Rubbing Rocks and Running Dabo: Get To Know Clemson's History and Traditions

Before your University of Kentucky Wildcats play the Clemson Tigers in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl, we should brush up on UK’s old bowl rival so we’re not surprised by any shenanigans down in Jacksonville. KSR already has wall-to-wall coverage of Friday’s game, each team’s participants and non-participants, pregame comments, and how the matchup looks on paper prior to kickoff. In this game preview, we’ll look into Clemson University and its football program, from its history to its traditions, before Kentucky plays the three-time national champ for the first time in fourteen years and the fourteenth time ever.

So, as we await the last kickoff of the season, let’s catch up on how the other side operates and where it began with these Clemson facts and additional useless information.

TIME Magazine’s College of the Year (2000)

Located in Clemson, South Carolina, in the shadows of the Blue Ridge Mountains and near the banks of scenic Lake Hartwell, Clemson University stands tall as the second-largest university in our nation’s Palmetto State. Clemson was founded as an agriculture college but has since grown into seven colleges with a student body of more than 23,000 bright young minds.

In 2000, TIME Magazine named Clemson its Public College of the Year.

We share a mutual dislike for the Gamecocks.

Thomas Green Clemson, Founder

The school’s founder, Thomas Green Clemson, for whom the town is named, is described by historians as “a quintessential nineteenth-century Renaissance man” for his widespan life, from Confederate officer to serving as U.S. Chargé d’affaires to Belgium and as the U.S. Superintendent of Agriculture. Some of those doors likely opened when he married Anna Maria Calhoun, daughter of John C. Calhoun, the seventh Vice President of the United States. That’s a father-in-law with some power, and the Clemsons gave him four grandkids.

When Thomas Green Clemson outlived Anna Maria and their four children, he founded the Clemson Agricultural College of South Carolina, now known as Clemson University.

Clemson was modeled after Mississippi State

In Thomas Green Clemson’s will, which you can read here on Clemson’s website, he asked that Clemson be like Mississippi State, of all places.

“This institution, I desire, to be under the control and management of a board of trustees, a part of whom are hereinafter appointed, and to be modeled after the Agricultural College of Mississippi as far as practicable.”

A bunch of dudes

Clemson was a military institution with an all-male student body for several decades. Participation in military training was required as all students were part of the Corps of Cadets with a military-based school curriculum. Clemson’s military heritage is still a big part of its identity today.

As for the all-male aspect, Clemson’s campus was a bunch of dudes from its inception in 1889 until the mid-20th century. The first female Clemson graduate, Margaret Marie Snider, graduated in 1957. A historical marker on campus tells her story.

Rubbin’ rocks

With all-male origins, it is fitting that one of Clemson’s longstanding traditions is rubbing a rock. At Clemson, Howard’s Rock sits atop The Hill at Memorial Stadium, and it’s rubbed by every player for good luck before each game.

As the legend goes, former Clemson head coach Frank Howard placed the rock from Death Valley, California, on a pedestal atop The Hill, telling his players they could rub the rock if they’d give 110 percent. “If you’re not, keep your filthy hands off it!” he yelled. Clemson made a late 18-point comeback in the first game in front of the rock in 1966, then won the first game of the season in 1967 when the players began to rub Howard’s Rock on their way to the field.

The tradition continues today as the players run onto Frank Howard Field.

Run, Dabo, run!

Leading the charge past Howard’s Rock into Memorial Stadium, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney’s best Forrest Gump impersonation has become its own Clemson football tradition. Since his first day on the job, Swinney has sprinted down The Hill in front of his team at speeds you won’t even try on the Planet Fitness treadmill.

Here we go! pic.twitter.com/x3wToZgjWg

— Clemson Football (@ClemsonFB) September 18, 2022

The team sprint has been called the most exciting 25 seconds in college football. Fortunately, Jacksonville’s EverBank Stadium has no hill for Clemson’s pregame ritual.

One of the Death Valleys

Like our friends at LSU, Clemson calls its home stadium “Death Valley.” The nickname dates back to a game in the late 1940s when the head coach of Presbyterian College described Memorial Stadium as “Death Valley” because it was a challenging venue for opposing teams to play and win.

Clemson fans embraced the Death Valley moniker, taking pride in being a hostile environment for the other side. Howard’s Rock was shipped from the real Death Valley nearly 20 years after the nickname originated at Clemson.

Tiger Paw, Tiger Rag, Tiger the Tiger

Clemson has a lot of Tiger Pride. Its mascot, a tiger, is simply named “The Tiger,” while the school’s decades-old fight song is titled “Tiger Rag.” They also call it “The Song That Shakes The Southland.”

Hopefully, it isn’t played too often in EverBank Stadium on Friday.

A Losing Record Against Kentucky

Before the teams meet for a fourteenth time on Friday, a reminder that Kentucky leads the all-time series 8-5, although Clemson has two of the three head-to-head bowl trophies.

Season	Result	Location
2009	Clemson 21, Kentucky 13	Nashville, TN – Music City Bowl
2006	Kentucky 28, Clemson 20	Nashville, TN – Music City Bowl
1993	Clemson 14, Kentucky 13	Atlanta, GA – Peach Bowl
1985	Kentucky 26, Clemson 7	Lexington, KY
1982	Clemson 24, Kentucky 6	Clemson, SC
1981	Clemson 21, Kentucky 3	Lexington, KY
1971	Kentucky 13, Clemson 10	Clemson, SC
1952	Kentucky 27, Clemson 14	Lexington, KY
1938	Clemson 14, Kentucky 0	Lexington, KY
1936	Kentucky 7, Clemson 6	Lexington, KY
1934	Kentucky 7, Clemson 0	Lexington, KY
1929	Kentucky 44, Clemson 6	Lexington, KY
1925	Kentucky 19, Clemson 6	Lexington, KY

I hope you know more about Clemson now than you did 10 minutes ago.

Go Cats.