co-captain with George Rogers in 1980, married Sharon in 1981; Hammett III married daughter Rosalind in 1986; and Eddie Kinsey, a 1987 Carolina graduate, married Phylis in 1994.

“Basically, the way he expresses it, he doesn't know where he went wrong with his daughters,” Hammett III says of his father-in-law. “We have a little rivalry with our wives and our father-in-law. It's all tongue-in-cheek.”

If Jeffcoat has a favorite, it would logically be Hammett III, who grew up in Anderson as a Clemson fan, whose father graduated from Clemson, and whose grandfather lettered in football for the Tigers in 1919. “We used to go to the Clemson games and sit on the hill—a Green Grass Ticket cost 75 cents then. But Clemson was too close to home and I wanted to get away. I like to say I spent some of my best years in Columbia, but I kind of disappointed my family.”

Hammett IV, a high school senior, is—like his dad—avoiding the influence of his grandfather and plans to attend Carolina in fall 2007.

“He had pressure from his mom, who's a Clemson graduate: ‘Granddaddy will make sure you get in, he'll buy you a car.’ It would probably have turned my head if I was his age, but he turned it down. I guess he picked up the genetic code from me,” his father said.

The Kinseys' son, Chase, is 9 and is the source of Carolina hand-me-downs such as T-shirts and hats for his cousin Jacob Hammett, 7.

“He loves to wear those things,” Hammett III said. “His grandfather says he doesn't know where he failed. He allows them to wear it in his house, but he makes it a point that he doesn't like it—tongue firmly in cheek. He says, ‘Get over here and let me give you a whipping.’ ”

Allen tells the story of his father-in-law offering a football scholarship—to Clemson, naturally—when the Allens' son, Josh, was born.

“It was a signed offer from Danny Ford, obtained by my dear father-in-law. But there was no chance. It was destroyed upon receipt.”

The 2006 rivalry will take on a new twist this year, with Carolina and Clemson meeting Nov. 25, two days after Thanksgiving. “It may be better since the game won't have been played yet,” Allen said, noting that the Carolina brothers-in-law have had fewer victories to celebrate than their wives. “The guys usually talk about it on one end of the table and everyone else is on the other end.”

When the game is in Clemson, as it is this year, the Carolina fans call in favors for tickets. It usually works out, and the day is a family affair. “We usually all go together. We park in granddad's parking space and tailgate and have a good time,” Hammett III said.