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YOUR BALANCE
Some may find this interesting .... many will not
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Some may find this interesting .... many will not


Feb 17, 2019, 1:50 PM

When I began my career of learning how to become a Clemson man in the early 60s we had a basketball coach named Bobby Roberts. Coach Roberts was a very well liked man on campus by the students as well as his team. I can’t recall ever hearing a negative thing said about him OR Clemson basketball. And, basketball was not very good in those days. In fact, in 1966 Coach Roberts led The Tigers to their best season in 63 years when the Tigers finished the year 17 - 8.
So, for those of you who can’t appreciates what we have now, it has been a lot worse for many years. But his teams got great support from the students every night regardless of the opponent. Often times it would get so loud and wild in the old field house that dust would fall from the ceiling. In those days the ACC was already a college basketball powerhouse. UNC, NCSU, Wake, and Duke and others brought solid teams for every game into our tiny gym. Great players too. The Tigers couldn’t recruit the top players then either. Pistol Pete had a strong Clemson connection with his dad being the predecessor to Roberts but he chose LSU. Pete’s brother was a star at Daniels I believe but I don’t remember him playing college ball. My high school,Chapman, beat Daniels for the state title in the early 60’s and I believe Ronnie Maravich was on that team. I was always told that he wasn’t college material! The Tigers had good players but not the caliber of the guys that McGuire or McKinney or Chase had. The Mahaffeys were very prominent at Clemson for many years and I got to know Randy and Ritchey very well. I regret that I didn’t have the chance to see the many solid players we have had since I left play in an arena like Littlejohn. I hope that you guys who are still close by will take advantage of what you have now. Clemson Basketball is great. You don’t have to win at everything to be a real Clemson man but you do have to remain loyal to Ole Clemson A& M.

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Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not


Feb 17, 2019, 2:03 PM

I have many memories and several stories of the days when we played in Fike. I was the color commentator for the first Clemson radio broadcast from Fike although visiting schools had their own broadcast team for earlier games. I don't recall but may have posted some of these stories long ago.

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Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not


Feb 17, 2019, 3:21 PM

What was it like shooting into a peach basket?

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Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not


Feb 17, 2019, 4:28 PM [ in reply to Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not ]

Loved games in the 'cow palace' ..

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If I remember correctly....


Feb 17, 2019, 5:26 PM

....tiger67 - Ernie Stallworth was one of the PA announcers and dubbed Fike the ‘cow palace ‘? May have been others as well ...,

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If people were as good as their obituary - and products were as good as advertised - this would truly be a wonderful world !!


Re: If I remember correctly....


Feb 17, 2019, 5:28 PM

do not remember who but had booming voice as he announced 'Cow palace"

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I remember well going to games in Fike. Fun times..


Feb 17, 2019, 5:23 PM [ in reply to Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not ]

.... for sure! When was that first radio broadcast from Fike, Joe?

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If people were as good as their obituary - and products were as good as advertised - this would truly be a wonderful world !!


Re: I remember well going to games in Fike. Fun times..


Feb 17, 2019, 6:41 PM

The play -by-play announcer for the first game was Chuck Cooper who now lives in North Georgia, Chuck has been back several times and we're tried to recall the year of the first broadcast. We know the opponent was Duke because I have a story about that game. The best date we could come up with was somewhere between 1960 -65. On one of his trips back to Clemson we were given s tour of the remodeled Fike and pictured how it was "way back when". The "luxurious broadcast booth", the side bleachers almost on the sideline, the bleachers on the old stage and a few other things came to mind.

There were several electrical fires over the years and everyone had to be evacuated and the game halted. During one of the fires Fike was filled with smoke. All windows were on the East side and were opened. Huge fans were brought in to help remove the smoke. It was probably one of the coldest nights in Clemson. The fans blew the smoke out but the fans filled the room with frigid air. In addition the odor from an electrical is not a pleasant aroma and the odor lingered for several days. I don't recall how long the game was delayed but it was at least one to two hours and very few fans left.

