Fierce rivalries and passionate fan bases make college football unique.
There are plenty of great rivalries across the nation from the Iron Bowl to the Egg Bowl, the Civil War to the World Largest Cocktail Party. But Clemson-Carolina is too often overlooked despite the passion and hatred that defines the in-state feud.
ESPN’s college football writers sat down and rated the best traditions, pageantry and rivalries in the sport this week and a Palmetto State native stood up for Clemson-Carolina.
“Growing up in the state of South Carolina in the dark ages, back when radio was the way we followed college football, the Clemson-South Carolina rivalry was played year-round,” Chris Low said in the discussion.
The rivalry hit pause last season when the SEC elected to play a conference-only schedule in the throws of the pandemic. But this season, the rivalry returns in full force on Thanksgiving weekend and while the games have been less competitive in recent year the passion remains.
Before 2020 the two schools battled for 111 consecutive seasons and fans on both sides will remember plays and moments from the games in Columbia and Clemson for the rest of their lives.
“Clemson fans reveled in reminding South Carolina fans that Heisman Trophy winner George Rogers never scored a touchdown against the Tigers,” Low said. “South Carolina fans rubbed it in the faces of Clemson fans when Steve Taneyhill defaced the Tiger paw at midfield of Death Valley by pretending to sign it after a key touchdown in 1992.”
“I still say ‘The Catch’ by Jerry Butler in 1977 to give Clemson the win in Columbia is one of the greatest catches I’ve ever seen, and I’ll always remember the first Clemson-South Carolina game I attended in person.”
Every Clemson and South Carolina fan remembers the first game they saw between the two schools.
And on Nov. 27 at Williams Brice Stadium in Columbia the rivalry will renew as the Tigers seek to match their longest win streak in series history and claim their seventh straight win over the Gamecocks.
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