The Capital One Orange Bowl announced on Thursday that former Clemson quarterback Homer Jordan will be inducted into the Orange Bowl Hall of Fame. Jordan is one of three honorees in this year’s class and is joined by former Michigan Head Coach Lloyd …
The Capital One Orange Bowl announced on Thursday that former Clemson quarterback Homer Jordan will be inducted into the Orange Bowl Hall of Fame.
Jordan is one of three honorees in this year’s class and is joined by former Michigan Head Coach Lloyd Carr and former Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner John Swofford. They will be honored at the AvMed Orange Bowl Coaches Luncheon presented by AutoNation on Dec. 30 at Jungle Island in Miami, and will be featured in an on-field ceremony at the 2021 College Football Playoff Semifinal game between Georgia and Michigan at the Capital One Orange Bowl on Dec. 31 at Hard Rock Stadium.
Jordan led Clemson to its first national championship and third perfect season in history at the 1982 Orange Bowl at the conclusion of the 1981 season. Jordan became just the second African-American quarterback in FBS history — and the first at a school in the south — to lead a team to the national championship with that 22-15 victory over Nebraska.
Jordan was named the offensive MVP of the game after completing 11-of-22 passes for 134 yards and a touchdown and rushing for 46 yards. The native of Athens, Ga. was named the first-team All-ACC quarterback that season when he led the ACC in passing efficiency. He was the starting quarterback in every game of Clemson’s 12-0 season.
Jordan was inducted into the Clemson Athletic Hall of Fame in 1993 and into the Athens (Ga.) Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000.
Perry Tuttle was trying to relax by the pool when everything changed. It was January 1982, and Tuttle was just days removed from etching his place in Clemson football lore. The Tigers’ senior receiver had a couple of hands in delivering one of the …
Perry Tuttle was trying to relax by the pool when everything changed.
It was January 1982, and Tuttle was just days removed from etching his place in Clemson football lore. The Tigers’ senior receiver had a couple of hands in delivering one of the most memorable plays in program history when he hauled in the winning touchdown against Nebraska in the Orange Bowl to secure Clemson’s first-ever national championship.
But it wasn’t until he was thousands of miles away from Miami that he realized just how big his fame was about to get.
An All-American for the Tigers during that perfect ‘81 season, Tuttle traveled off the mainland to compete with other top college football players from around the country in the Hula Bowl, a postseason all-star game played in Hawaii at the time. Tuttle had some time to kill one day before the game, so he and some other players headed to the pool at their hotel.
As Tuttle lounged poolside, Southern Cal running back Marcus Allen, who won the Heisman Trophy that season before moving on to a Hall of Fame career in the NFL, walked over and slapped a copy of the most recent edition of Sports Illustrated on his chest. There Tuttle was on the cover, a photo of him celebrating his catch. There was a caption, too.
Orange Bowl Hero Perry Tuttle of Clemson.
“(Allen) said, ‘A country bumpkin like you on the cover of Sports Illustrated,” Tuttle recalled during a recent phone interview with TCI. “And I looked at it, and I’m going, ‘I’m on the cover of Sports Illustrated.’
“I went running to my room and called collect to my parents. They didn’t know what hotel I was staying at in Hawaii for this Hula Bowl, and they said, ‘Everybody has been calling here trying to find out where you are.’”
A lot has happened in Tuttle’s life since. He spent four seasons with three teams in the NFL after being drafted 19th overall by the Buffalo Bills. He then moved on to the Canadian Football League, where he helped the Winnipeg Blue Bombers win two CFL titles in six seasons, before he moved back to his native North Carolina to begin life after football.
Now living in Charlotte, Tuttle is a speaker, author and leadership coach working with businesses and professional athletes. He also recently got involved in the tech world, helping create the Vertigo Music app with another project in the works.
Last but certainly not least, there’s his family. Tuttle and his wife, Loretta, have six children — three boys and three girls — and two grandchildren, which take up most of his time nowadays.
“I’m about 90% pops,” Tuttle said.
