Clemson wide receiver Blackmon Huckabee Jr.’s voice goes viral
Clemson wide receiver Blackmon Huckabee Jr. from Clover, South Carolina, almost won a South Carolina big-school football title in 2019 before joining Furman University in fall 2020. After a leg injury, Huckabee entered the transfer portal and was one of five football players selected to walk on to the Tiger’s 2021 team.
“I looked back at a letter I’d written to myself in the eighth grade that I would be a quarterback at Clemson,” he says. “I’m not quite a quarterback, but I always wanted to be a Tiger. Being a walk-on is a dream come true.”
He’s number 25, and though his number has only been called a couple of times to take the field, he’s all in.
“Coach [Dabo] Swinney lets everyone on the team know they have value,” he says. “My job is to help my teammates be the best players they can be.”
5’11,” 190 … tenor
Huckabee’s 5’11” and about 190 pounds, according to his player’s bio. But one thing’s missing: he’s also a tenor.
“I’ve always been extremely nervous to put my cards out, in general,” he says of his love of singing.
But when Coach Swinney insisted the 21-year-old junior put that love on display during a July 24 staff meeting, Huckabee took a breath, stepped into it, and let fly with a few lines from “Tennessee Whiskey.”
Coach Tyler Grisham caught the moment; Huckabee posted it; ESPN ran with it.
“I had no clue what they would do with it,” he says.”We were sitting in the cafeteria in our football facility, and my teammates started saying, ‘Blackmon! Look! You’re on TV!”
About a million views later, everything’s changed.
Aside from singing in the talented Clover High School choir, Huckabee has no formal voice training. What he has, he was born with.
“My sister can sing, she was in the [high school] choir, so I decided to do it,” he says. “It helped me realize I could probably pursue [singing], but I was so focused on football, I kept it in the background.”
Joy in the journey
But watching the “Tennessee Whiskey” video reveals something Huckabee says people should understand about Clemson football, which is finding joy in the journey.
“The whole premise of the program is setting you up for the ‘fifth quarter’ of life—being great when you finally step off the field. To even be recognized by the football staff for the two things I love—football and singing—it’s crazy, thinking about it,” he says. “I never imagined I could combine those two things on this platform, for this school.”
And doors are opening.
Huckabee, a business major, was in contact with American Idol before the video, but now, he’s on stronger footing and making a case to sing the national anthem at one of Clemson’s home games this year.
“I love football and I’m playing for Clemson,” he says. “But my future is music.”
Follow Blackmon Huckabee Jr.’s journey on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube @BlackmonHuck.