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Re: I remember well going to games in Fike. Fun times..


Feb 17, 2019, 7:30 PM

Thanks Joe! Those are great stories. Bring back many fond Clemson memories. ??

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If people were as good as their obituary - and products were as good as advertised - this would truly be a wonderful world !!


^^ EXACTLY & Well Stated FOREST...


Feb 17, 2019, 2:05 PM

And from 1959-1966 I couldn’t get to Fike fast enough to get my unreserved seat in the end bleachers up close (in front of Coach Howard) so to scream at the Duke players OR sit on the sideline seating but up high near the back wall.

The noise level was so high in some heated contests that it would be comparable to being at a Clemson FB game & yelling your lungs out for the D to try to hold off the winning score in the last seconds.

Saying..LOUD!

And, the McHaffey Brothers were fun to watch.

OH, no private club-like seats with arm rests but long straight wooden bench seating where your hips rubbed the fan next to you..and sometimes after you stood up to yell & sat down, your seat place was taken!

PS: Hey Joe..what fun you had being a radio man..and know Bob Bradley once asked me to sit at the scorers table & help keep score, with a pencil & pad. LoL

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Re: ^^ EXACTLY & Well Stated FOREST...


Feb 17, 2019, 2:20 PM

You remind me of a memorable game in Fike that I should forget. I remember the Duke team coming into Clemson for a game around 62 or 63 with their All American player named Art Heyman. I was never a fan of Heyman because I thought he was very limited as to what he could do on the court. He could hit that pull up jumper at the top of the key anytime he wanted and scored a ton of points doing that every game. For that particular game I got to Fike early to get a good seat near courtside so I could shout “filthy obscenities” at Heyman all night. Which I did! Duke won that game by a couple of points as I recall but I got a lot of personal satisfaction riding Arty all night. The very next game that Duke played another guy had the same idea that I did and Heyman decided he had had enough so he goes into the stands and slugs some loudmouth ... like me. I always felt about that!

Heyman didn’t last very long in the NBA because of his limited skills. Haven’t been a Duke fan since!

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Re: ^^ EXACTLY & Well Stated FOREST...


Feb 17, 2019, 4:26 PM

An anecdote: Read an article a while ago about one of the Dookie's playing in Fike...Not only was the noise a distraction, but Clemson students were right on the sidelines... This dood was saying he was trying to do an inbound and Clemson students were PLUCKING the hairs on his legs!! LOL.LOL...

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Re: ^^ EXACTLY & Well Stated FOREST...


Feb 17, 2019, 7:54 PM

Oh that's a great one I hadn't heard!! Obviously there are some helpful tricks that today's fans aren't contributing.

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Re: ^^ EXACTLY & Well Stated FOREST...


Feb 18, 2019, 2:07 PM

Most of the football players sat on the first step of the bleacher about mid-court. The players legs were almost at the sideline and on an in-bound pass, there was very little room for the player. When we played the Gamecocks, the football players did all sorts of things to distract the players. I know one or two of the football players from that era and will ask them about some of the antics. There should be some interesting stories.

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This practice was noted with a lot of humor....


Feb 17, 2019, 8:32 PM [ in reply to Re: ^^ EXACTLY & Well Stated FOREST... ]

...in a chapter in Pat Conroy's book, My Losing Season. He described it as having his leg hairs pulled and also cigarette burns on his legs. Spoke very lowly (but humorously) of Clemson from a Citadel standpoint back in the 60's.

I attended a book signing and told him i was one of "those" students. I admitted I may have pulled a few hairs but would never have burned him with a cigarette (i never smoked - many did and it was allowed or at least tolerated in the old Fike days ).

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Re: ^^ EXACTLY & Well Stated FOREST...


Feb 17, 2019, 2:51 PM [ in reply to ^^ EXACTLY & Well Stated FOREST... ]

When we came to Clemson in 1955, Bob and Louise Bradley were our neighbors. I saw Louise in Church today and got my hug. We had two young daughters and one of our other neighbors had two young daughters. Bob and Louise had no children at that time. When Bob came home in the afternoon the four girls would run out and Bob would play with them. One day, one of my daughters was restless and asked, when is that nice man coming home.

