This beautiful and cool first day of September 2009 has me thinking college football. It is well nigh impossible for me to think college football without thinking Clemson Orange and the many great games I got to see while I was at Clemson. This slide is of Clemson attempting a field goal during the game against Notre Dame in November 1977. Many future NFL stars played in thatgame, including Notre Dame's Joe Montana, and Clemson's Dwight Clark, Jeff and Joe Bostic, Jerry Butler, Archie Reese, and Steve Fuller. Notre Dame came from behind, thanks to two late Clemson fumbles, to defeat Clemson 21-17, and go on to win the national chapionship against Texas in the Cotton Bowl. As seemed oddly to have been the case when playing Clemson in those days, the opposing coach (Dan Devine) went batty in a memorable antic running onto the field to grab a penalty flag. I went to the pep rally the night before at the Clemson ampitheater (which I also had a role in sparing from the wrecking ball, you're welcome all you Clemon folks that have enjoyed it since 1977 :-) The pep rally was awesome.
Though Clemson lost to Notre Dame, this game went a long way toward putting them on the map nationally, and set the stage for the run to the eventual national championship in 1981.
The original picture has amazing detail. Click here to go to the uncropped version, and then click on "all sizes" and then "large" or "original." It is pretty cool.
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