Memories of the '70's

May 4, 2004, 12:09 PM

My first Clemson game is something I do not remember. It was back in the late '60's and I am not even sure who we played or if we won. I think I was around five or six years old. What I remember about it is that it rained....and rained....and then, it rained! The first game that I really remember going to was on October 13, 1973. It was against Virginia and I was 11 by this time and the reason that I remember the date so well is because I still have the stub.

I still love the way these older tickets look. 1973 was my brothers freshman year at Clemson and he lived on B-5 in the old tin-cans. To me that was always the BEST place to live on campus. We would walk around campus on Game Saturdays and it seemed that everyone in Johnstone was either listening to the “Fox” out of Gainesville, Ga or some other “cool” album that I would have to track down. Years later when I was a student there I made the mistake of living off campus and have regretted it ever since. My biggest downfall here is the fact that I was living maybe 70 yards from Tiger Town Tavern on Earle St. (I think)…. Oops!! (But this story will be part of the ‘80’s)

Our family went to almost all home games from the 1973 season on. We had family in the area (other than my brother) and we would often drive up Saturday morning before a game and stay until Sunday to go to church with my cousin’s family.

Looking at that ticket from the UVA game in ’73 reminds me of something that I mentioned on here yesterday…. My cousin worked at the University and his kids were close to my age. We would use whatever pass was available to get in the gate. I even remember a few games where we used “field passes”…. It didn’t matter because we still sat on the hill…. Even with the “Presidents Box” ticket above, we were still on the hill, but that was fine because we had a ball!

There were other games in other years but some always remained more firmly fixed in my memory…

I don’t really know why the hype seemed more intense before the 1974 season. Mark Fellers ended up being our QB after Ken Pengitore graduated. We DID have Ben Cunningham coming back and at 6’5”, 252 lbs, he was bigger and taller than anyone else on the O-line. 1975 and 1976 were hard seasons to live through for Tiger fans but it always seemed to me that the 1974 team gave us all a glimpse of what the Tigers could do and who they could compete with. This team went 7-4 with rare HOME victories against Ga Tech and UGA

Many times at the end of the games we would head from the hill to where my parents were sitting... at this time they would use tickets that were just outside the door to the presidents box. OICU812 has told me before that he a other local “Clemson” kids would often sit under the stairs to the Old press box so we may have seen each other at times over the years. After the UGA game of 1974, my parents decided that we were not going to stay in Clemson that night but that we were going to drive to visit family in Georgia that we had not seen in a while…. Hmmmm…we had just beaten UGA and were going to visit UGA fans in our family…. How sweet is that!!!

Through most of the ‘70’s the stadium had no upper decks. I understand the economics behind the additions, but I have to say that part of my youth was left behind when the stadium started expanding. The stadium I remember only held about 43,500 and it was not always full. But it ALWAYS seemed loud!!

This is probably from the S. Carolina game in 1976 (I think). The next time we would play USC at home, there would be the addition of the South Upper Deck. It didn’t have the seats yet so the fans up there just sat on the concrete.

1977 was a good year for Tiger football and then, the next season the Tigers did something that I had never experienced before….. back to back winning season’s….. with a bowl game tagged on the end of each of them!!! These, to me were the season’s that laid the ground work for the NC run. This is where Tiger Football started to get some national recognition. The ’79 season was yet another winning season and high school graduation was just around the corner in 1980.

And now….. ah….the ‘80’s…..

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Memories of the '70's

The ticket was vs. Virginia. We won.

nice post

This brings back the memories...............................

Re: Clemson in the '70's

Nice job.***

Great job! Now I can add two more DV pics to my collection.***

I especially like Tiger Band's formation in the 4th pic.

Re: I especially like Tiger Band's formation in the 4th pic.

I would kill for that stub....1 week prior to my birth.***

I remember that Virginia game because it was that weekend

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