Catching fame
But the memory of that iconic Orange Bowl moment is just as fresh in Tuttle’s mind as it was four decades ago. Facing third-and-goal from Nebraska’s 13-yard line midway through the third quarter, Clemson needed a touchdown if it was going to extend its five-point lead to two scores. As the Tigers broke the huddle and approached the line of scrimmage, quarterback Homer Jordan glanced toward Tuttle and nodded, which not only let Tuttle know the ball was coming his way but also to change his route.
“The nod was always the fade, but it’s not like we did it every week,” Tuttle said. “That was the first time he had ever nodded during the whole season. And it was the biggest game of our lives. So, for me, I was like, ‘Whoa.’”
Tuttle ran toward the front corner of the end zone, and Jordan lofted the pass in his direction. Nebraska cornerback Allen Lyday ran with Tuttle stride for stride, but the back-shoulder throw was placed where, if anyone was going to catch it, it would be Tuttle. He spun around, high-pointed the ball and fell to the ground with the score that ultimately made the difference in a 22-15 victory after Nebraska scored another touchdown in the fourth quarter.
“It wasn’t where I beat (Lyday) so badly that it was easy,” Tuttle said. “It was a hard catch, but it was the right throw. It was a perfect throw.”
Tuttle immediately jumped up and extended the ball in the air with his right hand in celebration, making for the image that landed him on the cover of one of the world’s most popular sports magazines. Tuttle became a household name essentially overnight, a stroke of irony considering his childhood football hero, former Dallas Cowboys receiver “Bullet” Bob Hayes, was the reason Tuttle began playing football in the first place.
Growing up near Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Tuttle’s first love was basketball. But his elementary school coach, Pete Chitty, wanted Tuttle on the football team once he reached the fourth grade. Tuttle said the only way that would happen is if he got to wear No. 22, the same jersey number Hayes wore.
Chitty obliged, and the rest is history. Tuttle wore No. 22 through his playing days.
“I wanted to be famous because of Bob Hayes,” said Tuttle, the only Clemson athlete to ever grace the cover of Sports Illustrated at the time.
Lessons learned
Getting married and starting a family, dedicating himself to his Christian faith and reconciling with his late father are what Tuttle considers some of the most impactful moments of his life, but that catch came along as the first life-altering event. And as he soon found out, it wasn’t always for the better.
Days after returning to Clemson from that Hula Bowl trip, Tuttle visited Mr. Knickerbocker, a local sports apparel store, with one of his former teammates. As they were leaving, a woman approached Tuttle with her young son. Tuttle said he thought she was going to ask for a photo or an autograph.
That wasn’t the case.
“She was so ticked off at me that her boy said something that, while they were in the store, he overheard me say,” Tuttle said. “And because I said it, she was so mad that I didn’t watch my language and her son repeated it. So life became complicated for me.”
There was also that time Tuttle returned to Clemson for one of the first reunions of the ‘81 title team and asked one of his best friends from college how her brother was doing, unaware that he had passed away during their senior year.
“I was just so embarrassed that I was so into me that I missed it,” Tuttle said.
Tuttle said his notoriety grew to the point that he received letters from fans around the world, but those experiences back home taught him a lesson about his newfound fame. With more eyes on him than ever before, expectations were different.
“I’ve got to watch what I say, I’ve got to watch where I’m going and who I’m with,” Tuttle said. “I didn’t particularly like that at all. So, to this day, especially if I’m in South Carolina somewhere or even here in Charlotte, I’m so aware of what that means. I’m OK with it now, but back then, no one ever prepared me for the Sports Illustrated cover.”
From a curse to a blessing
Tuttle’s most recent trip to South Carolina came last weekend when he returned to Clemson for the 40-year reunion of the Tigers’ first national championship team. Tuttle was recognized along with most of his former teammates and the coach of that ‘81 team, Danny Ford, during the first quarter of the Tigers’ 19-13 win over Boston College.
Tuttle said it was particularly special for him to catch up with some of those teammates that he hasn’t seen in years.
