Someone stole a special brick from iconic Clemson bar The Esso Club. They want it back

The Esso Club is more than an institution for fans of the Clemson Tigers.

It’s their game day home, just across the street from Memorial Stadium, the place alums come back to year after year.

The bar is filled with Clemson memorabilia and other items such as a letter from President Jimmy Carter’s brother Billy as well as bricks honoring faithful fans who have died.

One such fan was Don McAuliff, a 1976 Clemson graduate who died in 2017 of a heart attack while repairing a fence blown down during Hurricane Irma in Florida. He was 64 and lived in Palatka, Florida.

He earned a degree in industrial engineering and was a mega-fan, his daughter Audrey McAuliff said. He had a room devoted to Clemson — bedspread, rug, lamps, artwork — and his car horn played “Tiger Rag.”

His dad, Dan, was a Clemson engineering lecturer.

Despite living so far away, he bought season tickets to Clemson, attending about half of the games. The Esso Club was a must-visit.

The family bought three bricks for the floor of the memorial patio outside the Esso Club to honor him and his favorite chant, “Porkchop, porkchop mighty greasy. C’mon Clemson beat ’em easy.”

On Sunday afternoon, someone pried the brick that contained the first part of the chant from the floor and made off with it. It wasn’t hard. Manager Jenna Belfanco said she just sets the bricks into the floor without mortar because she moves them from time to time.

Sometimes someone’s coming in and wants to sit by a brick honoring a family member or they want to put family members’ bricks together, she said.

Belfano said she has no idea why someone would take the brick other than they liked the saying.

Esso Club managers checked surveillance video and sure enough there the culprits were in all their brick-stealing glory.

Belfanco said she’s serious about getting it back.

She has put out the word on social media before calling police. She wants to give the thief a chance to bring it back.

McAuliff said it’s a prank her dad would have pulled or thought hilarious.

“He was a jokester, the life of the party,” she said. “A Clemson prank. He’d be delighted.”

That said, they do want it back.

This story was originally published May 4, 2022 at 3:10 PM.