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Childhood sweethearts, Dabo Swinney and his wife Kathleen have been associated with the Clemson Tigers football team for well over a decade.
While a lot is known about the Clemson football head coach, one of the highest paid in the country, not much is known about his better half, Kathleen. In this article, we take a close look at the first lady of Clemson football.
Kathleen has been friends with her husband, Dabo, since elementary school. The two attended the same schools in their hometown - Pelham, Alabama. They began dating in high school and have remained couples ever since.
After high school, the couple proceeded together to the University of Alabama, where Kathleen earned an undergraduate degree in elementary education. She went on to complete a Master’s degree in education. She began teaching at an elementary school after her university education while her husband pursued his career in coaching.
Kathleen and Dabo Swinney's family and ties with Clemson
Together with her husband, Kathleen has three sons, Clay, Will, and Drew. The three play football at their respective schools. One of them, Will, plays under his father at Clemson after rejecting offers from several other schools.
Kathleen’s involvement with Clemson has gone beyond just being the wife of the head coach. She has integrated into the team’s fabric and has a special relationship with the players that her husband coaches.
Of course, the tie is even stronger with the presence of her son on the team’s roster. Her motherly disposition has helped the young players whenever her husband has gone hard on them. The Swinneys’ transformation to a Clemson family is kind of ironic, considering that the couple are both alumni of Alabama, who are fierce rivals of Clemson.
Experience with cancer and charitable activities
Kathleen lost her sister, Lisa Lamb, to cancer after a prolonged battle with the ailment which she was declared free from in 2003. In 2009, it came back stronger, affecting her lungs and brain and eventually taking her life in 2011.
Kathleen went through genetic tests to see if she also ran the risk of falling victim to the ailment that took Lisa. The results showed that she had a 90 percent chance of suffering from breast cancer later in her life.
She took the brave decision to get a double mastectomy in order to reduce her chances of having breast cancer to just 1 percent. In addition, she got a hysterectomy in order to prevent her from having ovarian cancer.
Along with her husband, she founded All In, a foundation with the aim of raising funds to support research on cancer. The motivation behind the foundation is her sister’s battle with cancer and her personal experience in preventing it.
Apart from the All In foundation, she is also involved in other charitable donations with her husband. Together, they donated $1 million to Clemson Athletics in 2016. The donation is part of the IPTAY initiative, a football-focused project.