When my oldest daughter was about 12 or 13, she had a crush on Dutch Shample, a member of the basketball team. Bob and I set up a prank. My daughter and I went to Bob's office and he had arranged for Dutch to come to his office at that same time. Dutch walked over to my daughter and gave her a hug. She was so surprised and excited the look on her face was priceless.

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Re: ^^ EXACTLY & Well Stated FOREST...


Feb 17, 2019, 6:52 PM [ in reply to ^^ EXACTLY & Well Stated FOREST... ]

Bill-- There were no reserved seats but the same people came to every game and sat in the same seat and no one took that seat. It was if we could take roll call by checking the seats. There were three young ladies who were always at the game and sat in the west side bleachers. Most of the males kept their eyes on the girls more than they did watching the game. When we moved to Littlejohn I never saw the girls again and lot of the men felt depressed re their absence. I did the color for only part of one year (we started after the season had begun) so during the other time I sat on the stage area near Dr. & Mrs. Edwards.

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Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not


Feb 17, 2019, 2:23 PM

Thank you and well stated. Fike was great fun and pretty sure our FB players helped us win some of those games but win or lose we had great fun and appreciated our coaches and players.

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Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not


Feb 17, 2019, 2:37 PM

The days of Fike Field House were the greatest. Many of us couldn't believe how quiet it was when they moved to Littlejohn. That was the loudest thing I have ever heard in my life, and in service I shot 40mm guns and quad 50's. Also went to a dozen Atlanta drag races and in those days we didn't even were hearing protection. But I never heard anything as loud as it was in Fike .I can still see Choppy Patterson coming down the court guarded by Press Judy of Tech. When you first came in there was Jimmy Howard, dressed real nice, not like he is today. But we never had any kind of advantage after they moved, and by the way, Duke was smart enough to keep theirs. Tommy was the first Mahaffey followed by Donnie.

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^ YeP, right on jerrycle..and forgot Duke did keep their ancient Fike-like BB area.


Feb 17, 2019, 2:42 PM

Help me out, forget what it’s Called (not Cameron).

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Re: ^ YeP, right on jerrycle..and forgot Duke did keep their ancient Fike-like BB area.


Feb 17, 2019, 2:48 PM

Duke Indoor Stadium which was a dark place to play. From the floor you could look at the stands and only see the first few rows.

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Do you know what the capacity of Fike was back then?******


Feb 17, 2019, 2:52 PM [ in reply to Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not ]



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Fike capacity was listed around 4K,


Feb 17, 2019, 3:31 PM

but for the bigger games attendance was likely around 5K. They always lied about attendance in those days to keep the fire marshal happy.

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Orange Googlers Unite

Save Tigernet--Boot the coots(you know who I mean).


Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not


Feb 17, 2019, 2:59 PM [ in reply to Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not ]

Do any of you remember the old field house in Columbia at Cootville? That old place made Fike look like a palace. When we went there to broadcast a game, we were ushered to one of the wooden bench like seats in the corner of the building, not the best place to cover a game. I believe a fire burnt that building down sometime later.

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On the old Usuc field house burning, rumor was that


Feb 17, 2019, 4:40 PM

Frank McGuire had something to do with it burning. Funding was being held up for getting their new coliseum built, and the rumor was, he had something to do with it burning, so the powers that be would get moving on the coliseum!

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Re: On the old Usuc field house burning, rumor was that


Feb 17, 2019, 4:50 PM

That was the rumor, and Frank never really denied it. I think he enjoyed having people believe it.

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Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not


Feb 17, 2019, 4:07 PM

I remember returning early from a holiday break, I think in 1966, to see the Tigers play #1 Duke. When I got there the field house was full and no one else was allowed in. So several of us went to the back of the building and climbed in through a window. Lot of good memories in the old field house.

