What makes the USC-Clemson rivalry so special? More than a century of rancor and respect
Not even the nation’s current political divisions compare to the 135-year rivalry between the University of South Carolina Gamecocks and the Clemson University Tigers, which has bound and riven families for generations, made stern football coaches sound like WWE wrestlers and once led a Lexington man to shoot and kill a friend who didn’t pay up after a $20 bet on the game.
Colors for cribs, caskets and the lifetime of Saturdays in between are basically assigned at birth.
Knockout orange and fully purple for you. Garnet and black for — and forever to — thee.
How did University of South Carolina-Clemson University become not only the state’s most heated rivalry but one of the greatest in sports? It dates back to the 1800s when political tensions in the state fueled the creation of Clemson University in 1889 by a single vote at the Statehouse where supporters clamored for an agrarian campus away from elites at USC.
Competition for students and state aid extended to the field in 1896, the first year of Clemson football and the fourth for USC. The State reported that in that first game, “though Clemson’s team was heavier and finely trained, it was evident to all that Carolina outclassed as well as outplayed her. The Clemson boys take their defeat very gracefully with no show of ill feeling.”
The ill will reared its head in 1902 when rowdiness after a USC win nearly triggered an “armed battle” among hundreds of students and spurred the cancellation of the series until 1909. Its resumption was called a “combination picnic, fashion parade, political rally and drinking bout.”
Since then, the rivalry renewed each year with one exception: a 2020 COVID-19 stoppage. That 111 straight years with a game is the second-longest streak in college football history, second only to the universities of Minnesota and Wisconsin, which have played every year since 1907.
Even if the state ever got a major league sports team, nothing could compete with this rivalry.
There have been unforgettable moments on and off the field: the thousands of counterfeit tickets that were sold in 1946, the game that the South Carolina General Assembly passed an actual resolution to order be played in 1952, “The Prank” in 1961, “The Catch” in 1977, Steve Taneyhill pretending to sign his name on the Tiger Paw at midfield in 1992, last-second field goals by Clemson in 2000 and 2007, the brawl that forced both bowl-eligible teams to cancel postseason plans in 2004.
And no one will ever forget that spicy quote by a USC play-by-play announcer — “We aren’t LSU and we aren’t Alabama. But we sure ain’t Clemson.” — that was misattributed to then-USC coach Steve Spurrier in 2011.
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney’s retort when asked about it? “They ain’t Alabama. They ain’t LSU. And they’re certainly not Clemson. That’s why Carolina’s in Chapel Hill and USC’s in California and the university in this state always has been, always will be, Clemson.”
Ouch. In his book “Head Ball Coach,” Spurrier wrote that he and Swinney “look back at it and laugh” now.
It might be easier for Swinney to laugh since he and his Tigers historically have the upper hand. Clemson leads the series 73-43-4, and the Tigers have won eight of the last nine. Swinney himself is 9-6 against USC while USC coach Shane Beamer is 1-2 against Clemson. It’s Saturday’s game that matters, though.
The rivalry isn’t just about bad blood. Each year since 1984, the schools hold the annual Carolina-Clemson Blood Battle in partnership with the American Red Cross and The Blood Connection, and thousands of pints of blood are donated to help people. Good comes from it.
Like the best sports rivalries, this one is rooted in respect, which is why students get bragging rights over peers 130 miles away for a whole year and why weddings can also result.
Two years ago, Fox Carolina interviewed a couple in a house divided in Greenville. He had a Gamecocks tattoo on his chest, she had a Clemson blanket that had been draped over her father’s casket. They said they’d watch the game together and kiss the winner.
“Family matters more than rivalry.” That’s how Lulu Kesin put it this week in a story in the Greenville News about Scott Beville, the long snapper for Clemson from 1988 through 1990, and his son Davis Beville, currently the third-string quarterback for South Carolina football.
The Daily Gamecock’s sports editor, Griffin Goodwyn, explored the rivalry this month and found a brother vs. brother tale about third-year USC political science student Tyler Helms and his younger sibling, Hunter Helms, who was a freshman quarterback at Clemson in 2020. When the two universities weren’t competing, Tyler would root “for Hunter, not Clemson” but when they were, Tyler told Goodwyn, “I’m like, ‘Listen, dude. This game, Cocks all day. Cocks by 90.’”
Saturday’s Palmetto Bowl pits two top 20 teams against each other with national college football playoff implications. There can be only one winner. But there’s also always next year. And there’s no rivalry like it.
This story was originally published November 27, 2024 at 8:21 AM.