Furman wanted to play a game at Memorial Stadium after hurricane. Why Clemson said no
As Clemson officials finalized their own plan for hosting a football game two days after Hurricane Helene hit last September, a nearby college asked for help.
Furman, like Clemson, had been scheduled to host a football game that Saturday. But the morning after the storm made landfall in South Carolina, the private school in Greenville had no power and a large number of trees down on campus.
So Furman reached out to Clemson on Friday, Sept. 27 with a request.
With their stadium out of commission, could they host Samford at Clemson’s Memorial Stadium that Sunday instead, one day after Clemson played?
Clemson said no.
Although the Tigers were confident in their ability to host their own game that Saturday, university and athletic department leadership declined Furman’s request because, as one local official familiar with the process put it, “the community has been stretched to the limit and that was not a possibility.”
That’s according to emails obtained by The State via public records requests as part of a larger project examining how Clemson leaders operated the week of their “hurricane game” and handled the criticism that followed their decision to play on.
Furman’s request to host a game in Death Valley after the hurricane was revealed during an email exchange between city of Clemson officials.
As part of a longer email to city council members and other city leaders recapping a “tough day” of initial Helene response and recovery on Friday, Sept. 27, Clemson city administrator Andy Blondeau mentioned the exchange, citing a conversation he’d had with university athletic director Graham Neff earlier that day.
After Helene hit the region overnight on Sept. 26, Clemson got power back on campus rather quickly because of the underground system it uses. The university was steadfast in its desire to play the Stanford game as scheduled, emails showed.
Blondeau and Neff were among eight key city and university officials who met via Zoom on the afternoon of Sept. 27 to discuss final gameday logistics and planning.
A portion of Blondeau’s email read: “Furman is not able to play in their stadium and asked if they could play Samford in Death Valley on Sunday. Graham told them the community has been stretched to the limit and that was not a possibility.”
Explaining Furman’s request
Furman competes at the Division I FCS level — a level below Clemson, USC and other Division I FBS schools — and is located about 45 minutes away from Clemson in Greenville. The school usually hosts home football games on campus.
Furman had been scheduled to play Samford in both teams’ Southern Conference opener on Saturday, Sept. 28 at Paladin Stadium (capacity 16,000).
Furman athletic director Jason Donnelly, through a spokesman, confirmed that the school had asked Clemson about the possibility of playing a game at Memorial Stadium (capacity 81,500) on Sunday, Sept. 29 after Helene damaged campus.
“Our attempt was to determine if any options to play the game were available since Furman was closed due to no power and a large number of trees down on campus,” Furman athletic department spokesman Hunter Reid told The State via email.
Reid said Furman’s request to Clemson ultimately wouldn’t have changed anything, because Samford, which is located in Birmingham, Alabama, had its hotel accommodations for that weekend canceled because of storm impacts.
Samford could not find a backup hotel option, Furman said.
“Even if Clemson had agreed to allow us to host the game on campus, it would not have come to fruition due to Samford’s impossible travel situation,” Reid said.
Furman also briefly looked into playing its game at nearby Anderson University, Kennesaw State University outside Atlanta and a few Atlanta-area high schools.
Although South Carolina and Coastal Carolina football both had scheduled off weeks for Sept. 28 and weren’t using their stadiums, Furman said it “never considered” playing at USC or Coastal because of logistical issues, primarily on Samford’s end.
Furman initially announced the Samford home game had been postponed indefinitely on Sept. 27. The game was formally canceled on Nov. 21.
Furman and Clemson have a longstanding relationship and routinely schedule each other in numerous sports, including football. The FCS Paladins have played five games at Memorial Stadium since 2000 and are scheduled to play at Clemson again this November, during the second-to-last week of the 2025 regular season.
“From Furman’s perspective, there is complete understanding of the challenging circumstances Clemson also faced in the face of Helene’s destruction,” Reid said.
Clemson athletic department spokesman Jeff Kallin declined comment.
Clemson ultimately hosted Stanford as scheduled on Sept. 28, roughly 36 hours after Helene made landfall. The Tigers won by 26 points in front of a 98% capacity crowd.
The following day (the Sunday that Furman had initially requested to play its game on), the university opened up its basketball arena, Littlejohn Coliseum, and offered free charging stations, hot showers and select concessions to the community.
How often Clemson host other colleges?
In the past, Clemson has allowed other college and high school football teams to use its indoor practice facility because of inclement weather. Professional teams such as the NFL’s Carolina Panthers and the Savannah Bananas have also rented out athletic venues for special events, which are finalized months in advance.
Other college teams using Clemson’s athletic facilities to host games is rare, though, and not a request the school gets often — especially for its football stadium.
Given the significant staffing requirement at Memorial Stadium, even in a scaled-down capacity, hosting football games on back-to-back days would’ve come with logistical challenges regardless of whether the games were played post-storm.
The Tigers were receptive to another Helene-related request last fall, allowing the Greenville Triumph to host a USL League One pro soccer match at Historic Riggs Field, the on-campus home of the Clemson men’s and women’s soccer teams.
The Triumph had been scheduled to host a match on Furman’s campus on Sept. 28 but ended up playing on Clemson’s campus one week later without fans.
One prominent example of another state school shifting a football game came in 2015, when South Carolina moved a previously scheduled home football game vs. LSU to LSU’s stadium after a round of devastating flooding in the Columbia area.
“We want to support South Carolina in anything they want to do,” then-LSU coach Les Miles said at the time. “We have been through weather issues here.”
This story was originally published February 26, 2025 at 8:56 AM.
