The Furman University football team, Division 1-AA in the 1980s, was beating bigger teams, doing big things and making sure Coach Dick Sheraton, who had coached the Paladins since 1978, had a proper send-off before joining North Carolina State after the 1985 season.

Jeff Lee, who had played for East Gaston, was at Furman on a football scholarship in 1985, the year the team advanced to the National Championship.

“It was the first time Furman had ever been to a Nationals, and was the last time to play for Coach Sheraton,” Lee says. “We went to Tacoma, Wash., and played in the Tacoma Dome, which was exciting, to go that far away. Our competition usually was very regional, except when we played Marshall, so we usually took a bus. So to get on the airplane was really nice. It was an exciting week, with all the fanfare that goes with it.”

Furman lost 44-42 to Georgia Southern in a back-and-forth game to finish the season 12-2. But Lee’s story didn’t end there.

He was named to Furman’s Greatest Modern Era All-Time Team and was named to the All-Southern Conference team in a coaches’ poll. The Greenville News described the 6-foot-3, 216 pound Lee’s college career and his team selections:  “One of the best blocking tight ends ever in Furman’s run-oriented offense. In addition to his powerful build, had good hands with the big-play ability, as over a quarter of his receptions went for touchdowns. Had 39 career receptions, but 10 of those were for touchdowns.”

His success at Furman and East Gaston landed him in the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame.

Lee, 54, remembers other big games at Furman, starting with his freshman year in 1982.

“Probably our biggest upset was when we beat the University of South Carolina,” he says. “And we beat N.C. State twice and we beat Georgia Tech once. The USC game was my freshman year and was the first game I started. You play in front of 60,000 fans, and I’d never done that before.”

He finished his college career with 36 catches for an average of 16.4 yards per catch, 590 yards and 10 touchdowns. He was voted All-South Carolina second team in 1984 and 1985, and All-Southern Conference in 1985, as chosen by the media.

Lee graduated in 1986 with a B.A. in Business Administration.

Football had been in Lee’s life since Little League age. At East Gaston, his work at tight end and linebacker got him noticed by a few college scouts. He was a four-year starter on offense, and on defense as a junior and senior. “My junior year was our best year,” he says. “We were vying for the playoffs but were one game short, and my senior year we were at about .500.”

He was a three-time letterman and was voted All-Conference and All-Area as a senior. He made The Charlotte Observer’s All-Piedmont first team on defense.

He also was All-Conference in track his senior year in high school, in discus.

After college, Lee became a Navy SEAL and was stationed six in years in Virginia Beach.

Today, he lives in Virginia a few miles out of Washington D.C., where he works in private security.

He keeps a few newspaper clippings about his time at Furman, but he doesn’t dwell too much on statistics.

“I just know we had a really good coach, and a really good team,” he says, “and I liked the school.”