Carolina-Clemson Rivalry

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The South Carolina-Clemson Rivalry is an in-state college rivalry between the University of South Carolina and Clemson University. The bitterness that was instilled in the early days of this rivalry by the controversial politician Benjamin Tillman remains to this day. It is also unusual to have two major NCAA Division I universities competing for many of the same recruits in a state as small as South Carolina (24th in the United States in population). ^[1] However, the competitive spirit of the athletes and the closeness of so many of the games are the main reasons for the fans' continuing passion for this rivalry.

The athletic programs are known as the South Carolina Gamecocks and the Clemson Tigers, and they compete against each other in all but three sports (Clemson does not sponsor softball and equestrian; South Carolina does not sponsor rowing) and in two of America's premier athletic conferences (South Carolina in the Southeastern Conference and Clemson in the Atlantic Coast Conference).

1 Origins
2 Football
3 Baseball
4 Other Sports
5 Footnotes

[edit] Origins

Unlike most major college rivalries, the South Carolina-Clemson rivalry didn’t start innocently enough. In fact, the seeds were set for the bitterness between the respective institutions even before Clemson became a college. ^[2]

"One of the top politicians in the state was Benjamin Tillman, a farmer from Edgefield who was in the legislature and was elected governor," says Tom Price, USC’s sports information director from 1962-93. "He took an extreme dislike to the University of South Carolina [then South Carolina College] because he said that it was an elitist school and all they taught was Latin and Greek and trained lawyers and doctors, and that they didn’t do anything for the farmers. So he was very much antagonistic towards the university, and before Thomas Clemson died, Tillman and some other politicians talked him into giving his property to form a land grant college to specialize in teaching agriculture, and that’s the way Clemson was founded."

"There’s a history of bad blood between these institutions," says Jay McCormick, a doctoral candidate at USC, who has extensively studied the early years of the series. "So when athletics came to Carolina and to Clemson, it was natural that they should be a rivalry. The rivalry extends back to political and social origins. It’s not just an athletic rivalry. It’s a manifestation of these things."

[edit] Football

The South Carolina-Clemson game (also known as "The Battle of the Palmetto State") is the longest uninterrupted series in the South and the third longest uninterrupted series overall, having been played every year since 1909. ^[3] The universities maintain college football stadiums in excess of 80,000 seats each, placing both in the top 18 in the United States. ^[4] Clemson leads the football series 63-37-4, but forty games have been decided by a touchdown or less.

When Clemson began its football program in 1896, they scheduled the rival South Carolina College for a Thursday morning game in conjunction with the State Fair. South Carolina won that game 12-6 and a new tradition was born — Big Thursday. Interestingly, Clemson was coached that season by Walter Riggs, who brought with him from Auburn the Tiger mascot and the color orange.

The Gamecock mascot made its first appearance in 1902. In that first season as the Gamecocks, South Carolina defeated a highly favored Clemson team coached by the legendary John Heisman 12-6. But it was the full-scale riot that broke out in the wake of the game that’s remembered most.

"The Carolina fans that week were carrying around a poster with the image of a tiger with a gamecock standing on top of it, holding the tiger’s tail as if he was steering the tiger by the tail," McCormick says. "Naturally, the Clemson guys didn’t take too kindly to that, and on Wednesday and again on Thursday, there were sporadic fistfights involving brass knuckles and other objects and so forth, some of which resulted, according to the newspapers, in blood being spilled and persons having to seek medical assistance. After the game on Thursday, the Clemson guys frankly told the South Carolina students that if you bring this poster, which is insulting to us, to the big parade on Friday, you’re going to be in trouble. And naturally, of course, the South Carolina students brought the poster to the parade. If you give someone an ultimatum and they’re your rival, they’re going to do exactly what you told them not to do."

As expected, another brawl broke out before both sides agreed to mutually burn the poster in an effort to diffuse tensions. The immediate aftermath resulted in the stoppage of the rivalry until 1909. The South Carolina-Clemson game has been played every year since.

