The man behind the voice of Clemson sports continues growing, learning, and relishing the moments
The first thing Don Munson does after perching at the Esso Club bar in Clemson, South Carolina, on a hot July afternoon, is order himself an Arnold Palmer—a concoction of half iced tea, half lemonade.
It’s a quintessential Southern move, and it makes sense: Munson hails from Montreat, North Carolina, attended Appalachian State University, and has been the voice of Clemson sports for about 30 years. It’s just that he doesn’t sound Southern.
“I don’t have much of a Southern accent because we lived for three years in Canada when I was a child,” he says. “I think it removed some of the Southern twang from my voice.”
Munson attended Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, where he entered as a freshman business major before pivoting to communications, and going on-air at the university’s radio station, WASU. “I got hooked immediately,” he says of the experience.
His first paying job upon graduation in 1984 was at WATA, where he made $210 per week. “I got my start in Boone, and right away I’m doing high school football and play-by-play for App State football and basketball.”
Eventually, Munson landed at WFPC-Clemson in the mid-90s, where, in three weeks, he went from hosting the Clemson Fifth Quarter Show, to hosting the Clemson Fifth Quarter Show and the Halftime Show, to hosting the Clemson Fifth Quarter show, the Halftime show, and the Pregame Show.
“In three weeks, I tripled my workload at Clemson,” he says, chuckling. In 2010, Clemson football Head Coach Dabo Swinney hired him, making Munson a university employee.
“The greatest years of my life were when I was working for Coach Swinney from 2010 to 2014,” he says.
Now director of broadcasting, Munson has been in the booth for some of Clemson University’s most historic athletic moments—two football national championships, for example—and countless others as the voice of Clemson football, basketball, and baseball.
But one moment still stands out.
Rite of Passage for Don Munson
“Coach Swinney makes every new staff member run the hill before the first home game,” he says. “Everybody must do it. So, when my turn came, I get on the team bus to ride over to the stadium, turn to Coach Swinney and say, ‘Brother, thank you for this.’”
Swinney replied, “You have absolutely no idea what you’re getting into!”
Munson says Swinney was soon proven correct. “I quickly found out that I had no clue as to how complex an organization Clemson football truly is,” he says. “It probably took me two years to begin to understand it all.”
As for the upcoming football season, Munson says the team has the talent, the coaches, the facilities, and the support to go out and win a title.
“But, no one is going to give it to them,” he says. “The roster is loaded with star players, but they have to play like star players, they can’t shrink back. And then of course, you have to be fortunate, you have to avoid injuries.”
Meanwhile, Munson says he’s still learning, still growing, and still relishes the chance to work with leaders like Swinney, among others.
“Coach Swinney doesn’t even think about the pressure and that’s what I love about him,” Munson shares. “He’s so self-aware, so self-confident, that he’s not going to let any of the negatives creep into him, his staff, his players, or his program.”
So, what is Munson’s first rule of success when walking into the broadcast booth? “Stick with the basics, the nuts and bolts. Get the little things right, and everything else will take care of itself.”
Find Don Munson on the radio at 105.5 FM, The Roar, during games and on a variety of coaches’ shows and Clemson athletics podcasts.