“We have a love for each other that’s just incredible,” he said.
There are still plenty of fans that do approach Tuttle for photos and autographs. Tuttle said he’s still surprised when it’s those who are three or four decades younger than him asking, but he’s largely used to it by now. As the years have gone by, his experiences have changed his perspective regardless of the situation.
“One of the privileges I have is being so aware of using my words to make them count,” Tuttle said. “So if I’m going to take a picture with a young person, I’m going to use my words to encourage them. And if I’m going to take a picture with a person who’s older, I’m going to thank them for allowing me to take a picture with them. They don’t have to do that. And it’s no bother for me now.
“For me to sign their shirt or their hat, it’s an honor. I’m like, ‘Do you really want this?’ So it’s really turned into a blessing.”
And that’s why Tuttle wouldn’t change a thing.
“I’m so grateful, and I love Clemson,” he said.
Former Clemson receiver Perry Tuttle, right, shakes hands with a fan during Clemson’s Tiger Walk outside of Memorial Stadium before the Tigers’ game against Boston College Saturday, October 2, 2021. Bart Boatwright/The Clemson Insider
There are ton of things former Clemson tight end K.D. Dunn can remember about the Tigers’ magical run to the 1981 National Championship. But what he remembers the most was “Victory Meal Monday.” “Our training table was something else. It was out of …
There are ton of things former Clemson tight end K.D. Dunn can remember about the Tigers’ magical run to the 1981 National Championship. But what he remembers the most was “Victory Meal Monday.”
“Our training table was something else. It was out of this world,” he said. “On Mondays, was the victory meals. We had it all. We had steak, lobster, champagne … we had it all. And my gosh! I miss that now.”
Clemson had plenty of Victory Meal Mondays in 1981, as the Tigers went on an unprecedented run in Clemson history. They beat No. 4 Georgia, No. 8 North Carolina, and No. 4 Nebraska on their way to winning the school’s first national championship in any sport.
“We were the first,” quarterback Homer Jordan said with a smile.
Clemson has since won two more national championships in football. The 2016 Tigers did it with a 14-1 mark and then in 2018, those Tigers became the first team in the modern era of college football to go 15-0.
But the 1981 team set the standard at Clemson, and it is the standard all Clemson teams have tried to live up to. The 1981 Clemson Tigers will be honored on Saturday when the 19th-ranked Tigers take on Boston College, as a part of Homecoming Weekend in Clemson.
“It was a magical year for us in 1981,” Dunn said. “Nobody thought that Clemson would win the national title, and not a lot of people knew where Clemson was at the time.”
Ninety players from the 1981 team are expected to participate in Tiger Walk on Saturday. They will then be honored at the end of the first quarter on the field at Memorial Stadium.
“We had a good team that year, and it came together for us,” said Jordan, who was an All-ACC First-Team Quarterback in 1981. “We took a lot of pride in playing for our teammates. Coach [Danny] Ford preached about playing for your teammates and playing for your family and go have a good time. So, that is what we did.”
Since 1962, Clemson’s 1981 team is just one of three teams to claim an Associated Press National Championship after opening the season unranked.
In 1980, the Tigers closed the year with four defeats in their last six games. They needed a 27-6 victory over rival South Carolina to salvage a winning season.
However, beating the Gamecocks that year was not just like any other year. USC was 8-2 and ranked No. 14 in the country and was led by eventual Heisman Trophy winner George Rogers.
The win over the Gamecocks was the shot of confidence the Clemson program needed to get back on track. In the off-season, the momentum of the victory carried over, as players used it to drive them in the spring and summer.
And though the South Carolina game gave them confidence, it was the Tigers’ stunning 13-3 victory over defending national champion Georgia that told them they were capable of beating anyone in college football. Jordan threw a touchdown pass to All-American Perry Tuttle and the defense forced a record nine turnovers that sunny afternoon in Death Valley.
