The 2025 season marks Dabo Swinney’s 18th lap at Clemson. Right now, he has all the spotlights on him, being the winningest coach in ACC history with two Natties (2016, 2019). Swinney’s 180 victories surpassed the 173 wins of College Football Hall of Famer Bobby Bowden. Under him, the Tigers have racked up their eighth ACC title in 10 years in 2024. Not just this, Swinney’s team’s 2018 season run has set the bar higher in college football. The Tigers became the first major college football team in the modern era (and the first since Penn in 1897) to wrap up the season with a 15-0 undefeated streak. Clemson fans are now digging beyond the gridiron, curious to meet the real MVPs behind Swinney, his dad Ervil Swinney, and mom Carol McIntosh.

Who are Dabo Swinney’s parents?

Born on November 20, 1969, in Birmingham, and raised in Pelham, Swinney was raised by his dad, Ervil, and his mom, Carol. Even though his parents stuck to his birth name, William Christopher Swinney, it was much later that he got his name, ‘Dabo,’ after his toddler brother started to call him “That Boy.” Swinney’s parents had two other sons named Tracy and Tripp. His father ran a hardware store in Alabaster, Alabama. Ervil was first diagnosed with lung cancer in 2007, and surgeons removed one-third of one of his lungs. He then passed away on 8th August, 2015.

Even though Swinney’s mom, in the initial years, was a housewife, later on, she had to take up a job to support the family. Lucky, Swinney, he never had to look outside to find his role model. Carol has been his biggest inspiration. She had battled against polio since she was 2 and spent the next 11 years as a patient at Crippled Children’s Clinic and Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. But she didn’t give up. Swinney’s mother home-schooled for a couple of years and then attended Woodlawn High School.   

While Swinney’s parents could not afford to give back to society, they raised the head coach with compassion. Later on, in 2009, Swinney founded the All-In Foundation that contributes to breast cancer research, the ClemsonLIFE Program, among others.  

Where did Ervil Swinney and Carol McIntosh meet? 

Not much information is available on when and where Swinney’s parents first met. However, they married shortly after Carol graduated from high school. They later became a happy family of five. 

What is the ethnicity of Dabo Swinney’s parents? 

Dabo’s father, Ervil, hailed from Alabama, with deep Southern roots. On the other hand, Carol grew up in Birmingham. So, both of them are American.

Inside Dabo Swinney’s Relationship with His Parents

Turns out that the seed for love of the football sport was implanted within Swinney by his dad, Ervil. One of his fondest memories from childhood was the Sunday mornings, when Swinney and his dad used to watch “The Bear Bryant Show” and kept gorging on munchies, the nostalgic Golden Flake potato chips and Coke. Even though he now coaches for Clemson, Swinney has grown up seeing his dad rooting for Alabama. In an interview with ESPN, Swinney shared,  “My dad was the biggest Alabama fan ever, and I was brainwashed. In Alabama, when you come out of the hospital, they have to stamp your birth certificate with either Alabama or Auburn, or you don’t leave.” 

But the happy memories with his father soon started to fade away. While Swinney was still in high school, his dad’s business started to go through a rough patch. And Ervil eventually was more than $250,000 in debt. That’s when he picked up drinking. This finally led to a divorce between Swinney’s mom and dad.

As the financial earnings closed, McIntosh held her sons close. To support Swinney and his brothers’ dream, McIntoh, who had always been a homemaker, earned $8 an hour working at a department store. In the late 1980s, she moved in with Swinney in the old Fountainbleau Apartments in Tuscaloosa. With this, the mom and son’s bond just got stronger. As in an interview with Yahoo Sports, Swinney’s mom shared, “He did. And I wouldn’t trade anything for it. I wouldn’t. It was some of the happiest times of my life because we were together, we were safe and we were happy.”

Going through pain and poverty, Dabo Swinney has become what he is today. Definitely, he had made his mother proud for all the struggles she had for her sons. Yet one bittersweet truth remains: his father never got the chance to witness him hoist the championship trophy.