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Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not


Feb 17, 2019, 4:11 PM

Okay point well made. But what if I'm simply not a BB fan, and simply don't believe that Clemson will ever get its' act together in that sport? Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see Clemson win in every sport, but I am primarily a football fan, and am not going to get excited about our performance in basketball, track, swimming or softball, etc., etc. Just like I don't care for wrestling on TV. Is there a problem with that??

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Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not


Feb 17, 2019, 4:17 PM

You yourself said you were a Ohio State fan a couple years ago and you’d get mad every time we brought up the 31-0 whooping and never losing to them, why do you pretend to be a Tiger fan?
Dgcannon39 ^^^^^^^^^^

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We keep getting better & better everyday, in every way!
“The only disability is a bad Attitude” Dabo Swinney!!
Let’s Go Tigers!


Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not


Feb 17, 2019, 8:06 PM [ in reply to Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not ]

I'm not really very interested in bb either and you don't see me critiquing the coach or players. You should follow my lead and don't bump the negative threads!

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Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not


Feb 17, 2019, 4:34 PM

Thanks for that background. I came to CU during Foster years. We had some decent teams those late 70s early 80s years. But with Jordan Giminski Bilas Banks and all the ACC superstars coming to Littlejohn we packed the house most conference games

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Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not


Feb 17, 2019, 4:56 PM

Thank you guys for sharing, It reminds me of my family talking about the Fike, I love to hear old stories about Clemson before my time. I was born in late November of 1967. From the time I can remember we went to all the football games and several basketball games a year.
I always watched or listened on the radio to all the games. I can remember crying as a kid if we lost a football game. That goes back to 1974. That’s the first year I remember who we played and being on the edge of my seat for every play.
My grandpa on my dads side loved baseball too and listened to every baseball game and never missed a football game. My Grandpa(Pa Pa) on my moms side lived in Elberton, Ga. and loved the Dawgs, so I also went to a few Georgia games too but always wore my Clemson gear and he would grumble but take me just the same..lol

I can say both my Dad and Grandpa’s always taught us to be respectful of other teams fans but my Grandpa said being respectful to ##### was the hardest rival in existence because they were pouty sore losers...lol Both agreed but said we should be good sports with class, I love that Dabo teaches this as well to his players/team.

Again, thank you guys for sharing with us the stories and wisdom.

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We keep getting better & better everyday, in every way!
“The only disability is a bad Attitude” Dabo Swinney!!
Let’s Go Tigers!


Re: I remember those days like they were yesterday


Feb 17, 2019, 5:06 PM

I missed very few games in the old field house when I was there from 1960-1964. I remember Choppy Patterson, Jim Brennan, Mike Bohannon (also played football),Tommy Mahaffey, and others. The football players typically sat on the first row under the visitors basket. I guess they sat under both baskets, but I remember mostly their efforts to intimidate the opposing players. Football players like Don Chuy, Bill Mcguirt and many others. I specifically remember us giving Art Heyman a particularly hard time and Len Chappell from UNC, I think. Of course the gamecocks were always a prime target. I use to enjoy playing intramural and pick-up games in the Little Gym and in the field house. I sometimes played pick up games with Pete Maravich. That's my claim to fame.... I was often chosen in pick-up games before Pete was chosen ...but I won't mention the fact that he was in junior high at the time. He was still good even at that time. We liked for him to play with us because Press (his Dad) was less likely to run us out of the gym if he was playing. I don't remember exactly when Press left Clemson to go to N.C. State as their head coach, but Pete played at something like Broughton High in Raleigh. Then Press left N.C. State to go to LSU as head coach when LSU recruited Pete. As I remember it, it was primarily a package deal. Everyone is right about it being a very noisy and exciting environment in the small gym that we referred to as a cracker box. We never had great teams but it was almost always full and deafening. Auburn greatly improved their fan participation by patterning their gym after Cameron at Duke with the fans crowded at the court boundaries.

