Re: Slowly but Shirley!!! We're getting there!!

CBProf®

Tiger Titan [49302]

TigerPulse: 100%

Posts: 1916

Joined: 2017

57 - Clemson Players have Rubbed Howards Rock Atop the Hill for 57 Seasons

Jul 5, 2024, 12:09 AM

Howard’s Rock is an iconic symbol in collegiate sports. It is part of a great tradition that is unique only to Clemson!

Early History of Howard’s Rock:

ESPN provides the following information on Howard’s Rock:

“Legend has it that in either 1964 or 1965, S.C. Jones, a Clemson alumnus, made a trip to California. While driving through Death Valley, he stopped and picked up a large, white flint rock. Earlier, Presbyterian College coach Lonnie McMillan had described Clemson's Memorial Stadium as "Death Valley," because that's where his teams annually went to die. Tigers coach Frank Howard began using the same moniker to describe his home field soon thereafter.

Jones brought the rock back to Clemson and presented it to Howard. The rock sat in Howard's office for a couple of years. While cleaning out his office before the 1966 season, Howard saw the rock and told Gene Willimon, executive secretary of the school's booster club, to "take this rock and throw it over the fence, or out in the ditch ... do something with it, but get it out of my office!"

Instead, Willimon arranged for the rock to be put on a pedestal at the top of the hill above the east end zone. It was unveiled on Sept. 24, 1966, when Clemson played Virginia. The Tigers were trailing by 18 points with 17 minutes left and came back to win 40-35. “

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/9380123/howard-rock-damaged-clemson-university

ClemsonTigers.com adds the following:

“A year later, Howard told his players they could only rub the rock for good luck before they ran down the hill if they planned to give maximum effort.

“Coach Howard told them if you’re going to give 110 percent you can rub my rock,” said longtime sports information director Bob Bradley. “If you’re not, keep your filthy hands off of it.”

Howard’s motivational strategy worked and the Tigers defeated Wake Forest 23-6 on Sept. 23, 1967.”

That same article also recognizes John Fernandez, a Clemson alum, who carved the granite pedestal for the rock. Kudos for Fernandez for caring for the Rock properly during the construction of the pedestal:

While Howard, Jones, and Willimon will always be remembered as the masterminds of the what is known today as Howard’s Rock, Fernandez’s name will now also be forever linked with the rock’s storied history. As a junior at Clemson in 1967, Fernandez was in the crowd when the Clemson team rubbed Howard’s Rock for the first time.

“It was so exciting to see those players rub the rock for the first time and then run down the hill. It is something that I will never forget,” Fernandez recalled.
…
During the construction process, Feranandez carried the rock with him to and from work and the only time he took he took his eyes off it was while he was sleeping.

“With all the Georgia fans in Elberton, we really live in enemy territory,” Fernandez chuckled. “I was paranoid that something was going to happen to it, so I did everything I possible could to ensure its safety.”

His concern for the rock even led Fernandez to take it with him to a family cookout at his oldest son Danny’s house. “I think people really begin to think I was crazy then,” Fernandez stated.”

https://clemsontigers.com/clemson-howards-rock/

Rock Vandalism:

Of course, we all remember the time that the rock was tragically violated. According to a June 13 report from the USA Today:

“Howard's Rock, the iconic fixture Clemson players rub prior to running down the hill during the football team's entrance into Memorial Stadium, was vandalized on June 2 or June 3, according to a university press release. A portion was broken off its pedestal after the casing built to protect it after previous vandalism in 1992 was broken.

"We take vandalism, especially of such an important part of our history, very seriously," Clemson athletic director Dan Radakovich said, according to the release. "Police are investigating."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/acc/2013/06/13/howards-rock-vandalized-clemson-memorial-stadium/2418455/

Such an unproved act of aggression against one of Clemson’s iconic symbols could not go unpunished.

After police made three arrests, questions arose as to the value of the rock itself. The minerals in the rock had little market value. But the rock’s status in Clemson’s traditions elevated its value significantly. How to value the rock and, ultimately, what market value it contained, had implications for the accused and the appropriate punishment. According to the Greenville News, the answer could not have been what the defendants and their legal teams were hoping for:

“The valuation of Clemson University's iconic Howard's Rock by a memorabilia expert has had a profound impact on the case against the North Carolina man charged with vandalizing the rock last June.

