Clemson Tigers
The Clemson Tigers are the athletic teams that represent Clemson University, located in Clemson, South Carolina. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I level. Clemson competes for and has won multiple NCAA Division I national championships in football, men's soccer, and men's golf. The Clemson Tigers field twenty-one athletic teams, nine men's and twelve women's, across thirteen sports.
Clemson was a founding member of the Atlantic Coast Conference, where it has competed since the 1953–54 season. Previously, they were a founding member of the Southern Conference from 1921 through 1953, and a member of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association from 1896 through 1921.
Traditions
Mascot
Clemson's teams have been known as the Tigers since 1896, when a member of the first football team named Thompson chose the name based on the then-dominant Princeton Tigers football team.Clemson's costumed mascot, The Tiger, first appeared in 1954, with his companion, "The Cub" debuting in 1993. At football games, The Tiger does pushups equal to the total score Clemson has in the game, a tradition that began in 1980.
Tiger Band
Tiger Band evolved from regimental bands from Clemson's days as a military school. Tiger Band took its current form in 1955 after the school became coeducational. A smaller pep band performs at basketball games.Fight song
Clemson's fight song is a rendition of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band's Tiger Rag. In 1941, cadet band leader Robert Dean Ross bought the sheet music from an Atlanta music shop, and the band played the song after every touchdown beginning with the 1942 football season.Tiger Paw logo
The Tiger Paw logo was introduced at a press conference on July 21, 1970. It was created by John Antonio and developed by Helen Weaver of Henderson Advertising in Greenville, South Carolina, from a mold of a Bengal tiger sent to the agency by the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. The telltale hook at the bottom of the paw is due to a scar that the tiger had and the hook at the bottom is also a sign that this is the official licensed trademark for the university.Athletic directors
Sports sponsored
Clemson sponsors teams in eight men's and eleven women's NCAA sanctioned sports. The first intercollegiate match in Clemson history was a baseball game on April 24, 1896, against Furman. The school's first football team followed that fall. Five women's sports were introduced in 1975 after the passage of Title IX.Women's diving was the most recent sport to be dropped, following the 2017–18 season, while three sports have been added in recent years: softball, women's lacrosse, and gymnastics.
Timeline
Team national championships marked with red lines.DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy
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bar:BSB color:skyblue from:01/01/1896 till:end text:Baseball
bar:FB color:skyblue from:07/01/1896 till:end text:Football
at:07/01/1981 mark:
at:07/01/2016 mark:
at:07/01/2018 mark:
bar:MOT color:skyblue from:07/01/1905 till:end text:Men's Outdoor Track & Field
bar:MTN color:skyblue from:07/01/1907 till:07/01/1931 text:Men's Tennis
bar:MTN color:skyblue from:07/01/1934 till:07/01/1935
bar:MTN color:skyblue from:07/01/1937 till:07/01/1943
bar:MTN color:skyblue from:07/01/1946 till:end
bar:MBB color:skyblue from:01/01/1912 till:end text:Men's Basketball
bar:MXC color:skyblue from:07/01/1915 till:07/01/1931 text:Men's Cross Country
bar:MXC color:skyblue from:07/01/1954 till:end
bar:MSD color:skyblue from:01/01/1919 till:07/01/2012 text:Men's Swimming & Diving
bar:BOX color:skyblue from:01/01/1928 till:07/01/1948 text:Boxing
bar:MG color:skyblue from:01/01/1930 till:end text:Men's Golf
at:07/01/2003 mark:
bar:MIT color:skyblue from:07/01/1931 till:end text:Men's Indoor Track & Field
bar:MSC color:skyblue from:07/01/1934 till:12/31/1939 text:Men's Soccer
bar:MSC color:skyblue from:07/01/1967 till:end
at:07/01/1984 mark:
at:07/01/1987 mark:
at:07/01/2021 mark:
at:07/01/2023 mark:
bar:MFC color:skyblue from:07/01/1970 till:07/01/1982 text:Men's Fencing
bar:WBB color:pink from:07/01/1975 till:end text:Women's Basketball
bar:WFC color:pink from:07/01/1975 till:07/01/1982 text:Women's Fencing
bar:WSW color:pink from:07/01/1975 till:07/01/2012 text:Women's Swimming
