USC football target has a place to stay — a 400-acre mansion with 2 centuries of history

Jim Chappell clutches the white-painted banister, walks up the six wooden steps to the porch and slips into a wrought iron chair just to the left of the swing hanging from the house’s upper balcony.

As a cool mid-summer breeze permeates the porch, Chappell looks down his gravel driveway. On each side, the path is guarded by rows of trees reminiscent of the clubhouse entrance at Augusta National Golf Club not an hour and a half down the road.

The walls of the Chappell House do plenty of talking these days. Two-hundred years of history will do that. They tell stories of family members like Bernice Chappell, the sister of Jim’s grandfather, whose name is carved into a brick in the foundation of the chimney that juts off the living room to the right of the front door.

The old well tucked deep into the woods on the 400-acre property remains as remembrance of the place family heirlooms and valuables were hidden from Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman and the Union army amid their march through South Carolina, before a tipster alerted soldiers where they could find the hidden items.

“It’s just somewhere that I relate to,” Chappell says of the home his family has owned for roughly 175 years. “And not everybody gets that opportunity.”

Oscar Delp has heard the stories and walked the grounds. He’s hunted the property for arrowheads with his grandfather, stumbling upon pieces that date anywhere from 500 to 5,000 years old. He’s gone swimming in what Jim endearingly refers to as his “redneck pool,” the above-ground swimming structure he puts up and down depending on the season.

In his hometown of Cumming, Georgia, Delp is a four-star tight end recruit and one of the most sought after prospects in the 2022 cycle. His offer list includes programs like Florida, Michigan, Alabama and South Carolina. Beginning Friday, he’ll head to Columbia for the fourth of his five allotted official visits.

But on the grounds of the Chappell House, Delp is a grandson to Jim, his mother’s father. Here, Delp and his brothers Henry and Christopher are among the next in line to inherit the spectacularly restored estate 17 miles northeast of town.

“I mean, you can do anything out there,” Delp said, “and no one’s gonna bother you.”

SC roots and a promising football career

The memories of music gigs come and go with age. You don’t go living 73 years without forgetting some things anyways.

But there are certain nights on stage ironed into Jim Chappell’s memory. That evening behind the drums at the Russell House at USC in 1970 certainly sticks.

Chappell, who himself attended Clemson, spent his summers between classes touring with The Sensational Epics — a band he formed with a handful of his high school buddies.

They’d appear on “American Bandstand,” a musical performance program hosted by Dick Clark that ran for 37 years. Chappell and his pals even opened for Gladys Knight and The Pips the night the group signed a record deal with legendary record company Motown.

That night at the Russell House, though, there was no future Rock & Roll Hall of Famer following their act, nor a hawking record label executive there to sign them.

Standing before the stage was the girl Chappell noticed on campus earlier that day and later asked to attend the mixer he was playing at, if she’d so choose.

“Lo and behold, I looked down there and there she (his future wife, Cam) was,” he said.

Chappell assures Delp’s athletic genes don’t come from him. Those arise from his grandmother, Cam — who takes lengthy walks each morning — in addition to Delp’s mother, Mary, and uncle, James.

Like her mother, Mary has found a calling in trekking long distances. She’s run one Boston Marathon and is set to do so again in October.

James starred at Dutch Fork High School in his youth, where he played for legendary coach Bill Kimrey — the father of South Carolina tight ends coach Erik Kimrey, Oscar’s lead recruiter at USC — before going onto a career as a receiver at Clemson.

Sticking to her garnet and black inclinations, Cam would attend James’ games in Death Valley donning an airbrushed t-shirt with a South Carolina logo emblazoned on the front and a paw print painted on the back. Under the Gamecock logo it read, “My heart belongs to Carolina…” followed by “But my son plays for Clemson,” beneath the Tigers’ insignia.

“People write all about (Oscar’s) mom going to South Carolina,” Cam quips. “But how do you think she got there?”