Namely, 20-year-old Micah Rogers of Pisgah Forest, North Carolina, now faces upgraded charges after the rock was valued at more than $10,000.

"It is my understanding that a memorabilia expert was retained to value the rock," said Greenville attorney Frank Eppes, who is representing Rogers in the case.”

https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/sports/college/clemson/2015/01/28/howards-rock-value-key-component-vandalism-case/22477857/

That Fall, Howard’s Rock was enclosed for added protection. According to WIS:

Days before the much-anticipated faceoff between Clemson and Florida State, the iconic rock Clemson players rub before their run down the hill into Death Valley has been given a newly renovated and more secure home to keep it safe between games.

The stronger case for Howard's Rock follows an act of vandalism last June in which the old plexiglass cover was removed and a large piece of the rock stolen.

https://www.wistv.com/story/23719737/clemsons-iconic-rock-gets-renovated-home/

Interestingly, Howard’s Rock is actually not what it was originally reported to be. According to WYFF:

“Many of the publications reference a white flint rock from Death Valley, California, brought to Clemson and given to former Clemson Head Football coach Frank Howard.
…
Dr. Adam Smith, the curator at Bob Campbell Geology Museum, was recently asked to do a mock-up of the Rock for a new football facility.

“It was pretty obvious even to the most rudimentary student of geology that this was not white flint, but was in fact quartzite," Smith said.”

https://www.wistv.com/story/23719737/clemsons-iconic-rock-gets-renovated-home/

Protected against future attacks, Howard’s Rock remains perched atop the Hill. Counting down the Hill Watch days with the rest of us!!

flag link

military_tech

thumb_down

thumb_up

Clemson: Academic Excellence! Athletic Excellence!

Virginia State Route 57 is an 88.7-mile state highway that runs from the west end at SR 8 near Woolwine to the east end at SR 360 near Halifax, going through Martinsville and Chatham. Fairy Stone State Park is just off SR 57 northwest of Martinsville.

Fairy Stone State Park at the intersection of SR 57 and SR 346 in Stuart, Virgina just east of the Blue Ridge Mountains, is one of Virginia's first 6 state parks, all built by the CCC, that opened in June of 1936. The other 5 are Douthat, Hungry Mother, Seashore, Staunton River, and Westmoreland. Fairy Stone is the largest at 4,741 acres with the lake and many of the structures built by the CCC still in use. The park is known for its mysterious "fairy stones", reddish-brown staurolite mineral deposits crystallized in various shapes like hearts and crosses and found in only a few places in the world, but most abundantly in Virginia. Legend has it that when an elfin messenger delivered the news of the crucifixion of Christ, fairies wept and their tears fell to the ground and crystallized to form beautiful crosses.

Hill Watch...57 days!!!

57 - Clemson Players have Rubbed Howards Rock Atop the Hill for 57 Seasons

Re: 57 - Clemson Players have Rubbed Howards Rock Atop the Hill for 57 Seasons

Re: 57 - Clemson Players have Rubbed Howards Rock Atop the Hill for 57 Seasons

Re: 57 - Clemson Players have Rubbed Howards Rock Atop the Hill for 57 Seasons

Re: 57 - Clemson Players have Rubbed Howards Rock Atop the Hill for 57 Seasons

Re: 57 - Clemson Players have Rubbed Howards Rock Atop the Hill for 57 Seasons

Re: 57 - Clemson Players have Rubbed Howards Rock Atop the Hill for 57 Seasons

Re: 57 - Clemson Players have Rubbed Howards Rock Atop the Hill for 57 Seasons

Re: 57 - Clemson Players have Rubbed Howards Rock Atop the Hill for 57 Seasons

Re: Hill Watch...57 days!!!

Re: Hill Watch...57 days!!!

oh yeah***

Re: Hill Watch...57 days!!!

Re: Hill Watch...57 days!!!

Re: Hill Watch...57 days!!!

That was very interesting Rex123; thanks for posting***

Re: Hill Watch...57 days!!!

Re: Hill Watch...57 days!!!

Re: Hill Watch...57 days!!!

Wooo

Re: Hill Watch...57 days!!!

Go Tigers !

Re: Hill Watch...57 days!!!

Re: Hill Watch...57 days!!!

Re: Hill Watch...57 days!!!

Thanks. O.J.!

Slowly but Shirley!!! We're getting there!!