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YOUR BALANCE
When was the moment you KNEW you were a Tiger for life?
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When was the moment you KNEW you were a Tiger for life?


Nov 20, 2014, 11:05 AM

For me, it was in the early spring of 1983. It was one of my dad's random road trips. Sometimes we'd end up at the Jockey Lot, sometimes we'd end up in downtown Charleston. On this day we ended up in Clemson. I was 8 years old at the time, and my dad took my older sister and I to visit the campus. We went through several buildings, including the library, just soaking in the campus. I just remember how fresh the air seemed; how "clean" it all seemed.

We walked for a while and finally made it to Memorial Stadium. Now, this was back when we had the black "Welcome to Memorial Stadium" sign. So much simpler than things are today. I was amazed at the size of the stadium and of course the view of the hills behind it (something I still thoroughly enjoy today.) My dad took a few pictures of sis and I in front of the stadium, and we left.

My love of Clemson started with the place-what Clemson looks like and feels like. I have memories of my time as a student, attending games, tailgating with friends, and now bringing my kids to the games. All of these are eternal memories; but this trip I took so long ago is what stands out. Sometimes as I'm walking by Fort Hill and feel that breeze on a chilly day, I can close my eyes and see how things were the first time I experienced Clemson. I can't say I haven't teared up.

I remember talking with my dad about college and telling him I wanted to go to Clemson. He said, "you can go anywhere you want." I remember saying, "I know."

Along with my diploma are two pictures-one of me with my diploma, and one of 8 year old me standing in front of Death Valley. It really means that much....

Sorry to go sappy on you all, but I think the board needs a little love this morning.

GO TIGERS!

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i believe it was 1977 wake forrest game my first


Nov 20, 2014, 11:09 AM

clemson tiger football game and from then on to this day my blood runeth orange.

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Re: When was the moment you KNEW you were a Tiger for life?


Nov 20, 2014, 11:09 AM

When I sat with Frigerator Perry as a child at a Fan Appreciation Day in the early 80's.

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When I was born.***


Nov 20, 2014, 11:12 AM



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Can't argue with that...real talk.***


Nov 20, 2014, 11:13 AM



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Re: predestination.******


Nov 20, 2014, 11:51 AM [ in reply to When I was born.*** ]



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Re: predestination.******


Nov 20, 2014, 12:01 PM

The Calvinism of Sports!

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ditto***


Nov 20, 2014, 12:42 PM [ in reply to When I was born.*** ]



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February 2004. When I got my acceptance letter.***


Nov 20, 2014, 11:14 AM



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There's something in these hills.


Re: February 2004. When I got my acceptance letter.***


Nov 20, 2014, 2:29 PM

I don't remember the month but I also received my acceptance letter early 2004!

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They send them out (at least they used to) in February.***


Nov 20, 2014, 2:41 PM



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There's something in these hills.


Re: They send them out (at least they used to) in February.***


Nov 20, 2014, 2:46 PM

Could have sworn mine was even earlier than that. This was '06-07.

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Re: When was the moment you KNEW you were a Tiger for life?


Nov 20, 2014, 11:14 AM

I knew I was a Tiger for life during orientation summer of '79. I had lots of fun at the Bookstore and Corporation while my parents slept peacefully in one of the high rises they put the parents in back then. The fun just continued the rest of my time there!

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When I told a gamecoot that excused his team's loss...


Nov 20, 2014, 11:16 AM

because their QB was injured that his QB didn't play on the defense.

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Coming from Chas, I knew Clemson was the school for me, but


Nov 20, 2014, 11:33 AM

I didn't know how much it meant to me until I graduated and moved to CA a few years later.
Being far away, Clemson became a way for me to feel connected to home from such a great distance. I never took the school and weekends camping on the Chattooga for granted, but being far away without quick drive access sealed the deal for me.

Sometimes you don't know how important something is until you really have to work hard to have it again (the money and time associated with a cross county trip to campus for 8 years.)

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null


1977- vs Villanova. Fuller at QB. I was a Little Leaguer on


Nov 20, 2014, 11:35 AM

a team trip to DV. Never been the same since.

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I literally applied to one school.


Nov 20, 2014, 11:38 AM

I said it's Clemson or nothing because I have been a fan my whole life, USuCk's engineering program is a joke compared to Clemson's and I knew I wanted to go in state for college, and I always knew there was nowhere else I would rather be than in that small upstate town.

I bleed orange. I have since I can remember. Never went to a game (too far away and parents are poor) until I went to Clemson. I paid my way through the engineering program (am still doing so) JUST to be at THAT school.

I wouldn't have it any other way. Proud to be a Tiger. Proud of my School. Proud of my fanbase.

Go TIGERS!!!

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TIGER BALLS.