“That Georgia game kind of set the tone for us, because the year before it kind of bit us pretty good,” Jordan said. “But that game set the tone for us. We started believing that we could win.”
It especially helped Jordan, who admitted his confidence shot way up after beating his hometown team.
“We started rolling pretty good then,” he said.
Overall, the Tigers finished second nationally in scoring defense in 1981, seventh in rushing defense, seventh in turnover margin and eighth in total defense. Clemson led the ACC in total defense, rushing defense, scoring defense and interceptions. It forced a school record 41 turnovers, which still stands as the high mark in school history.
Clemson allowed just three teams to score more than 10 points in 1981—Wake Forest, South Carolina and Nebraska—and it went 18 quarters without giving up a touchdown during one stretch.
“We didn’t want people to score on us, and we wanted to physically dominate people,” All-American linebacker Jeff Davis said. “In a sick way, that was our joy. Yeah, we may not have beaten everybody by 21 points, but your body and your mental state of mind said we beat you by 21 points. That’s the kind of football we played. We had no reason for how great we were playing.”
After the Tigers’ win over Georgia, they crushed Kentucky (21-3), Virginia (27-0), Duke (38-10), NC State (17-7) and Wake Forest (82-24). Clemson climbed to No. 2 in the AP Poll, setting up the ACC’s first ever top 10 showdown between two conference foes as the Tigers traveled to Chapel Hill to take on No. 8 North Carolina.
“That was pretty tough game. Two good programs going head-to-head,” Dunn said. “They had great athletes over there, along with ours. It tells you the testament of good players going at it because it came down to the end.”
It ended with Jeff Bryant falling on a backwards pass to seal the Tigers’ 10-8 victory.
Clemson closed out its first perfect regular season since 1948 by beating Maryland (21-7) and South Carolina (29-13). After the South Carolina game, they accept a bid to play No. 4 Nebraska in the Orange Bowl.
The Tigers moved into the No. 1 spot for the first time in the program’s history a week after they concluded the regular season. Penn State beat Dan Marino and previously undefeated and No. 1 Pittsburgh, propelling Clemson to No. 1 in the rankings as it headed to play Nebraska in the Orange Bowl on New Year’s Day.
At the time, the 1982 Orange Bowl was Clemson’s first Orange Bowl appearance in 25 years. Jordan, the game’s Most Valuable Offensive Player, completed 11-of-22 passes and had 180 yards of total offense in leading the Tigers, while Davis, the Defensive MVP of the game, had 14 tackles in the 22-15 victory.
“We earned that thing,” Davis said. “Not in a sense that we beat everybody or were more talented. We earned that thing on the practice field. That’s where we won our national championship. We didn’t win the national championship in the Orange Bowl in Miami. We won that thing on those practice fields. Coach Ford worked us. If I could say anything that could define us, I would say that was it. We knew how to work. When you know how to work, there is no give up and there is no satisfaction when you know how to work.”
These days, when the 1981 team gets together, they do not talk much about the games or their perfect 12-0 season. They instead just enjoy each other’s company, as they laugh and joke around. They know what they accomplished 40 years ago was special. That is all they need, and maybe another victory meal on Monday.
Football season has finally arrived. Time to represent your Tigers and show your stripes!
The offensive game plan for quarterback Homer Jordan and company was easy in 1981 – “don’t give the ball away deep in your own territory and you’ll be fine.” So that’s what they did. Though the Clemson offense had its moments during the Tigers’ run …
The offensive game plan for quarterback Homer Jordan and company was easy in 1981 – “don’t give the ball away deep in your own territory and you’ll be fine.”
So that’s what they did.
Though the Clemson offense had its moments during the Tigers’ run to the 1981 National Championship—like scoring 82 points against Wake Forest—for the most part they kept things pretty close to the vest.
“We weren’t flashy or this and that, but whatever we had to do to get the job done, we did it,” Jordan said, as Clemson celebrates the 40th anniversary of its first national championship this season.
