FIKE

Dec 5, 2010, 8:19 PM

Then in 1934, Dr. Fike wrote his now famous letter to Neely, stating "Last night we had a little meeting at our house and organized the IPTAY club." So began Clemson's athletic support group, which in those days, stood for "I Pay Ten A Year." At this time the purpose of IPTAY was "to provide annual financial support to the athletic department at Clemson, and to assist in every way possible to regain for Clemson the high athletic standing which rightfully belongs to her."

Nowhere in the statement above do I read anything about academics or a Top 20 Institution. This letter was written in a time where student athletes where STUDENT athletes, yet it was obviously still important to the people involved then that Clemson stand athletically at a high level.
If athletics were important to the leadership of Clemson University then, then they should be even more important now. TV contracts, advertising and marketing dollars are capable of being astronomical in the balance of power between academia and athletics not as versus but as coexistence.

The state of the department is simple - did the Director of Athletics simply make bad hires or was he handicapped with salary or other ceilings from his supervisor - so that he had to do the best with what he had.

Regardless – one can simply tell that football at Clemson University is not the top priority that I feel it should be.

Answer true or false if you have heard the following absolutely nothing to do with a college football game announcements over the PA in Death Valley –

1. Remove your trash from the parking lot.
2. Move your car out of lot so and so before you get towed.
3. Death Valley will be closing in 30 minutes.

I sense that the powers to be at Clemson wnat me gone rather than around.

My tiger football nerve endings almost singe in pain as I hear these over and over and over and over and over again.

I ask would the crowd get fired up every once and a while if a clip of The Frig body slamming a QB, or a Terry Allen run, or a CJ return ran on the video screen? Instead we get the anti litter bug campaign as if I am attending a NPR rally or the flu shot for the sixteenth time. Are we running a social awareness program or trying to win a football game?

Clemson is first and foremost a University for higher Education. It also chooses to field a varsity football team. I give my hard earned dollars to a scholarship fund that was founded to maintain a high level in athletics. I choose not to give so there will be beakers in the Chemistry lab. Academic Endowments, State Taxes, Student Tuition and Fees pay for that. I pay for touchdowns and in return, the tailback that scores them gets an education if he so chooses.

All I ask is that the mandate given by Dr. Fike be continuously met.

The leadership at Clemson doesn’t seem to be doing that. If that’s the case, then Iptay is not the organization that it was founded to be.

If the answer is IPTAY needs more money to compete – then tell us so. Plainly.

If the answer is that our Athletic Department is handicapped in anyway, then remove the handicap or let us know and our money can go elsewhere.

I’m sure Rupert Fike would say the same in his living room tonight.

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