bar:WDV color:pink from:07/01/1975 till:07/01/2018 text:Women's Diving
bar:WTN color:pink from:07/01/1975 till:end text:Women's Tennis
bar:WR color:skyblue from:07/01/1975 till:07/01/1995 text:Wrestling
bar:FH color:pink from:07/01/1977 till:07/01/1981 text:Field Hockey
bar:WVB color:pink from:07/01/1977 till:end text:Women's Volleyball
bar:WXC color:pink from:07/01/1978 till:end text:Women's Cross Country
bar:WIT color:pink from:07/01/1981 till:end text:Women's Indoor Track & Field
bar:WOT color:pink from:07/01/1981 till:end text:Women's Outdoor Track & Field
bar:WSC color:pink from:07/01/1994 till:end text:Women's Soccer
bar:ROW color:pink from:01/01/1997 till:end text:Women's Rowing
bar:WG color:pink from:01/01/2013 till:end shift:-50 text:Women's Golf
bar:SB color:pink from:01/01/2020 till:end shift:-70 text:Softball
bar:WLX color:pink from:01/01/2023 till:end shift:-140 text:Women's Lacrosse
bar:GYM color:pink from:01/01/2024 till:end shift:-150 text:Women's Gymnastics
bar:N color:Bar1 from:07/01/1896 till:07/01/1921 text:Southern Intercoll. Athletic Assn.
bar:N color:Bar2 from:07/01/1921 till:07/01/1953 text:Southern Conference
bar:N color:Bar1 from:07/01/1953 till:end text:Atlantic Coast Conference
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Baseball
, the Tiger baseball team has posted a combined 32 ACC regular season and tournament championships, 43 NCAA Tournament appearances, 17 NCAA Regional Titles, 4 NCAA Super Regional Titles, and 12 College World Series appearances. Much of the baseball program's success occurred under Bill Wilhelm during his 35 seasons as Clemson's head coach. Erik Bakich is the Tigers' current head coach, having replaced Monte Lee after the conclusion of the 2022 season.Basketball
The Clemson men's basketball team has qualified for the NCAA Tournament 13 times, and reached the Sweet 16 four times and the Elite Eight once. They are currently coached by Brad Brownell since 2010.The Clemson women's basketball team began in 1975, and saw its biggest success in the late 1980s and 1990s. The Tigers reached the NCAA Elite Eight in 1991, and the Sweet Sixteen three times. Women's basketball won two ACC Tournament championships in 1996 and 1999, and the regular season title in 1981. The team is currently coached by Amanda Butler.
Football
Clemson has three national championships in football, the most recent coming in 2018 with a victory over Alabama 44–16 in the 2019 College Football Playoff National Championship. Clemson has appeared in the last six playoffs and won two national championships during those visits. The Tigers also possess the most Atlantic Coast Conference championships with 20, including winning the last six.It has also won greater than 60% of its games, placing it in the top 25 on the all-time winning percentage list. Clemson also won two Southern Conference titles before joining the ACC. The 1981 squad, led by Head Coach Danny Ford, became the first athletic team in school history to win a national championship. Clemson defeated Nebraska 22–15 in the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida, to win the 1981 NCAA Football National Championship. Stars of the game included Homer Jordan and Perry Tuttle. Clemson finished the year 12–0 and ranked #1 in the Associated Press and Coaches polls.
Some of the most notable coaching names in Clemson football history are John Heisman, Jess Neely, Frank Howard, and Danny Ford. After Tommy Bowden resigned midseason on October 13, 2008, Dabo Swinney took over as interim head coach. On December 1, 2008, Swinney was named head coach of the Clemson Tigers football team.
Before each home game, the team ends pre-game warm ups and proceeds to the locker room. With five minutes to go before game time, three buses leave the street behind the West Endzone carrying the Clemson football players. The buses pull to a stop at the gate in front of The Hill, and the Tigers gather at the top, where each player proceeds to rub "Howard's Rock", which is an imported rock from Death Valley, California that was presented to Frank Howard in 1967. While Tiger Rag is played and a cannon sounds, the Tigers run down the hill onto the field in front of over 83,000 screaming fans. This tradition has been dubbed "The most exciting 25 seconds in college football" by sportscaster Brent Musburger.