O
ne of the oldest and fiercest rivalries in college football is fought on the final day of the regular season between two schools whose supporters simply don’t like each other very much.
Just a Game? NOT!
For more than a century, rabid and
casual football fans in South Carolina have looked forward to the battle for bragging rights in the Palmetto State, the much- anticipated
BY MADELAINE COCHRAN
and much-discussed annual brawl between the Gamecocks of the Univer- sity of South Carolina and the Tigers of Clemson University. The rivalry was launched in 1886,
when 19 Clemson Agricultural College football players boarded a train for the 125-mile trip to Columbia, the state capital, for a Thursday night matchup against the South Carolina College Jaguars, as the Gamecocks were then known. Two thousand fans paid 25 cents each to see the Jags trounce Clemson, 12-6. It wasn’t long before the game
became more than just a game. Fol- lowing a 1902 win over the Tigers, South Carolina fans paraded through downtown Columbia carrying a flag with an image of a Gamecock crouch-
ing victoriously over a defeated and deflated tiger. Clemson cadets, just a little more than upset by this insult to their school, marched onto the campus in Columbia with intentions of destroying this symbol of Gamecock supremacy. They burned the flag, re- sulting in a seven-year-long suspension of the game. Despite sporadic violence and
general antipathy between supporters of the two state schools, the Game- cocks, now a member of the Southeast- ern Conference, and Clemson, in the Atlantic Coast Conference, have met on the football field every year since. Until 1958, the game was always
played on “Big Thursday.” “It was almost a holiday,” says
Clemson graduate William T. Worth. “Half of the state closed down for that game. Businesses closed; schools closed.” Worth pointed out, however, that
not everyone was a fan of Big Thurs- day. Clemson coach Frank Howard
didn’t really relish the Thursday night time slot, and, in 1962, the two schools agreed to settle their differences on the gridiron on the final Saturday of the regular season. Stories about the intensity of the
in-state rivalry abound among devout fans of both universities. In 1961, for example, the Sigma Nu chapter at South Carolina dressed an old cow as longtime Clemson coach Howard, complete with a crown on her head and the title of “Miss Clemson” embla- zoned on her considerable side. They planned to escort the bovine beauty onto the field before the game, but, unfortunately, Miss Clemson dropped dead en route to the stadium. The fierce rivalry turned ugly dur- ing the 2004 game, the final contest of legendary Lou Holtz’ coaching career. The 67-year-old Gamecock mentor was forced to play the role of peacemaker when a fight broke out between the teams. Prior to the game, they had engaged in a pushing and
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