killer cacti Posted December 11, 2008 Share Posted December 11, 2008 Hey there Huskers, I've really enjoyed my short time on your site and thought it would be interesting to share with you some little known facts about Clemson's history and traditions. I originally planned on doing a little quiz to see how much you guys knew about us, but decided to do this instead. Mods, if you feel the need to move this, so be it, I didn't really know what board to put it on, and AR gave me permission to put it here and judging by the content, yall could move it to where you felt the need for it. 1. Clemson College formally opened in 1893 and was an all-male military school (I think that if you guys look at the girls vs. girls thread in the Daily Skin forum, you will agree that we've come a loooooong way). In 1955, the military system was dropped and females were allowed into the school. Renamed Clemson University in 1965. 2. In 1963, Clemson was one of the only schools in the southeast to achieve "integration with dignity" as the first black student, Harvey B. Gantt, enrolled without riots or any other foul play. 3. More than 6,000 students an alumni of Clemson served in WWII, and because of this, the graduating class of 1944 was the smallest ever with 13 graduates. 4. Clemson started out as, and is still a large agricultural school. 5. John Heisman coached Clemson from 1900-1903, ironically, Clemson has never won a Heisman trophy. 6. Shortly after the 1902 game against South Carolina, a riot ensued involving brass knuckles and other objects, and plenty of blood was drawn, so bad that medical personnel had to come to the scene. Never seen any documentation of it, but I've always heard that the corp of cadets from Clemson marched into Columbia for the parade that was always held on the Friday after "Big Thursday"(when the teams used to play, "Big Thursday" was the commonly used name for the game as well), and ended up in gunfire between the cadets and pistol-wielding students from the University of South Carolina. The rivalry was then called off until 1909, when it resumed. And you guys wondered why there is so much hate between the two schools. 7. Running down the hill was started purely from necessity, and not to start a tradition. Clemson's locker room was located in Fike Field House, which is behind/above the hill. To enter the field, the team would run down the hill because it was much more practical than going around the stadium to enter where it was flat. Ironically, the current teams leave the current locker rooms and board buses, which drive them around the stadium so that they can uphold the tradition of running down the hill. (I had the honor and privilege to be able to run down the hill with the team for two years. AMAZING experience.) 8. Howards Rock is a rock that an alum brought from Death Valley, California as a gift to Frank Howard. Coach Howard used it as a door stop for a while, then told an assistant to do something with it, the assistant had it mounted to a pedestal, and placed at the top of the hill. Frank Howard told his players "Give me 110% or keep your filthy hands off of my rock" (which I'm sure is the edited version). The rock has been subjected to many attempts & successes of vandalism, so it is now protected by a fiberglass case that is only removed for game days and special events. 9. The Carolina Panthers played their first season at Death Valley while their stadium in Charlotte was being constructed. 10. Clemson Memorial Stadium is named for all of the Veterans of the USA and especially those who were Clemson students and alumni. 11. Clemson Memorial Stadium was dubbed "Death Valley" by the head coach of Presbyterian College who claimed that the stadium was where his teams went to die. LSU's Tiger Stadium was so loud that it was called "Deaf Valley" which in time has morphed into "Death Valley" as well. There is even documentation through LSU that Clemson had the nickname first. Period. End of story. 12. The Tiger Paw logo is actually a taken print from a museum of an actual tiger. Word is that the tiger had a scar on his paw, hence the little hook at the bottom of the paw. Also, the paw is angle at 1:00 because that is the traditional start time of Clemson football games. 13. According to what I just looked up, Nebraska and Clemson have only met 1 time in history, twice after January first. Since both were/are in bowl games, Clemson has never visited Nebraska and Nebraska has never visited Clemson. What a travesty. Home and home? I'm down. We need to make this happen. That's all I have for now, if you guys have any (serious) questions, please ask and I'll be glad to answer them for you. Hope you enjoy. Quote Link to comment
