I became an avid

Dec 14, 2022, 6:05 PM

Tiger fan long before the majority of you “fans” were born. After my first game ( in 1960) I thought there was nothing on earth like Clemson A&M and Tiger football.. Since that day a LOT has changed within the university and 99 o/o of it has been a positive change. My support and passion has only escalated. Clemson basketball in those early days wasn’t very good. I’ve sat in the old field house many nights rooting for the Mahaffey brothers and other to whip the tar heels or gamecocks or blue devils. Rarely did that happen. I don’t recall anyone ever complaining about the coaches in those days and Clemson was certainly lacking in comparison with all the other ACC teams that routinely kicked our butts. Even with that I don’t ever remember attending a game where there was empty seats. Granted we had an enrollment of 5000 (cadets) at the time. But it was a truly amazing event to watch. Football was much the same. Frank Howard WAS Clemson football and everyone on campus knew it. I sat thru some terrible football in those days. Rarely did the Tigers have a competitive team but they managed a few big time victories in the old Death Valley.

Today is a totally different world. The media, television in particular, has not only changed the game and the way it is played,but it has changed the attitudes of fans and followers of the game. Fans know so much more about the players, coaches, opponents and management of the teams than ever before. As avid as I was about the game I can’t recall ever knowing in advance who the Tigers were recruiting. Back in those days some of the players would go to high school games in the area and report back to coach Howard on what they saw.

The first time I can remember recruiting talked about by the coaches was when Coach Locke came in as basketball coach.

In football, the Shrine Bowl increased fan interest in football and the Tigers were usually there to watch the best local players. I never knew how Coach Howard learned of the “coal mining kids” in Pennsylvania! I do remember that he was very excited one year when he had a commitment from a rather good player who ended up being a star at Syracuse. Apparently Csonka wasn’t able to get into Clemson. I never understood that. I got in!!!!!

Clemson is now in the big leagues of all sports ... and academics as well.

I encourage you to put your faith in the administrative staff at Clemson. They will not let you down and they certainly will always do what IS RIGHT for Clemson

GO TIGERS

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