1944

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Events in Clemson history

  • Capri's opens its first location on Augusta Road in Greenville.
  • January: "Work was recently begun on the construction of the $2,000,000 rayon tire cord plant and a $1,000,000 housing project on the Seneca River here at Clemson. Textile executive Roger Milliken, of New York, arrived here recently to confer with construction engineers. He is president of several South Carolina textile plants, including ones at Abbeville, Greenville and Union, and will head the new plant here. The WPB [War Production Board - ed.] has approved the project, giving top priority in securing construction materials and completion is expected in four months. He was in conference with engineers of J. E. Sirrine Company, and Charles Daniel, head of the Daniel Construction Company, which is slated to build the modern plant. Site of the proposed plant is the 240-acre tract formerly known as the Dan Ravenel plantation and more recently the West Clemson Land Company of which A. C. Cheletter of Clemson is head. The plant, it is understood, will turn out rayon cord to be used in the manufacture of tires, and will offer employment to several thousand people in the post war period. Construction will include eighty or more duplex apartment houses of permanent construction." (The Tiger, "Work Started On New Rayon Plant Head Visits Area", Thursday 20 January 1944, Volume XXXIX, Number 6, page 1.)
  • January 4: A Liberty ship, the SS Ben Robertson, is launched at the yards of the Southeastern Shipbuilding Corporation, Savannah, Georgia, named for Clemson graduate Ben Robertson, Class of 1923, who died in a plane crash in Lisbon, Portugal, on February 22, 1943. Mrs. Julian Longley, Robertson's sister, of Dalton, Georgia, was sponsor for the new ship, part of a nationwide maritime program of naming Liberty ships for war correspondents killed in action. (The Tiger, "The Ben Robertson Is Launched at Savannah Shipyard January 7"[sic], Thursday 20 January 1944, Volume XXXIX, Number 6, page 1.
  • January 21: The SS Ben Robertson is delivered, after only 64 days abuilding.
  • February 2: Lt. Col. Jimmie Dyess, Class of 1931, is killed in action in the Pacific. He is the only winner of both the Carnegie Medal for Heroism, and the Congressional Medal of Honor, the latter awarded posthumously.
  • April 4: The United States Supreme Court declares white primary elections illegal in the case of Smith v Allwright. Within a week, South Carolina legislators, exhorted by Governor Olin D. Johnston at a Special Session called April 10, attempt to make the South Carolina Democratic Party a private organization, and repeal all laws pertaining to the primary election, some 130 that mention elections, primaries, or the Democratic Party. In 1947, Charleston Judge J. Waties Waring will rule this legal subterfuge unconstitutional. (Simon, Bryant, "A Fabric of Defeat: The Politics of South Carolina Millhands, 1910-1948", The University of North Carolina Press, 1998, ISBN 0-8078-2401-1.)
  • May: Due to wartime conditions, Clemson graduates its smallest class of all time - 14 students.
  • June 6: Clemson graduate, former editor of The Tiger, and journalist, Wright Bryan broadcasts from London the first on-scene report of the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France, after riding in a C-47 carrying airborne troops for paradrop. A short clip from his D-Day broadcast is here:
http://www.wsbhistory.com/images/DDAY.mp3 The Liberty ship SS A. Frank Lever is one of the thousands of vessels involved in the invasion.
  • September 13: War correspondent Wright Bryan is wounded and captured by the Germans in France. He spends several months in Oflag 64, a Nazi POW camp in Poland, until his liberation in 1945.
  • September 23: Clemson Memorial Stadium debuts new radio and press box, which will serve until the 1978 season. The Tigers blank Presbyterian College, 34-0.
  • September 30: In road game to Atlanta, Georgia Tech shuts out the Tigers, 0-51, the worst loss ever by a Frank Howard-coached team. (Martin, Johnny, "Death Valley: 72 Years of Exciting Football at Clemson University", Independent Publishing Co., Anderson, S.C., 1968, Library of Congress card number 68-58849, page 101.)
  • October 7: In a game played in Charlotte, North Carolina, Clemson defeats N.C. State, 13-7.
  • October 19: It rains on the Clemson-South Carolina game for the first time since 1896. Despite the conditions, the Tigers beat the Gamecocks, 20-13.
  • October 28: Clemson is dropped in a roadgame by 19th-ranked Tennessee, 7-26.
  • November 4: The Tigers receive second loss in a row as 17th-ranked Wake Forest defeats Clemson in road game, 7-13.
  • November 11: In the second of only two home games played by Clemson this season, the Tigers beat VMI, 57-12.
  • November 18: Clemson travels to Tulane, and is defeated, 20-36. Tulane amasses 478 yards rushing against the Tigers, a record that will stand for many years. (Martin, Johnny, "Death Valley: 72 Years of Exciting Football at Clemson University", Independent Publishing Co., Anderson, S.C., 1968, Library of Congress card number 68-58849, page 91.)
  • November 24: The Tigers round out a 4-5, 3-1 in the Southern Conference, season by losing to Georgia in Athens, 7-21. Clemson is third in the Southern Conference.
  • December 7: A memorial service is held in the Chapel (Tillman Auditorium) for Clemson military personnel killed in action in World War II.
  • December 17: Anna Rice Sloan Kinard, wife of English Professor Francis Marion Kinard, dies. She is interred in Woodland Cemetery. (http://files.usgwarchives.net/sc/oconee/cemeteries/c243a.txt)



1943 The 1940's 1945