Clemson begins the celebration of its first national championship against Georgia this Saturday in a top 5 matchup at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte. The Tigers’ 13-3 victory over the then No. 4 Bulldogs catapulted them on a run in 1981 that shocked the college football world.
Prior to beating the defending national champions, Clemson was not ranked and opened the season with unimpressive victories over Wofford and Tulane. What happened on September 19, 1981, in Death Valley, no one saw coming, except the players and coaches on that Clemson team.
The Clemson defense allowed just 10 touchdowns all season in 1981, with only three teams—Wake Forest, South Carolina and Nebraska—scoring more than 10 points. And only Wake Forest scored more than 15 points in a game.
The Tigers led the ACC in total defense, scoring defense, rush defense and interceptions. They finished the year second in the nation in scoring defense, seventh in rushing defense and eighth in total defense. The most impressive and important stat of all, and it goes back to the offense’s job was – they finished seventh in the nation in turnover margin.
“I can remember, if the offense lost the ball, we would tell them that we are going to get the ball back,” said former linebacker Jeff Davis, who led Clemson in tackles and was an All-American in 1981. “I can remember that most of the time, that is exactly what happened.”
The Tigers forced 41 turnovers in 1981, which is still a school record for a single season.
“Our defense made plays,” Jordan said. “We had a solid defense. They made plays when they needed to.”
At no time in 1981 did the Tigers make more plays in one game than it did at home against defending national champion Georgia. The Clemson defense forced nine turnovers that afternoon, including five interceptions off Bulldogs’ quarterback Buck Belue.
It turned out to be the only regular season loss for 1982 Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker.
“We knew Belue had a tendency to make the wrong decisions if pressured,” former Clemson safety and All-American Terry Kinard said. “We got a great pass rush, and he was throwing the ball high.”
In the second quarter, Belue threw high again, and strong safety Tim Childress intercepted the pass to set up the game’s only touchdown, an eight-yard pass from Jordan to wide receiver Perry Tuttle. Donald Igwebuike booted two field goals of 39 and 29 yards to counter Georgia kicker Kevin Butler’s 40-yard kick in the third quarter to cap the win.
Walker, who never scored a touchdown against Clemson, rushed for 111 yards that afternoon, but they did not come easy. Though he averaged nearly four yards a carry, he was surrounded by the Clemson defense all day. He fumbled the ball three times and lost two of them.
Arguably college football’s greatest running back said the 63,500 fans packed inside Memorial Stadium played a big part in why he played so bad. The noise inside Death Valley from that afternoon still haunts Walker to this day. It was the only time he played at Death Valley.
“I came in here knowing it would be loud and that Clemson would hit hard,” Walker said. “But to me, the noise was the biggest factor. I know I did not concentrate as well because of it.”
Clemson held Georgia’s powerful offense to 255 total yards, while Jordan and company did just enough on offense to get the job done. The Clemson quarterback led the Tigers with 59 yards rushing, while completing 11 of 18 passes for 135 yards. More importantly, he did not throw an interception.
“All I had to do was take care of the football and manage the game,” Jordan said.
He let the defense do the rest.
“This was probably the biggest game we are going to play this year,” Davis said afterwards. “When we lost to Georgia last year, we kind of lost our morale. It hurt us the rest of the season.
“We know the rest of the games are important, but we had to win this one.”
The win propelled the Tigers into the national rankings the next week at No. 19 in the Associated Press Poll and No. 18 in the Coaches’ Poll. From there, Clemson had the confidence it needed to make a run at a perfect season.
And though the Georgia victory had the Tigers flying high, Davis said, years later, if it wasn’t for head coach Danny Ford and his staff keeping the players grounded, things might have been different in 1981.
“The coaching staff did a good job of keeping us focused, keeping our goals out there and understanding that some great things can happen if we keep on playing the way we had been playing,” he said. “I think that’s why we won the national championship because we never really bought into the hype.
“We never bought into how great we were. It was more important for us to prove how great we were game in and game out.”