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Re: I remember those days like they were yesterday


Feb 17, 2019, 7:13 PM

Maravich came to Clemson from PA and recruited many of his players from the Western PA area. When he left for NC State, Bobby Roberts was named the head coach. I thought Roberts was one of the best coaches we ever had, being able to get his players playing at a high level but his failure was his inability to recruit good talent. Even though we had an upgrade in Littlejohn during Roberts tenure, basketball seemed to always be treated like the red headed step child. Failure to recruit good talent seems to be the bane for many of our BB coaches.

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Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not


Feb 17, 2019, 5:17 PM

I also was a student at Clemson in the mid-sixties. I remember the basketball games in the old field house. We had great seats behind the basket in front of the stage. I also played football for the tigers and our team in 1966 were the first team to rub the rock. When it snowed, we borrowed trays from the cafeteria and used them to slide down the hill into the stadium. I have so many cherished memories of my years as a tiger

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I don't think Chapman won a state tittle in the 60's . . .


Feb 17, 2019, 5:19 PM

Chapman was runner up 3 times ('63,'64, 65), Daniel (without the s) won the state tittle twice ('66, '67). Chapman probably beat Daniel somewhere in the semifinals. Pete left when his dad went to NC State to be the assistant coach, later to become head coach at NC State and win the ACC. LSU hired Press and Pete signed with LSU.


Clemson has had some great players over the years, but never enough to get over the hump and sustain success. Clemson is who it is in basketball.

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Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not


Feb 17, 2019, 5:29 PM

I loved Fike. I remember standing in a very orderly line waiting for the doors to open and then when they did all
he ll broke loose. It was every man to themselves as we rushed the door to get in. The football player were "privileged" so they always broke in line at the front where one of their buddies was. I remember one game against Duke when they had Bob Verga, Jack Marin, and several other great players and we were up on them by 1 point with 3 seconds to go. 3 seconds seemed like a lifetime and Verga (I think it was him) nailed about a 20 footer to a 1 point Duke win. Randy Mahaffey, Hank Channel, and Jim Sutherland were on our team and we were pretty good.

Coach Roberts was on the Furman basketball team and played guard with Frank Selvy. When asked about his best game, he always said it was when he and his teammate scored 103 points. He did not elaborate that his teammate scored 100 and he scored 3!

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Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not


Feb 17, 2019, 5:58 PM

I was also at that game. Duke center was ??Randy?? Lewis. Marin had a large purple birthmark on his neck and got razzed about it. Gary Helms from Pelzer, as I recall, was the other starting guard with Sutherland. I think a guy by the name of Pete Ayoub was also on the team. Believe he eventually held an executive position with the SC High School Athletic Assn. Don't recall if this was the team that won 17 games and the old North/South tournament in Charlotte or the one prior. The starters were very good, but the bench wasn't deep. Duke was ranked either one or two coming into the game. The noise in Fike that night was the loudest I ever experienced.

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Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not


Feb 17, 2019, 6:37 PM

Joe Ayoub was the point guard, although they weren't really called that then. Gary Helms played forward along with Ken Gardner and Hank Channel. Mike Lewis was the Duke center on that team.

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Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not


Feb 17, 2019, 7:20 PM [ in reply to Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not ]

One day in early 60s I had to study and didn’t go to a game but some football players lived on my hall and went early so they could sit under the baskets in a game against UNC. They were dying laughing when they came back and said they spent the night pretending to help the players that fell in the crowd but all the time pinching them “vigorously!”

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Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not


Feb 17, 2019, 7:23 PM

That was a common occurrence. Harry O and Ted Katana were the main culprits.

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Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not


Feb 18, 2019, 12:35 PM

Yep ...... Harry O and Ted .... remember them well.

Harry O was na All American along with Wayne Mass. Wayne used to come by our weight room at the Weight Lifting Club and as I recall he could not bench press 300 Lbs. I couldn't either, but I wasn't an All American tackle. The only serious lifter that came and worked out a lot was a running back named Ray Yauger, but about the only lifting I saw him do were squats.

