CU Guru [1944]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 740
Joined: 12/30/07
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01-18-1990 – Has it really been nearly 29 years? (VERY LONG)
Jan 7, 2019, 10:10 AM
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I grew up a fringe Clemson fan, didn’t go straight to college after high school, got a two-year degree and had a decent job when I decided I wanted more. In 1988 I took an afternoon off, drove to Sikes, walked into the admissions office with my transcripts, had a short discussion with a transfer admissions counselor and boom I was a Clemson student. Instantly I was smitten, no more fringe, 110% Tiger, I don’t think I have worn anything but orange on Friday since.
I studied part time for over a year and started full time in January 1990. My part time studies covered two football seasons, during those seasons the Tigers lost four games and had only lost two the year before, 30-6 over the three years with bowl wins over Penn State, Oklahoma and West Virginia. Great years, yet, for each of those years, two painful losses to teams we should have or at least could have beat kept us from a chance at a second national championship. Then, January 18, 1990, as I was getting settled in as a full-time student and Clemson was projected by some to contend for or even win the national championship in 1990, I’m sitting in the cafe below the loggia eating breakfast and the radio is on, breaking news, Danny Ford has been fired. There was a hush among the students, chaos followed on campus, things eventually settled down, Hatfield was hired and had another 10-2 season in 1990 with a team that probably should have been undefeated, many thought they would have been with Danny and the rest is history, for several years, not good history. After four years with a record of 40-8 the Tigers were mediocre at best for twenty years. We did win the ACC in 1991 but didn’t get close again until we lost to GT in the championship game in 2009. Those twenty years were horrible, but we had tickets, still went, still took the kids because it was still Clemson Football.
Then in 2008 we got Dabo, many complained, he did take us to the 2009 ACC championship game, then the terrible 2010 season that started with such promise and ended with the car care bowl and yes we were there. But, during the fourth quarter of that game something happened, a changing of the guard, then we got Chad and in 2011 we were good, really good, won the ACC and we stayed until the trophy presentation and celebration was over because we might not win another in my lifetime. Then came the Orange Bowl and WVU. Then we got Brent and the next year beat LSU in the Peach Bowl which was really the beginning of this incredible run over the last five years, a run like nothing before with four ACC championships and a second national championship.
Now January 7, 2018 and we stand on the verge of greatness. A win tonight and we have three national championships in the modern era (since 1968 when the championship began being awarded after bowls I believe only four teams have more), we win the most games ever in a season in the modern era and we start 2019 as the preseason #1 or 2. We lose the greatest senior class we have ever had but we return a lot of talent with a lot of new talent coming in.
Today though, forget all of this and focus on today and this game. Don’t take it for granted because few have ever experienced the success we have had the last five years and many times the success can’t be sustained. Soak it all in, share it with your family and fellow Tiger fans. Take note of where you are and everything around you, savor everything surrounding you and this game because, while it seems unlikely, we may not pass this way again. Ask Oregon, Texas, Virginia Tech, Nebraska, USC (the real one), Florida, Miami, FSU, Penn State, and many others who played for or won a championship but are in much the same state we were in through the 1990’s and 2000’s. Also, cherish the people around you because some may not be around for the next one. I know many of my family enjoyed the 1981 championship but were not around for 2016.
I won’t be in the stadium for the game tonight, I’ll be in the same place I watched the 2017 game when we took the 2016 championship and I’ll be surrounded by some of those who were with me for most of the lean years, others are in CA and will be Clemson loud. But regardless of what happens tonight (I believe we will win and maybe by more than many non-Tigers think possible), tomorrow when I get up I will put on something orange for the day, go about my business, be a Tiger and be kind. I suggest you do the same because win or lose this game will not define us.
Go Tigers!!!
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