Carolina- Clemson, pick a side already
As a native son of the Palmetto state exiled across a continent, this week perhaps more than any other makes me pine for home. It is the week of the Clemson game, Carolina-Clemson week. Most states have their particular rivalries and think that they are the best. It all depends on your perspective. For me the finest NBA player ever is Alex English.
Our nation's best actress is a tie between JoAnnne Woodward and Andie MacDowell.
Then the best rivalry is South Carolina and Clemson. Out here in Northern California, they call the annual contest between Cal and Stanford: The Big Game. When you feel the need to label it as such then it is probably not that big a deal. It reminds me of a sports talk radio host from my days in the Holy City. He called himself The Big Kahuna. I met him and yes he had a big gut but was not that big a dude. He was not Hawaiian or a surfer. Just a former male cheerleader. I don't judge, just reporting the facts.
At Carolina Elementary School we were asked to wear our favorite school's colors or gear the Friday before the Carolina-Clemson game. Many of us did not need to be asked. We knew that it was the best time to sport our garnet or orange depending on your affiliation. Even better would be to wear it again on Monday after your team won. Sadly with the expanded schedules the game is now played Thanksgiving week and all the kids are out of school. It was always fun to see who was a Gamecock and who was a Tiger, for those kids whose allegiance was not already known. Those of us who inhaled the sports pages of The State or for those ACC fans the Charlotte Observer let our allegiances be known without anyone having to ask. Some had parents who went to one or the other schools, some even had grandparents who went there. My sister was asked by a classmate to go to a game up in Cowtown as a young girl and she got the fever, never to be cured. She was and is a Tiger. Thank the Lord that my Dad took me to see the Gamecocks play Miami of Ohio on September 17, 1977. We won and I still have the program. Dad later got me an autographed football from the team. I particularly like the Ron Bass signature. He was our quarterback and is better known as being Sunshine in "Remember the Titans". A freshman named George Rogers also signed it. But first game and first win does not make a fan. It is when you get knocked down that you find out where you truly stand.
We all have a friend who is a weather-vane fan. He has over time pulled for the Cowboys and 49ers, been an admirer of both Bobby Bowden and Tom Osborne and always sports fresh new team gear. As a young boy his passions changed each February when the latest Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition arrived. Now I was a fan of Paulina Porizkova too but we all know that there was Farrah Fawcett at number one and all the other actresses/models were vying for second place.
Back to sports, the 1977 season shaped up much like my lifetime of Carolina seasons and we were 5-5 heading into the Clemson game. We had two games left with Clemson in Columbia and a fun trip with a win to Hawaii with a 7-5 season a real possibility. Clemson was 7-2-1 and ranked #15 in the country. They had lost to #5 Notre Dame and tied North Carolina in the two weeks prior. The game was televised which was still a bit of a novelty back then for our instate rivalry. Our family would watch at home. Well I would watch it at home with my Mom and sister while my Dad would be there.
Clemson had not been to a bowl game in 18 years and a win would punch their ticket to the Gator Bowl. A Carolina win would keep us alive for a bowl. Well Clemson owned the first half and it was 17-0 at the half. Some new fans might have packed in at that point and reconsidered their choice of team. Not me. In a pattern repeated in many games since I did not give up on my team. In the 3rd Quarter they found themselves down 24-0. Then it got fun again for the Gamecock fans. Spencer Clark had a 77-yard run to put us on the board. We scored two more and missed a two-point conversion attempt to make it 24-20. Then Ron Bass connected to Phillip Logan to put us in the lead. The PAT was good and at 27-24 I was standing tall in our den. Feeling almost satisfied with under two minutes to go. Then this happened
and it stuck a dagger in me.
Steve Fuller to a leaping Jerry Butler for the touchdown and the win. I was suddenly a sad Gamecock, an angry Gamecock, and a distraught Gamecock. I got through it as best I could until Christmas. My Dad brought a gift home for my sister that had arrived at WHSC 1450-AM, Hartsville's premier radio station. Clemson, IPTAY or Defender Industries had sent the station a poster of The Catch. No biggie, right? Well it was or is in my memory the largest poster in history: an almost life-size blown-up picture of Jerry Butler's catch. This promptly went on the wall of my sister's bedroom. Though I was rarely in her room, it burned me that it was taking up space in our house. I wanted to tear it down and bury it in the woods underneath a pile of pine needles and let it rot a slow death. If I did it, the punishment would be swift and severe. Plausible deniability is a term that I think Bill Clinton made famous but it was what I would not have. The poster stayed. Dad did get me a small sticker of a Gamecock riding and whipping a Tiger that I promptly put on my football helmet light fixture hanging from my bedroom ceiling.