Jim does hold one crucial piece in his grandson’s burgeoning football career.

Tossing a football around in his front yard in the Atlanta suburbs, eight-year-old Oscar flashed toward the ball, corralling it in his chest. Jim paused for a momentary lesson. He explained to his grandson he ought to catch the football with his hands, so as not to let it bounce off his rib cage.

“You can tell him I said this,” Chappell assured jokingly through his deep southern drawl. “Ask him, ‘Who taught you how to catch a football?’ and if he doesn’t say my grandfather, he’s lying.”

A history of the Chappell House

As years wear on, further history of the house and family bubbles to the surface.

The Chappells themselves date back as far as any in American history. Bennett Chappell arrived in the colonies from England in 1585, nearly 200 years before the United States earned its independence from Great Britain. A handful of other family members came to the states over the next century according to research done by Buford S. Chappell — work that was later composed into a book documenting the family’s history.

Included among the smattering of stories in Chappell lore is the tale of a distant relative years ago who had surgery on the countertop in the kitchen of the house. As doctors removed her bowels while performing a procedure, her organs were placed on a silver platter. That platter has since been passed down to Jim.

“Of course we’ve never eaten off it,” he says through a laugh. “But it is a great family keepsake. Makes for a really cool story.”

Jim has spent the better part of 25 years digging up the property’s history since he inherited it upon his father’s death in 1996 and moved into it with Cam a year or two later from Irmo. As Jim and his siblings grew up, the house became a spot for his parents to store things they didn’t want in their Columbia house. Years of renovations and exploration have ensued.

Mary jokes she was afraid to stay upstairs at her parents’ house in the country ahead of its facelift as it felt closer to a haunted house than a family retreat. Jim assures there’s no ghostly activity to worry about.

“I was terrified to go upstairs,” Mary said, only half-joking. “I mean, terr-i-fied.”

The Chappell House has since been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Researchers from the South Carolina State Museum have surveyed the property for varying historical knicknacks. A Union knapsack made by Tiffany & Co. that Chappell’s great-grandfather brought home from his time in the Confederate infantry even sits in the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room in Columbia these days. It’s one of only two known to be in existence.

“It’s a part of our history, a part of our family,” Mary said of the house. “I can’t imagine it ever leaving our family.”

Oscar’s football future and house’s next generation

Delp is still a few months from deciding on a college destination. The No. 85 player in the 2022 class according to 247Sports will make his official visit to South Carolina this weekend after first-year head coach Shane Beamer and his staff offered Delp just days into their tenure at USC.

Delp feels a level of peace in Columbia. He attended Gamecocks games during the 2012 campaign as South Carolina marched to its second of three consecutive 11-win seasons. He grew up idolizing players like Marcus Lattimore and Connor Shaw — who now serves as USC’s director of football relations.

South Carolina, at least in part, is home.

“I mean, just knowing that (Jim and Cam) are close by and are always there, if I need anything,” Delp said, “it’s definitely a level of comfort.”

Stepping off the porch and walking toward the right side of the house, Jim points out to the backyard. A smattering of oak, chinaberry and pecan trees coat the area. A well house and buggy house dating back to the early 20th century sit beside one another in the yard. So, too, does the barn that’s held firm for decades.

Succumbing to the weight of age, the barn has tilted over time. Jim concedes it’s not in good shape. If he wins the lottery, he sighs, he might have the whole thing fixed up right.

Perhaps more feasible, Delp made his grandfather a promise in recent years. If his NFL aspirations are met down the line, there will be no need to buy his grandparents a new house. That’s plenty covered. It’s the barn, and ultimately the future of the property, that’s on him.

“Grammy and I have a pretty nice house, so when you make it big, you don’t have to build a new house,” Jim said at the time.

“Naw, Pa,” Oscar countered. “I’m going to build you a new barn out in the back there.”

Said Jim: “That’ll be fine.”