In 1959 We RATS Guarded Pendleton Against ##### Slipping In.

Nov 21, 2010, 9:09 PM

Here's a funny true story that I was apart of in 1959.

Clemson freshmen were called "RATS" then since we had to wear for one semester that little orange billed beanie cap due to our hair having been cut off months earlier due to the military traditions that still prevailed even though it was officially over around 1956...with all male enrollment.

About 5 days before the Clemson-Carolina football game some of us "Rats" were "ordered" by the seniors to go out to the far edge of Pendelton to set up a road block and stop any Gamecock we saw..and send them packing.

Remember that in those days the main road to Columbia was either the old 2-lane road through Easley to Greenville or the one to and through Anderson that went down to Greenwood and back towards Columbia...since no 4-lanes existed like we have now..and way before most you were even born..being the Coach Frank Howard era.

It was so cold and dark the night that my group went over to Pendleton, so we fixed a bon fire in a barrel drum...and drank the hot chocolate we had...and huddled up talking about what we would do if we stopped a car with a Coot in it..and the final conclusion was we actually didn't know what a Gamecock would look like..unless they told us themselves...so we never caught one of them Birds, but it was important that we did what we were told to do, or the seniors would make life tough on us..like making us sing our high school fight song while standing up at the dining hall table, while they ate all of the food..leaving none for us.

The main reason we guarded all the perimeters around Clemson was that the Coots use to sneak up from Cola and try to steal Tom Clemson's stature or paint him Garnet/Black in order to show us that our campus and us military boys could be invaded.

Life was so much simpler then...and 1959 was the last year of the big Thursday fairground football game, which we won handily with two QB's (Shingler & White). It was my first Clemson-Carolina game, during which my pants pocket was torn half off by a big Coot male cheerleader after I had stupidly jumped out of my seat and onto the playing field just before the start of the game to help retrieve the Tiger's tail that they had stolen, and he chased me back over the hedge and into my front row seat! It was at this point in my early college life that I realized what this rivalship was all about, and how much this game meant to each school.

And what a day and what a game and what a tradition I experienced on that sunny but chilly November day in 1959, since it marked the last time we had to play in Columbia every year since about 1896.

As Frank Howard had notoriously done after that great victory over the ##### with his famous tip of his fedora as to say goodbye and we'll see ya next year (1960) for the very first time in 64 years up in Tigertown.. we "Rats" also lifted up our orange beanie caps as we walked out of that "Cesspool of the South" stadium (as it was called then) and headed back to Clemson College on those narrow roads in cars that were actually made of sturdy metal & chrome bumpers for a fantastic cheeseburger from Dan's uptown..and maybe a cold beer if we could find one..and yell our heads off with a vocal C.L.E.M. & Cadence Count.

We had been victorious and The TIGERS were headed to a big bowl...again.

And, I still have my Rat cap 51 years later which still has my former girlfriend's name written on it in fading ink under the bill (later my wife & then my Ex). Clemson College was a very special place then...and it's even more of a special place in my heart now at age 69...since it's meant so much to my life (sending a son there later) and gave me the spirit of brotherhood, and of having a bond with others that cared about a unique place called Clemson...where the Blue Ridge yawns its greatness, where the TIGERS play.

Now, in 2010 it's again that time in November for all men (and women now) who love the Orange & White to discover what the Clemson-Carolina rivalry means to them individually...and remember that no matter how much it means, it wouldn't be the same or half as much fun if we didn't have the Gamecocks as our valued instate rivals, friends or in some cases family members.

Go TIGERS!

flag link

military_tech

thumb_down

thumb_up

In 1959 We RATS Guarded Pendleton Against ##### Slipping In.

TigerBoard POTD