1969

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1969 in Clemson History

Events that occurred in 1969:

  • Last year that freshman are required to participate in mandantory "Rat season" as ROTC is abolished as a requirement the following year.
  • Danny Ford graduates at the University of Alabama.
  • September: S.U.N. (Student Union Now) heads drive for creating a student union facility and sponsors a "dig-in" at site of the proposed center, although the event is poorly attended (only 150 students show up), prevalent apathy being also an issue of the period. A petition garners 2,600 signatures, however.
  • September 20: Clemson opens football season with a road game to Virginia, winning, 21-14.
  • September 27: Clemson hosts number seven Georgia but gets blanked, 0-30.
  • October 4: Clemson plays at Georgia Tech, winning, 21-10.
  • October: Central Spirit Committee announces, after a meeting with the Student League for Black Identity, that they will no longer support the playing of "Dixie" or display of the Confederate battle flag at university-sponsored events representing the school. Racial tension escalates as supporters of the flag and song gather 3,100 signatures on a petition. Black students vacate campus for two days "to remove the threat of physical violence" states SLBI President Joe Grant. After several weeks of debate, the Student Senate passes resolutions supporting both symbols, but clearly they are on their way out. Also soon to disappear: the Country Gentleman, a formally dressed figure who had roamed the sidelines since 1939.
  • October 11: Clemson plays at number twenty-ranked Auburn, gets creamed, 0-51.
  • October 15: A small, locally organized protest against the U.S. involvement in the war in Vietnam in conjunction with a national call-to-action draws some student hecklers and a few minor incidents but is generally successful.
  • October 18: Tigers host Wake Forest in Death Valley, winning, 28-14.
  • October 25: Alabama visits Clemson, defeats the Tigers, 13-38.
  • November 1: Clemson hosts Maryland, wins, 40-0.
  • November 8: The Tigers travel to Duke, lose, 27-34.
  • November 15: Clemson plays at North Carolina, loses, 15-32.
  • November 22: The Tigers conclude 4-6 season with a 13-27 loss to South Carolina in Columbia. Clemson is 3-3 in conference play, for third in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
  • Late fall: President Robert C. Edwards stops distribution of the Chronicle and a magazine by the Calhoun Literary Workshop due to what he calls "objectionable language." At the same time, he declares that he has not and would not censor any student publication. However, if it walks like a duck...
  • November: A November moratorium against the Vietnam war is overruled by the University Executive Council, voting to prohibit the use of university facilities for any regional protest. The Steering Committee of the Clemson Vietnam Moratorium Committee files suit against the Board of Trustees and the Executive Council, but the court rules in favor of the university.
  • December 10: Football Coach Frank Howard steps down after thirty years as head coach, but remains on the University payroll as the athletic director.
  • December 17: Cecil Hootie Ingram is hired as new football coach.



1968 The 1960's 1970
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