1989

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1989 in Clemson History

Events that occurred in 1989:

• January 2: The Tigers defeat the Oklahoma Sooners in the Florida Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida, 13-6, for a season record of 10-2, 6-1 in conference for the ACC championship. Post-season rankings are eighth in the United Press International, ninth in the Associated Press, and tenth in the USA Today.
• February: The City of Clemson decides to design and build a new city hall facility from scratch, but quietly pursues property owner Ernest Willis' proposed lease to the city of the College Avenue buildings that house the Tiger Town Tavern. There is no clear plan for the structure, however, and the Chamber of Commerce is not informed.
• February 18: Two students, playing a sort of game of "chicken" on the Seneca River trestle over Lake Hartwell, lose the game at 12:30 a.m. when northbound Southern Railway freight train No. 222 catches them too far from shore. Scott David Dean, of Alexandria, Virginia, leaps off the bridge but hits rocks under the water close to shore and dies in twenty minutes. Engineer Don Trexler is unable to avoid second man, James Frank Gilliland IV, 20, of Anderson, who is hit by the lead locomotive and killed instantly. A third student gets out of the way in time to survive. (The Tiger, Friday, February 24, 1989, Vol. 82, No. 18, page 2; interview with Trexler, 2007).
• March 3: The Tiger publishes C. Mark Sublette's op-ed piece about the dangers of trestle trespassing on page 5 ("Trestle walking tempting, too dangerous to attempt").
• March 20: At the Monday night meeting, legal representation for the Tiger Town Tavern forces the Clemson city council to admit that they are trying to acquire the Tiger Town lease.
• March 21: The Greenville News carries coverage of the council meeting.
• March 22: The Clemson Messenger carries similar coverage of the Clemson city attempt to take-over the Tiger Town Tavern lease.
• March 29: A grassroots letter-writing campaign is initiated to convince the City of Clemson that the loss of the institution of the Tiger Town Tavern is not in the community's best interest. Within three weeks, the city will be inundated with responses from loyal Clemson T3 patrons and fans, and the city quietly folds the tent on its attempt to gain control of the Tiger Town property. The city never gives a count of how many responses they received. Suffice it to say, it was more than THEY had anticipated!
• June 10: The Carillon Garden is dedicated.
• September 2: Ranked twelve in the Associated Press, Clemson shuts out Furman in home opener, 30-0.
• September 9: Tenth-ranked Tigers defeat the sixteenth-ranked Seminoles in a Tallahassee night game, 34-23.
• September 16: Ranked seventh, Clemson beats Virginia Tech, 27-7, in a night game in Blacksburg.
• September 23: Seventh-ranked Tigers defeat Maryland on Frank Howard Field, 31-7.
• September 30: Clemson, ranked seventh, loses at Duke, 17-21.
• October 7: The Tigers, ranked fifteenth, defeats Virginia, 34-20, in Memorial Stadium.
• October 14: Fourteenth-ranked Clemson loses to Georgia Tech, 14-30, in Death Valley.
• October 21: Unranked Tigers meet twelfth-ranked N.C. State in Raleigh, winning, 30-10.
• October 28: Ranked twenty-second, Clemson defeats Wake Forest in Memorial Stadium, 44-10.
• November 4: The Tigers, ranked twenty-first, defeat North Carolina in a road trip, 35-3.
• November 18: Ranked by the A.P. at fifteenth, the Tigers crush the Gamecocks, 45-0, in Columbia.
• November 26: The Rolling Stones perform in Death Valley.
• December 30: Clemson, ranked fourteenth, shuts down Heisman Trophy finalist Major Harris as the Tigers defeat the seventeenth-ranked West Virginia Mountaineers, 27-7, in the 45th Mazda Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida. Tigers' season record is 10-2, 5-2 in conference for third in the ACC. Post-season polls place Clemson twelfth (Associated Press and USA Today) and eleventh (United Press International).

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1990