1961

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[edit] Notable Alumni

Thomas Fetters - historian of Palmetto State railroading

Events in 1961 in Clemson history

Kinard Laboratory of Physics is completed.
January 2: The Great Rose Bowl Hoax - not technically a Clemson event, but still noteworthy in college legend. The greatest prank of all-time is pulled at the Rose Bowl during the Minnesota Golden Gophers - Washington Huskies game when fourteen students at Cal Tech, located right there in Pasadena, conspire to change the Huskie card section instruction sheets to create ever more confusing images, culminating with "CAL TECH" during halftime. NBC broadcasts the stunt nationwide in a live telecast seen by millions. The Washington marching band is so stupified that they stop playing and then stalk off the field, refusing to cue the last card, as the stunned stadium begins to laugh. Unbeknownst to them, the merry pranksters have left the last card unchanged. Even the broadcasters in the booth are left at a loss for words. The conspirators had swapped the documents when they knew that the Huskie cheerleaders would be off at Disneyland.
The first computer arrives on campus, used in the math department.
Skelton's Home and Auto opens in the two-story building on College Avenue which is now occupied by Tiger Town Tavern.
Students of Industrial Education build a full-scale model of the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley. It is now displayed in the State Museum in Columbia.
The Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army Savannah District, fills in the Seneca River to force water through newly dug diversion channel west of the Clemson campus. Thus begins the filling of Lake Hartwell, which later leads Southern humorist and newspaperman Lewis Grizzard to observe that "Clemson is Auburn with a lake."
Charlie Pell, future Clemson head football coach, is member of the University of Alabama's national championship team.
September 23: Clemson road trips to Florida, loses, 17-21.
September 30: The Tigers drop home game to Maryland, 21-24.
October 7: Clemson defeats North Carolina, 27-0, in Chapel Hill.
October 14: Wake Forest defeats the Tigers, 13-17, in Death Valley.
October 21: The Tigers travel to Duke, win, 17-7.
October 28: Clemson plays at Auburn, losing, 14-24.
November 4: The Tigers defeat Tulane, 21-6, in Memorial Stadium.
November 11: Clemson plays South Carolina in Columbia, losing, 14-21.
November 18: The Tigers defeat Furman, 35-6, in Death Valley.
November 25: Clemson blanks N.C. State, 20-0, in Memorial Stadium to conclude 5-5 season, 3-3 in conference, to tie for third place in the ACC.