1959

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1959 in Clemson History

[edit] Events in 1959

Newman Hall is completed. Named for J. S. Newman, professor of agriculture, and Charles Carter Newman, alumnus and professor of horticulture.
January 1: Clemson's twelfth-ranked football team plays the number one-ranked and Paul Dietzel-coached Louisiana State University Tigers in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, Louisiana, losing 7-0, for a season record of 8-3. Attendence is given as 82,000. (DiMarco, Anthony C., "The Big Bowl Football Guide", G.P Putnam's Sons, New York, 1974, revised edition 1976, ISBN 399-11800-4, pages 60-61.) The game is televised by NBC, the Tigers' third appearance to be broadcast.
February 3: A small-plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, kills three popular rock and roll musicians - Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and Jiles Perry Richardson, as well as the pilot, Roger Peterson. The day is later called The Day the Music Died by Don McLean in his song, "American Pie".
March 12: A portrait of John C. Calhoun is unveiled in the Senate Reception Room in Washington, D.C. (Cook, Harriet Heffner, "John C. Calhoun - the Man", The R.L. Bryan Co., Columbia, S.C., 1965, Library of Congress Card No. 65-19779, page 3.)
May 15: Arthur Buist Bryan dies.
August 21: The Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army Savannah District, produces map depicting final arrangement for the Clemson College Protective Works, Hartwell Project, Savannah River Basin, Savannah River, Georgia and South Carolina. It shows the Upper diversion dam, the Lower diversion dam, the Dike, the Diversion channel, and the Pumping Station.
September 19: Eighteenth-ranked Clemson travels to twelfth-ranked North Carolina, winning, 20-18.
September 26: Fifth-ranked Tigers squash Virginia, 47-0, in Charlottesville.
October 3: Seventh-ranked Tigers travel to take on seventh-ranked Georgia Tech, but lose, 6-16.
October 22: Final Big Thursday game against South Carolina - seventeeth-ranked Tigers shut out the Gamecocks to end the State Fair series, 27-0. Famous photo of Frank Howard blowing a kiss to the end of Big Thursday is taken right after the game.
October 31: The twelfth-ranked Tigers defeat Rice at Rice in a night game, 19-0.
November 6: The Samuel Broadus Earle Hall, the new chemical engineering building, is dedicated. (Reference: Duffy, Susan, "The Conservative Caretaker Samuel Broadus Earle", "Tradition: A History of the Presidency of Clemson University", 1988, page 138.)
November 7: Tenth-ranked Clemson hosts Duke, wins, 6-0.
November 14: Eleventh-ranked Tigers are defeated by Maryland, 25-28, in Memorial Stadium.
November 21: Ranked nineteenth, Tigers down Wake Forest, 33-31, in Death Valley.
November 28: Fourteenth-ranked Clemson goes to Greenville to kick Furman, 56-3, concluding a 9-2 season, 6-1 in conference play for first place in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
November 30: Singer April Stevens single "Teach Me Tiger" is released on the Imperial label and will stay on the WSBF top 40 playlists for several years. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1ONtvi3VeA
December 19: The Clemson Tigers beat the Texas Christian Horned Frogs in the inaugural Bluebonnet Bowl in Houston, Texas, 23-7, for a season record of 10-2. Attendence is given as 55,000. (DiMarco, Anthony C., "The Big Bowl Football Guide", G.P Putnam's Sons, New York, 1974, revised edition 1976, ISBN 399-11800-4, page 131.) This was Clemson's 300th football victory, and also the first time that a college team played in two bowls in one calendar year. A CBS-televised game, it marks the fourth time the Tigers have been on the air.
At season's end, the Clemson football team is ranked eleventh in the Associated Press poll, but is not listed in the United Press Association top twenty. The Tigers will not appear in a post-season ranking again until Coach Charlie Pell's 1977 team goes 8-3-1.