So it was a loss and not a win that forever cemented my allegiance to Carolina. There have been many more losses that only served to deepen my brand of Gamecock fanaticism. Lately a string of lovely wins has rewarded both young and old Gamecock fans and my fervent hope is that Saturday will bring us a fifth straight victory. Win or lose my side is picked and etched in stone. What about you? Have you picked a side?
Then the best rivalry is South Carolina and Clemson. Out here in Northern California, they call the annual contest between Cal and Stanford: The Big Game. When you feel the need to label it as such then it is probably not that big a deal. It reminds me of a sports talk radio host from my days in the Holy City. He called himself The Big Kahuna. I met him and yes he had a big gut but was not that big a dude. He was not Hawaiian or a surfer. Just a former male cheerleader. I don't judge, just reporting the facts.
At Carolina Elementary School we were asked to wear our favorite school's colors or gear the Friday before the Carolina-Clemson game. Many of us did not need to be asked. We knew that it was the best time to sport our garnet or orange depending on your affiliation. Even better would be to wear it again on Monday after your team won. Sadly with the expanded schedules the game is now played Thanksgiving week and all the kids are out of school. It was always fun to see who was a Gamecock and who was a Tiger, for those kids whose allegiance was not already known. Those of us who inhaled the sports pages of The State or for those ACC fans the Charlotte Observer let our allegiances be known without anyone having to ask. Some had parents who went to one or the other schools, some even had grandparents who went there. My sister was asked by a classmate to go to a game up in Cowtown as a young girl and she got the fever, never to be cured. She was and is a Tiger. Thank the Lord that my Dad took me to see the Gamecocks play Miami of Ohio on September 17, 1977. We won and I still have the program. Dad later got me an autographed football from the team. I particularly like the Ron Bass signature. He was our quarterback and is better known as being Sunshine in "Remember the Titans". A freshman named George Rogers also signed it. But first game and first win does not make a fan. It is when you get knocked down that you find out where you truly stand.
We all have a friend who is a weather-vane fan. He has over time pulled for the Cowboys and 49ers, been an admirer of both Bobby Bowden and Tom Osborne and always sports fresh new team gear. As a young boy his passions changed each February when the latest Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition arrived. Now I was a fan of Paulina Porizkova too but we all know that there was Farrah Fawcett at number one and all the other actresses/models were vying for second place.
Back to sports, the 1977 season shaped up much like my lifetime of Carolina seasons and we were 5-5 heading into the Clemson game. We had two games left with Clemson in Columbia and a fun trip with a win to Hawaii with a 7-5 season a real possibility. Clemson was 7-2-1 and ranked #15 in the country. They had lost to #5 Notre Dame and tied North Carolina in the two weeks prior. The game was televised which was still a bit of a novelty back then for our instate rivalry. Our family would watch at home. Well I would watch it at home with my Mom and sister while my Dad would be there.
Clemson had not been to a bowl game in 18 years and a win would punch their ticket to the Gator Bowl. A Carolina win would keep us alive for a bowl. Well Clemson owned the first half and it was 17-0 at the half. Some new fans might have packed in at that point and reconsidered their choice of team. Not me. In a pattern repeated in many games since I did not give up on my team. In the 3rd Quarter they found themselves down 24-0. Then it got fun again for the Gamecock fans. Spencer Clark had a 77-yard run to put us on the board. We scored two more and missed a two-point conversion attempt to make it 24-20. Then Ron Bass connected to Phillip Logan to put us in the lead. The PAT was good and at 27-24 I was standing tall in our den. Feeling almost satisfied with under two minutes to go. Then this happened
and it stuck a dagger in me.
Steve Fuller to a leaping Jerry Butler for the touchdown and the win. I was suddenly a sad Gamecock, an angry Gamecock, and a distraught Gamecock. I got through it as best I could until Christmas. My Dad brought a gift home for my sister that had arrived at WHSC 1450-AM, Hartsville's premier radio station. Clemson, IPTAY or Defender Industries had sent the station a poster of The Catch. No biggie, right? Well it was or is in my memory the largest poster in history: an almost life-size blown-up picture of Jerry Butler's catch. This promptly went on the wall of my sister's bedroom. Though I was rarely in her room, it burned me that it was taking up space in our house. I wanted to tear it down and bury it in the woods underneath a pile of pine needles and let it rot a slow death. If I did it, the punishment would be swift and severe. Plausible deniability is a term that I think Bill Clinton made famous but it was what I would not have. The poster stayed. Dad did get me a small sticker of a Gamecock riding and whipping a Tiger that I promptly put on my football helmet light fixture hanging from my bedroom ceiling.
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