Gracia Dawson thinks of herself as a “living historical marker” for South Carolina State University -- and with good reason.

The 91-year-old widow of Bulldog coaching legend Oliver Cromwell Dawson has meticulously maintained her husband’s memoirs, trophies and plaques at the Orangeburg residence they shared for 49 years. A self-professed “campus brat” who was born where now Bethea Hall stands, Dawson is also the oldest living Miss South Carolina State winner (1937) and has spent most of her life cheering on the Bulldogs’ football team.

“We’re celebrating 100 years of football, and I’ve almost celebrated that 100 with them,” she said.

Yet even Dawson could not envision this particular day coming when her alma mater would head to Williams-Brice Stadium to play 17th-ranked University of South Carolina. At 7:05 tonight, Dawson will be in attendance to witness the latest keepsake chapter in SCSU football history.

“Oh, he would be quite excited as I am,” Dawson said. “I’m very excited. We’re making history. As I say, I am a historical marker so ... I plan to be right there. And I’m hoping that we might win it and if we don’t, I hope that we play very well and do their best. That’s all we can demand of them.”

Such a game taking place was very much unthinkable during the early part of Dawson’s 41-year tenure in which he coached five sports, served as athletics director and initiated the school’s Health and Physical Education program. With segregation the law of the land in South Carolina, Dawson said even the thought of scheduling USC could have made her husband’s stay in Orangeburg a short one.

“In those days, no, that was unheard of,” she said. “No, No. You’re talking about the ‘30s now, 1935. That was a no, no. That wouldn’t have come about in that era. This is a new day.

“But in 1935, playing the University of South Carolina, I was afraid somebody might have run him out of Orangeburg for even thinking that, let alone try to do that.”

Through what she called the “lean years,” her late husband more than managed to make a thriving athletics environment at SCSU. Not only did Dawson coach football, basketball, track, tennis and golf, he helped bring several high-profile tournaments in those sports to Orangeburg for the town’s black youth.

“We were living on Goff Avenue at the time ... and we lived across the railroad tracks from Claflin,” Dawson said. “He would come home from the football field, grab a bite and go to the gym to start basketball practice.”

The Thomaston, Ga., native, who was also a boxing champion in Cleveland, Ohio, even taught Sunday school, which may have caught by surprise those student-athletes who sometimes were on the receiving end of his verbal admonishments.

“Somebody use to always say ‘Lord, we’ve never seen a person that cusses so much during the week and prays so good on Sunday,” she said. “But Ollie could get up and give an exemplary speech.”

Dawson’s efforts to help young people receive an education lasted right up until the night before his death on the morning of Feb 9, 1989, when he convinced then-head coach Willie Jeffries to give his nephew, Dyrek Dawson, a football scholarship.

“It was ironic that the last act he did before he died was to get a scholarship, something he had done for other people’s children over all those years, and he was getting help for one of his relatives,” Dawson said. “He never spoke another word after that, but he got that scholarship.”

Dawson did have one lasting message to impart to his nephew over the telephone following his final meeting with Jeffries.

“He told them ‘I had paved the way for you’,” he said. “‘But the truth is, I’m going to tell you. If you’re not interested in an education, don’t come down here because I don’t want no Dawson tramp athlete!’ People thought he was rough, but once you knew him, he had a heart of gold.”

Dawson’s legacy lives on in the form of the stadium that bears his name, through his widow who continues to financially support the university and the coaches who have followed in his footsteps and shown the same commitment to helping young people.

Gracia Dawson sees those similar traits in the Bulldogs’ current head coach who, ironically, shares the same first name as her late husband and was a former neighbor.

“I think he’d be proud of (Oliver) “Buddy” Pough,” Dawson said. “I think ‘Buddy’ Pough has done real well and is such a fine representative.”

Dawson is especially happy to see Pough schedule games against the Football Bowl Subdivision teams, as she believes they will help the Bulldogs in the long run.

“I’ve heard a lot of people complain, ‘Oh why in the world did they put schools like Air Force Academy and USC (on the schedule)?,’” she said. “But to me, that’s the only way you’re going to grow. I tell you one thing, I feel that playing Air Force helped us win our first conference game (last week against Bethune-Cookman). I mean that’s my thinking. And they’ll do better when you have better competition.

“But a lot of people are saying ‘Why in the world are they putting those schools on the schedule? They know they’re out of our league.’ What’s wrong with trying to reach up into another league or whatever. I’m glad to see them play them.”

While still very spry, Dawson now attends few road games, content to follow the action on the radio at home decked out in her SCSU paraphernalia. For this special occasion, however, Dawson plans to make the trip to Columbia with her late husband in spirit.

“I just hope that they play some ball,” she said.

T&D Senior Sports Writer Thomas Grant Jr. can be reached by e-mail at tgrant@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5547. Discuss this and other stories on-line at TheTandD.com.

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