Re: When was the moment you KNEW you were a Tiger for life?


Nov 20, 2014, 12:06 PM

Just growing up with my dad who is a tiger fan. When I was a kid, I didn't appreciate it as much.
I went to my first game just a few years ago against Troy. It was Tajh and Sammy's first start. Watching
them run down the hill, the balloons, the band, the tailgate environment, all the fans/students, the
campus, Mr. Knickerbocker. Clemson. Everything. It never seemed so real until I was there.

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Re: When was the moment you KNEW you were a Tiger for life?


Nov 20, 2014, 12:09 PM

When your grandfather is IPTAY member #65, its set in stone before you're born, lol..I left God's country in '88 with an engineering degree and an Army commission. I still get back there every chance I get, football season or not.

Go Tigers!!

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Re: When was the moment you KNEW you were a Tiger for life?


Nov 20, 2014, 4:43 PM

August of 2014:

@ 40 years old, I began grad school online @ Clemson. Always admired Clemson from afar, now glad to be a part of the awesome Clemson community and a Tiger for life!

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1987 Clemson vs Duke game.


Nov 20, 2014, 12:12 PM

I was 15 and sat in the student section with my brother that was a freshman that year.

Game should have sucked b/c we only won 14-7. But it was loud. I loved it.

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Re: When was the moment you KNEW you were a Tiger for life?


Nov 20, 2014, 12:12 PM

Fishing down at Santee Cooper in 2000 with my dad and uncle, both of whom are Gamecock fans.

I had always favored Clemson just to spite my buddies in my 5th grade class who were all Gamecock fans, and I decided to carry on that tradition to the dismay of my dad and my uncle. We caught no fish, but Rod Gardner did his thing in the waning minutes of the contest and the rest, as they say, is history.

3 years later, we found ourselves on the same pier in Santee Cooper State Park after a long day out on Lake Marion. My uncle pulled the truck up as close as he could to shoreline and cranked the volume up so that we could be blessed with Todd Ellis' soft voice. Before we could get all our tackle set up, the Tigers had gone up 21-0.

"TD Chad Jasmin", like many Tigers my age, was the hook. I guess that's why the Coot games still means more to me than any other game we play besides a championship game.

I played so much fall baseball growing up that I wasn't able to attend my first game until high school. But obviously, I knew as soon as I arrived that it was everything it was cracked up to be.

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Re: When was the moment you KNEW you were a Tiger for life?


Nov 20, 2014, 12:35 PM

When my basketball coach started picking on me for wearing Clemson stuff to school every day. I didn't notice it until he said something. It was just so natural....

But the best moment, was my first game in DV. Standing under the big tree at the top of the hill (handicap section was a lot smaller then) and watch Willie Underwood take 2 to the house against the hated worm pullers.

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Re: When was the moment you KNEW you were a Tiger for life?


Nov 20, 2014, 1:25 PM

(This is my first post...I read tnet all the time, just never felt the urge to post until this.)

I grew up in Pennsylvania where the NFL rules anything football related. Even as a girl, I have always had a love for the game of football, mostly because my brother played and ended up coaching and I learned a good bit from him. I knew I would have to go to college at a big football school, so it was no surprise to anyone when I applied to Florida, Miami, Florida State, Penn State (only for the in state tuition and the guaranteed acceptance..I actually strongly dislike Penn State) and finally Clemson.

Clemson was a suggestion by my guidance counselor when I told her I felt like I needed to apply to one more school. I had already been accepted to Florida State and Penn State when I got the acceptance package. I was still at school at track practice when my dad called me a left a message that I had a large package from Clemson waiting for me at home, so it must be something good.

I knew nothing about Clemson except what I had heard from one guy I met on vacation a few years before that..."It's the greatest place you will ever go."

I narrowed it down to Florida State and Clemson and decided to visit each before making my decision. My dad and I made the long drive from PA, stopping at Clemson first. We weren't even there yet when I saw the tiger paws painted on the road. I immediately got this feeling of excitement and couldn't wait to actually get there. I did the standard for any visitor - took a tour, wandered around campus, found the stadium to take pictures, talked to some students, etc. After our 3 days, we moved on to Florida State and then finally went back home.

When I told my dad the next week that I wanted to go to Clemson, his reply was "Yea, no kidding. I knew as soon as we saw the tiger paws on the road that you were going to choose Clemson."

My blood completely turned orange when I attended my first football game my freshman year. We played Florida State on a hot and steamy Labor Day night in 2007. I had never seen anything like Clemson on a game day, and still haven't. It is my favorite place and I'm proud every day to tell people I graduated from Clemson. Especially since I live in Athens, GA now. When I go back on game days I can't help but look around and smile and say "There's no place like home."

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Re: When was the moment you KNEW you were a Tiger for life?