The 1946 game could be the most chaotic in the football series. Counterfeit tickets were sold, and fans with legitimate and fake tickets were not allowed inside once the stadium filled, so many fans stormed the gates and were eventually allowed to stand along the sidelines of the field. To add to the wild scene, a Clemson fan strangled a live chicken at midfield during halftime. It took U.S. Secretary of State James F. Byrnes, who attended the game along with Strom Thurmond, to settle down the hostile crowd. South Carolina won the game 26-14.

In 1961, the USC fraternity Sigma Nu pulled what some have called the greatest prank in the rivalry's history. A few minutes before Clemson football players entered the field for pre-game warm ups, a group of Sigma Nu fraternity members ran onto the field, jumping up and down and cheering in football uniforms that resembled the ones worn by the Tigers. This caused the Clemson band to start playing "Tiger Rag," which was followed by the pranksters falling down as they attempted to do calisthenics. They would also do football drills where guys would drop passes and miss the ball when trying to kick it... Clemson fans quickly realized that they had been tricked, and some of them angrily ran onto the field. However, security restored order before any blows could be exchanged. South Carolina won the game 21-14, although Clemson was on the Gamecock one-yard-line when time expired.

On November 22, 1975, South Carolina defeated Clemson 56-20 to set a Gamecock record for most points scored in a football game against the Tigers.

In 1981, Clemson defeated South Carolina 29-13 en route to the National Championship.

On November 21, 1987, South Carolina beat Clemson 20-7 to win on national television with the highest combined rankings of the two football programs entering the game (the Gamecocks were No. 12 and the Tigers were No. 8).

In 2003, Clemson defeated South Carolina 63-17, making it the most lopsided game in the football series.

The South Carolina-Clemson brawl during the 2004 football game is the most recent ugly and embarrassing incident in this rivalry. It is also the last time Lou Holtz coached, having retired shortly thereafter. Clemson won the game 29-7. However, in 2005 the two teams showed an unusual gesture of sportsmanship by meeting at midfield before the game to shake hands, putting the melee behind them. Clemson won this game 13-9, marking quarterback Charlie Whitehurst's 4th win versus the Gamecocks, which is the first time a starting quarterback from either team notched four wins against the other team.

On November 25, 2006, South Carolina came back from a 14-point deficit to beat Clemson 31-28 at Death Valley. Clemson kicker Jad Dean missed a 39-yard field goal on the last play of the game to end the Tigers' four-game winning streak against the Gamecocks.

[edit] Baseball

The teams compete four times during the regular season, and each game almost always affects the national rankings since both teams are usually ranked in the nation's top 10. They both consistently qualify for the NCAA playoffs and frequently earn berths to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska. Clemson leads the baseball series 162-113-2 (as of 3/5/07), but South Carolina eliminated Clemson from the 2002 College World Series.

In the 2002 College World Series, the teams met in the semifinals with the Tigers needing only one win to move on to the championship game. Clemson had already won three out of four regular season games against South Carolina and was 2-0 in the World Series at the time. However, the Gamecocks beat their rivals soundly, 12-4, and then beat the Tigers again, 10-2, the following day to advance to the national championship game. It is the only time the two athletic programs have met with the national title on the line. For the record, South Carolina played five games to reach the finals, while Texas advanced undefeated through three games and won, 12-6, for the title. ^[5]

[edit] Other Sports

The Gamecocks lead in men's basketball 86-71, men's swimming and diving 31-16-1, women's swimming and diving 17-14-1, men's tennis 23-15, and women's tennis 16-12.

Clemson leads in men's soccer 22-11-1, with the Tigers winning 10 of the last 12 between the two schools dating back to 1996. In women's soccer, the Lady Tigers lead the series 9-3. The Lady Tigers lead the series in women's basketball 31-21.