mmmtodd Posted December 11, 2008 Share Posted December 11, 2008 im definitely down for teh home and home. i love it when we have big schools scheduled, like notre dame, usc, pennstate, etc. its an excuse to take a day or two off of work and go somewhere youve always heard about. Quote Link to comment
PenthouseTiger Posted December 11, 2008 Share Posted December 11, 2008 If we do a home and home, the Clemson family will be sure to treat you right! We're famous for being really nice to you before and after the game, but not during. Just ask the Texas A&M fans, we did one with them a few years back. Quote Link to comment
1Huskernation Posted December 11, 2008 Share Posted December 11, 2008 Great info Killer Cacti...My parents live in Fountain Inn, and lived in Greenville before me being born. They moved to Nebraska in the 70's...so, I heard my whole life about how Clemson and NU played only one time, and Clemson won...blah blah blah. A lot of the stuff you posted, I did not know though. Good Stuff. Quote Link to comment
Palpable Smarm Posted December 11, 2008 Share Posted December 11, 2008 Don't forget two of our notable alums... TV host Nancy Odell and former Miss Universe Shawn Weatherly...or should these go in the girls vs. girls thread? Quote Link to comment
killer cacti Posted December 11, 2008 Author Share Posted December 11, 2008 Don't forget two of our notable alums... TV host Nancy Odell and former Miss Universe Shawn Weatherly...or should these go in the girls vs. girls thread? Yes they should. Quote Link to comment
ClemBert Posted December 11, 2008 Share Posted December 11, 2008 I was surprised to see that the undergrad student body at Nebraska is around 17,000. I didn't realize that the University of Nebraska was so small. Clemson's undergrad by comparison is around 14,000. Quote Link to comment
PenthouseTiger Posted December 11, 2008 Share Posted December 11, 2008 I'd have thought they'd be bigger than that too... is that just the Lincoln campus? Quote Link to comment
s.c. husker Posted December 11, 2008 Share Posted December 11, 2008 DIDNT A SHARK EAT SHAWN WEATHERLY? Home and home would be great as long as Nebraska wins em both. Yaw split with A$M and Missouri. I recall the UM game in Missouri so well because it preceded our 25 game winning streak coming to an end against ASU in Tempe where we won the NC 8 months earlier. Quote Link to comment
ClemBert Posted December 11, 2008 Share Posted December 11, 2008 I'd have thought they'd be bigger than that too... is that just the Lincoln campus? Yes, just Lincoln. Numbers were from Wiki. Quote Link to comment
Palpable Smarm Posted December 11, 2008 Share Posted December 11, 2008 Missouri beat us when Tommy West was still coaching I think...that was a while back. Didn't they have a QB named Pookie or something? We stomped them last time we played them. Shawn was on some show...was it Seaquest maybe? I need to find a better picture of Nancy, she's much more "top-heavy" than that picture shows. Quote Link to comment
killer cacti Posted December 11, 2008 Author Share Posted December 11, 2008 DIDNT A SHARK EAT SHAWN WEATHERLY? Home and home would be great as long as Nebraska wins em both. Yaw split with A$M and Missouri. I recall the UM game in Missouri so well because it preceded our 25 game winning streak coming to an end against ASU in Tempe where we won the NC 8 months earlier. Yeah, we have a bunch of home & home deals scheduled with SEC teams (other than SCar) coming up, but those teams are notorious for pulling out of the deals at the last minute leaving us with 1AA opponents. This year we had to replace someone and got lucky that Bama needed one too, so we did a neutral site with them. Well on second though, maybe we weren't so lucky... Quote Link to comment
papersun87 Posted December 11, 2008 Share Posted December 11, 2008 I'd have thought they'd be bigger than that too... is that just the Lincoln campus? I represent one of about 6,200 here at the Kearney campus . . . Quote Link to comment
PenthouseTiger Posted December 11, 2008 Share Posted December 11, 2008 Yeah, I'm guessing Nebraska counts all of its campuses as one school, unlike USuCk, which satellite campuses that are basically their own independant universities Quote Link to comment
Husker Runner Posted December 11, 2008 Share Posted December 11, 2008 Yeah, all of the Aggies I know that went to the Clemson game speak highly of the Clemson fans. I am enjoying our Clemson guests on this board, too. A home and home would be killer. Quote Link to comment
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