MEMORY Lane-having my pants ripped at last Big Thursday game

Nov 25, 2013, 11:21 AM

..that's the rear pocket ripped off my kakis to be exact in 1959 at the last Big Thursday Clemson-Carolina game..since I was a stupid Freshman RAT with my Cap covering my shaved head, but full of excitement in beiing at my first away from Clemson game..and just before game started I & couple others jumped over the wall & hedge..and proceeded to run out to the 50 yard line to help retrieve the Tiger's tail that the USC male cheerleaders had snatched off him..

And, in that I weighed only 125 lbs then..and they 175-200..I hurried back to my seat..and just as I was hopping over (or, was it diving over) the hedge..one of the Cheerleaders grabbed the outer edge of my pants pocket, ripping it downward a few inches..But, I made it over and into my front row seat..scared to death but laughing too..and thus, I learned about the rivalry first hand..or was it rear butt?!

Anyway..TiGs won handily (with two great QB's & RB's too) on that very last time that Clemson was forced to play Carolina 60 odd straight years in WillieB..and Coach Howard acknowledged that fact after the game by slightly bowing & tilting his hat towards the crowd..knowing that the Coots would be coming up to DEATH VALLEY for the very first time (can you even believe this!) in 1960..and they would start to know how beautiful our campus was..and what a full-packed Orange Crowd looked like & sounded in full force.

Before driving down to the game in the Big City on that sunny crisp Fall day in 1959..my fellow Rats had been guarding our smaller campus for couple of days just to be sure no Coots (not called that then, I'm sure) invaded our campus & painted it garnet & black (no ROCK back then either!). The Rats got the cold night duty of guarding the main spots on campus as well as the main road intersections.and I & others were driven over to Pendleton (remember, there was no 123 Bypass to Easley/G'vile OR 4-lane road to Anderson..just a two laner through Pendleton to Greenville or to Anderson) to put up a road block..and stopping every car to see if there was a Gamec*ck inside it.

It was so cold that we had barrels filled with firewood so to have some heat from the flames..and we wouldn't have known a Gamec*ck from a Woodpecker, which makes it all so funny now. And oh how I enjoyed watching the Seniors make us climb up the greased flag pole outside Tillman Hall to retrieve a stuffed feathered animal..or the great barnfire pep rallies with the Preacher Gator Farr ranting at our outdoor theater! Those were the days my friends..just after the military outfit wearing days were over, but still having the military tradition strong..and hardly a girl student in sight for years to come!

GoTiGERs..git er done bOys in WillieB..like the '59 Clemson Squad did.

CLEM in Cadence Count...1,2,3,4...C L E M S O N, T I G E Rrrr S..FIGHT DAMM*T..FIGHT-FIGHT!

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MEMORY Lane-having my pants ripped at last Big Thursday game

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Great read - Thanks!***

Re: MEMORY Lane-having my pants ripped at last Big Thursday game***

Apologize 4 sending this back up, but great 4 the youngsters

Re: MEMORY Lane-having my pants ripped at last Big Thursday game

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