Nov 20, 2014, 2:25 PM

Great first post. Welcome!

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everytime BMeist bans a Shane scok


Nov 20, 2014, 1:27 PM

Go Tigers!

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"I've been working since I was 15 continually until now. I worked 40 hours a week at 15, when it wasn't even legal for 15 year olds to work that many hours."


When we sent in that first tuition check


Nov 20, 2014, 1:48 PM

I actually grew up as a Georgia fan & went to my very first Clemson game between the hedges wearing red/black in I believe was 1979 or '80. Since I intended on being an architecture major, that eliminated the 'Dawgs and left me deciding between Clemson, Ga. Tech, Auburn & NC State. I hated the campus in the city with GT & NCSU, so it was "the lake" over the "cornfield" for me.

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1976 coot game...


Nov 20, 2014, 2:17 PM

My first trip ever to Tigertown we upset the favored dirtpeckers. Although I didn't see any of the campus other than the stadium, Littlejohn and lot 6 I just had that feeling we all get.

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sometime around 11pm on 1-1-82***


Nov 20, 2014, 2:32 PM



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When I was about six my


Nov 20, 2014, 4:39 PM

daddy slapped a Clemson College decal on the back of his 1959 Rambler station wagon and took me to a football game in Death Valley. Been a Tiger ever since.

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9/27/56***


Nov 20, 2014, 4:44 PM



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I was about 10 and my dad took me to the...


Nov 20, 2014, 4:58 PM

Peach Bowl of 2003. I watched us beat a heralded Tennessee team and I knew from that moment that I was a Clemson Tiger. Of course, i was born a Tiger because my uncle played and started for the Tigers in the 80's. I was born into it.

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null


Re: When was the moment you KNEW you were a Tiger for life?


Nov 20, 2014, 4:58 PM

I honestly don't ever remember not being a Tiger, thanks to my parents for being die-hard fans. For years, we went to every home and away game, bowl games included. Blessed with many awesome memories. Clemson was one of my dad's accounts and when I was little, he would take me on sales calls with him. I have sat on Frank Howard's desk eating stewed tomatoes and saltine crackers with the Legend. When I was in 6th grade, I was hospitalized for over a month and Danny Ford paid me a visit. Many, many more memories I could share, but I treasure them more as I get older. Thanks for starting this thread and thanks for letting me share a bit. ??

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November 18, 1995


Nov 20, 2014, 5:02 PM

The day Emory Smith drug the coot 20
Yards down the field. Tigers win big in Columbia 38-17!

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09/28/1991 - We beat the defending National Champions


Nov 20, 2014, 5:03 PM

I was new to the State of South Carolina (my parents moved here the day after I graduated from high school).

I chose Clemson over S. Carolina because of the academic reputation.

On September 28, 1991 - we beat the defending National Champions in Death Valley.

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Growing up here while Dad was on GI Bill - 4years old!


Nov 20, 2014, 5:03 PM

old duplex apts. on Cherry St. - right across from where Student Center is now. That was 66 years ago!

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I was an 11 year old fullback. I wanted to be #36 because


Nov 20, 2014, 8:24 PM

that was Ray Yauger's number. My dad picked me up after practice and I was in tears because I had been given #34. To my amazement, my dad told me Ray Yauger had chaged his number to.........#34!!

Been a Tiger ever since.

I wonder how many on here even know who Ray Yauger was...............

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I know who Ray Yauger is and when


Nov 20, 2014, 8:50 PM

I saw #36 in your post I knew it was #34 and was going to correct you until I finished reading..lol. I believe he played at least one year in the backfield with Buddy Gore #44.

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Haha, you were thinking " that Spud is one lying sonuvagun".


Nov 20, 2014, 8:57 PM

And he did play a year with Gore.

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1949...


Nov 20, 2014, 9:00 PM

....Go Tigers..............

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Work Hard, Do Your Best, Keep Your Word, Never Get Too Big For Your Britches, Trust In God, Have no fear and Never Forget a Friend ~ Harry S. Truman


I am 67 and can't remember ever not being totally in love


Nov 20, 2014, 9:03 PM

with CLEMSON!..........Really. I am a grad, but many in my family are not, and they are in love with CLEMSON just as much as me and all the family members that are grads.

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Re: When was the moment you KNEW you were a Tiger for life?


Nov 20, 2014, 9:06 PM

I knew I was a tiger when I was born. I remember it like yesterday. I was in greenville memorial, and the doctor spanked me on the tooter, and says boy you gun be a tiger. And ever since then I been on the hill. The rest is history?

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The Womb***


Nov 20, 2014, 9:14 PM



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I for one am glad you are stopping. You are one of the most ignorant posters ever. You obviously think very highly of your own opinion, unlike the rest of us - RockHillTiger


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