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Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not


Feb 18, 2019, 12:30 PM [ in reply to Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not ]

Yep .... same game. Peter Ayoub , I think was more of a point guard. Not a great scorer but good ball handler. I also think that was the year with Randy Mahaffey that we beat North Carolina in Charlotte at the North/South.

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Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not


Feb 17, 2019, 6:51 PM [ in reply to Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not ]

It's possible Verga made the last shot, but I remember it being an underhanded scoop shot by Vacendak from just inside the foul line. Dave Demsey made a great block from behind in a run out in that game which produced a huge roar from the crowd. You didn't see many blocks from behind back then.

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Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not


Feb 17, 2019, 8:11 PM

It was Verga who made the last shot. An off balance, fall away jumper that hit nothing but the net. I was at that game too and enjoyed many games in the old "Cow Palace."

The most memorable night was when McGuire brought his first SC team. The place was packed but was went totally quiet before the SC team introduction. When the first player was introduced, the place erupted, "Who the hill are you?" Then total silence. The second player was introduced, and it erupted again, "Who the hill are you?" McGuire refused to let any of his other players be introduced.

That place roared the entire game and Clemson won. After the game, McGuire found Coach Howard who was also the AD to complain about the noise. Coach Howard responded, "McGuire, you mess with me, and I'll whip your a$$." At that, McGuire took off for the dressing room.

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Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not


Feb 17, 2019, 8:33 PM

Memories can be fallible. We lost that game 68-73, and I would have bet that it was even closer. I had one of the best seats in the house for that game, even closer than the front row.

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Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not


Feb 17, 2019, 10:28 PM

Were you a player then?

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Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not


Feb 18, 2019, 6:41 AM

Yes, but not much of one.

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Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not


Feb 18, 2019, 12:50 PM [ in reply to Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not ]

Actually it was the year before and we lost by 2 points. Duke was ranked #1 at the time.

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I started in 1968


Feb 18, 2019, 11:16 AM [ in reply to Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not ]

68 was the first year Littlejohn was open. I was at the first game in Littlejohn which was against GT.

As I recall, there were one or two televised ACC games every Saturday and some, but not all weekdays there would be one additional ACC game played on TV during the season. The only national TV broadcasts were on Saturdays and again, only a few games were telecast. Also in those way back years the NBA had very few nationally televised games.

The net result of all that was that Littlejohn always had several thousand Clemson students in the stands. The games on the weekends and Tuesday and Thursday night drew a respectable crowd, even though we mostly got our butts handed to us by our ACC foes. Another factor in attendance and enthusiasm were the season ticket holders from Greenville who filled up 123 for a couple of hours before and after every home game. With few games on TV, fans of Clemson and basketball fans of every ilk bought tickets routinely and went to the game.

I've been to 10-15 home basketball games over the past 3 or 4 years and I've always been disappointed in the attendance, especially among students and working age adults. I think the norm these days is that 1500-2000 students go to the games and another thousand season ticket holders, mostly retired folks also show up,

I live in Charlotte. 30 years ago Charlotte was a big UNC town. Tons of people from Charlotte held season tickets to Tarheel games and the flow of UNC fans to and from Chapel Hill was steady when ever games are being played. Today few Charlotte UNC fans make the drive to see the Tarheels play.

It seems to me that the TV popularity of college basketball might have gone up, but that the in the seats crowds have gotten way smaller. Things change. Basketball attendance is one of them.

I suspect that football attendance is going to decline in a similar fashion before too long,

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Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not


Feb 17, 2019, 9:47 PM [ in reply to Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not ]

These are all great posts and I have enjoyed them very much. The last shot I was thinking about was a scoop shot in front of the basket, almost a finger roll, but I don't think it was a guy named Vacendak. I remember Jim Brennan had the record for free throws for years and years and was finally beaten by Phil Ford of UNC, Sutherland was a great free throw shooter as well, and I think Gary Helms was a forward and was on the team that transitioned to Littlejohn. And all the years we couldn't make free throws since then, and in those days it was all we could do and was the best and second best at it for a long time. Also all the Mahaffeys wanted to dunk during warmups but were not allowed to. If they did they were fined or something. When they announced the other team's players, the students turned around and read a newspaper, and you could hear a pin drop. Then the PA announcer would say "And now" and it was the loudest noise I have ever heard. I was 10 or 11 I guess, and now I'm 68.