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The legend goes, Homer Jordan was known to eat as many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as his playing weight. But was it legend? There is a promotional picture prior to the 1982 season that shows the former Clemson quarterback about to eat one …
The legend goes, Homer Jordan was known to eat as many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as his playing weight.
But was it legend?
There is a promotional picture prior to the 1982 season that shows the former Clemson quarterback about to eat one peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a stack beside him, as well. Jordan, who led the Tigers to the 1981 National Championship, says he still eats a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches today.
“One of my favorite meals, with Lay’s potato chips and a glass of Kool-Aid,” he said with a big grin.
Jordan also smiles when he thinks back to the Tigers’ magical run in 1981. Clemson will celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Football Program’s first national championship on Sept. 18 when the Tigers host Georgia Tech at Death Valley.
“Once you play here and go through here, they always welcome you back with open arms,” he said. “That is pretty much what they told you (when you attended Clemson), but it is happening. They just don’t talk about it, but they actually do it.”
Jordan comes to Clemson quite often to visit his former teammate, and close friend, Jeff Davis, who runs PAW Journey on Dabo Swinney’s staff. Swinney has always been receptive to former players who return to Tigertown to visit or watch practice.
“I have seen how the facilities have grown, we have always had the best, and they keep improving,” said Jordan, who still lives in his native town of Athens, Ga. “It feels like you were a part of it. So that is the thing for me.”
Until Deshaun Watson did it in 2016, Jordan was the only Clemson quarterback to lead his team to a national championship. Trevor Lawrence, of course, led the Tigers to the 2018 National Championship a couple of years after Watson.
“You’re glad to see them on T.V. and watch them win, but we were the first,” Jordan said while laughing. “But that is what you like and that is what you want to see happen. If you were a part of the first, you want to see the train keep rolling.”
With Jordan as the starting quarterback, the 1981 Tigers rolled over everyone who got in their way.
An All-ACC First-Team quarterback in 1981, Jordan led the Tigers to a perfect 12-0 record, which they capped with a 22-15 victory over No. 4 Nebraska in the 1982 Orange Bowl.
Jordan was well ahead of his time. He could run and throw the ball with the best of them. He had a rocket for an arm and ranks ninth all-time in Clemson history for passing yards per attempt at 7.61.
Clemson beat three teams that finished ranked inside the top 10 in 1981 in Georgia, North Carolina and Nebraska. The Tigers were the only team in the country to beat three opponents ranked inside the top 10 that season.
“We had a good team that year, and it came together for us,” Jordan said.
And yes, Jordan and the Clemson offense leaned on a great defense led by Davis, a First-Team All-American at linebacker.
However, when he had to, Jordan came through in the clutch in the biggest of games that season. No more than in the Orange Bowl when he used his arm and his feet to earn MVP honors.
Jordan threw for 134 yards and a touchdown, while rushing for 46 more, including a masterful 23-yard run on third down-and-four from the Clemson 37 late in the fourth quarter. The run came with 1:43 on the clock, forcing Nebraska to use its final timeout of the game.
The Tigers ran the clock down to six seconds before turning the ball over on downs to the Cornhuskers.
After the game, Jordan was so dehydrated and exhausted he did not speak with the media until the next morning. He later said he tried to sit down at his locker after the game, but he got really shaky. The doctors put him to bed after they got back to the team hotel, and he was unable to celebrate with the rest of the team.
“We took a lot of pride playing for our teammates,” Jordan said. “I remember Coach [Danny] Ford preached about playing for your teammates, playing for your family and go have a good time. So, that is what we did.”
Jordan has since been celebrating as one of Clemson’s all-time greats ever since. The Athens, Ga., native finished his Clemson career with a 23-6-1 record as a starter. He helped lead the Tigers to a second straight ACC Championship in 1982, as they finished that season 9-1-1 and ranked No. 8 in the final AP Poll.
In his last 20 starts, Jordan led Clemson to an 18-1-1 record.
Not too shabby for a guy who allegedly could eat his weight in peanut butter sandwiches.
–file photo courtesy of Clemson Athletics Communications
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