How a Clemson manager with Down syndrome got a $650 birthday surprise

For over a decade, David Saville, a Clemson football equipment manager with Down syndrome, has been helping people out and brightening their days.

Last week, Tigers fans got to return the favor.

On the opening day of Clemson’s 2024 spring practice schedule last week, David Hood, a reporter for TigerNet.com, said Saville approached him and told him he was turning 34 years old that Saturday. Hood asked him what he wanted.

Saville immediately said Chick-fil-A.

Hood put out a call for donations on social media, and two days later — with an assist from coach Dabo Swinney, who’s long called Saville a “part of the team” — he presented Saville with $650 worth of gift cards from Chick-fil-A, Zaxby’s and TD’s, a local restaurant in Clemson.

Fans also sent enough money that Hood helped coordinate a donation to ClemsonLIFE, a nationally renowned program that offers college experiences to young people with intellectual disabilities on campus, in Saville’s name.

In a video shared by TigerNet, Swinney and Hood presented Saville with the $650 worth of gift cards to Chick-fil-A and the other spots — all donated by Clemson fans in a span of roughly 48 hours — at the 50-yard line of Clemson’s indoor practice field ahead of Friday afternoon’s practice.

“That’s a lotta nuggets,” Swinney said. “You gonna share with me?”

Later in the clip, while giving Saville a hug and telling him happy birthday, Swinney added: “All your Clemson family did that — your whole Clemson family did that.”

David Saville’s birthday surprise

Hood told The State on Monday that he bought Saville a Chick-fil-A gift card for his birthday last year (the city of Clemson has a Chick-fil-A location, where Saville is a regular) and that after last Wednesday’s conversation with Saville, he decided on a whim to loop in a few more people this time around.

“I was expecting maybe $75, $100,” Hood said.

Within a few hours, he’d raised nearly $1,000. After speaking with Saville’s mother on how to split up the money, Hood said the majority ($650) ended up going toward gift cards for Saville and the remaining money went to ClemsonLIFE.

Hood said more Clemson fans and community members have contacted him about Saville’s birthday since Friday, and he’s encouraged those people to visit ClemsonLIFE’s donation page and make further contributions if they want to support Saville.

A video of Saville’s birthday surprise made the rounds on social media Friday and drew local and national praise.

Chris Low, a senior writer for ESPN, praised Saville as someone who’s “never had a bad day, loves (Clemson football) and they’ve loved him back.”

Saville, Low wrote in a post on the platform X (formerly Twitter), is “everything that’s right about college football at a time when there are more questions than answers in the sport.”

Clemson fans also chimed in on the interaction:

“I love this”

“Great stuff!”

“This is what it’s all about!”

Saville, who turned 34 on March 2, is a Norcross, Georgia, native who was born with Down syndrome, a genetic condition that can result in intellectual disabilities as well as physical challenges. He’s a graduate of the ClemsonLIFE program and has been working for the football program in an equipment role since the early 2010s.

Saville is a fixture at Clemson practices and has become known for giving out his patented hugs to players and coaches when he sees them. He travels with the team and owns two national championship rings, thanks to the Tigers’ championship wins under Swinney in 2016 and 2018. In 2019, the team surprised him with two tickets to Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta.

Saville has said in various interviews that “the only disability in life is a bad attitude.”

“When you see David every day, you see love,” Swinney said in a 2017 ESPN College GameDay feature on Saville. “And I don’t care what your problem is, where you came from, what your background is, what your beliefs are – man, love conquers all.”

In the same ESPN video, Saville’s father, Bob Saville, said that if he could go back to 1990 when his son was born, he would not change David’s Down syndrome diagnosis.

“Absolutely not,’” Bob Saville said.

Outside of his work with the Clemson football program, Saville is an Eagle Scout and worked as the team manager for the Norcross High School football team.

He was also the homecoming king at Norcross and has been honored with local and national awards, including a Walter Camp Football Foundation American Hero Award in 2019.

“Here he is just changing lives every day and he doesn’t even know it,” Swinney said in 2017. “He’s not even trying. It’s just who he is.”