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Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not


Feb 17, 2019, 5:46 PM

Great stories of Clemson

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Go Tigers! Once A Tiger Always A Tiger


This post & great responses were fun and brought back good memories..


Feb 17, 2019, 7:37 PM

and one I forgot was in 1965 Coach Howard promised me that I could sleep in the Field house with the FB players who slept there at home games on cots, and when I arrived near bedtime he looked at me holding my blanket & pillow..

and bellowed that I couldn’t spend the night there as a sports writer & observer as planned which crushed me. However, the next morning I did follow couple of the players I knew who allowed me to be involved in how they relaxed at their dorm rooms & played music to relax, etc.

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Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not


Feb 17, 2019, 10:11 PM

"The Mahaffeys" - lol - brings back really old memories. As a kid, our team got free tickets to the Textile Tourney in Greenville, and the Mahaffeys played on one of the teams. It was a blast watching those guys and trying to learn how to play watching what they did. Of course, being taller would have helped too. I loved BBall back in those days, but CLEMSON BBall has made me totally ignore all BBall, both college and especially the NBA. I started posting on Tiger forums to hopefully express my distaste for Larry Shyatt and how horrendous he was at coaching. CLEMSON might never recover from Shyatt IMO. What a dork at coaching BBall. I can't remember the last time I watched a BBall game now, and have moved on. They could close down the program for all I care. When coots want to talk about Wimmenz BBall, I just tell them I'm not even sure that CLEMSON has a WBB team, and couldn't name the coach or any of the players. I also can't name any of the Men's BBall players, but unfortunately, I do know who the coach is.

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Re: Some may find this interesting .... many will not


Feb 18, 2019, 12:22 AM

Clemson has had a women's basketball team since 1975. They won the ACC twice - 1996 and 1999.

They have been to the NCAA tourney 16 times. Barbara Kennedy still holds many NCAA records.


Message was edited by: CaliforniaTiger®


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Losing Pete had almost nothing to do with recruiting ability


Feb 17, 2019, 10:18 PM

Pete was long gone from Clemson before he ever graduated HS because his Dad left the head coaching job at Clemson to,take the assistant job at NC State with the understanding that he would be successor to Everett Case. And he did follow Case, but Pete was not academically eligible at NCSU and he wouldn’t have gotten in to Clemson either. LSU bought Press and Pete together and that’s how Pete ended up being a star down there. He was never coming to Clemson no matter how we recruited him.

I started following Clemson hoops in 1957, just after Press Maravich got there and I can say without reservation that I’ve seen about as much Tiger hoops as any one alive. I’ve come to realize the limitations and live with the honest prospects for hoops greatness at Clemson. It has allowed me to enjoy football with a different set of expectations from basketball and to let them both coexist within my fandom without worrying too much about what may not ever happen.

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i truly appreciate


Feb 18, 2019, 7:46 AM

The kind responses to my post. Clemson basketball does in fact have a history. Perhaps unlike our “high class competitors” but a great history of student involvement and great student athletes. I hope those memories continue to grow for ALL of us. Go Tigers.

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Re: Losing Pete had almost nothing to do with recruiting ability


Feb 19, 2019, 12:35 PM [ in reply to Losing Pete had almost nothing to do with recruiting ability ]

What you say about the Maravich family is true. I don’t think he was ever offered a scholarship and neither was Ronnie.
Clemson actually played LSU while Pete was playing and lost a high scoring game in the mid 60s

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Forest I love your posts man! Keep up these memories


Feb 18, 2019, 10:39 AM

by posting them here for us to enjoy! It's always good to learn more about Clemson from a historical perspective in both sports and otherwise.

Go Tigers!

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