1976

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1976 in Clemson History

Events that occurred in 1976:

  • Barre Hall is completed.
  • Pat Belew, he of the Gold Nugget and Hotdog Stand, blows town owing many creditors and both his businesses close.
  • The Southern Railway replaces the 1916 box underpass on Highway 133, College Avenue, with a wider clearance bridge structure.
  • February 4-March 20: Former kidnap victim - turned Symbionese Liberation Army member Patricia C. Hearst is tried in San Francisco, California, and found guilty of bank robbery and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, and sentenced to 7 years imprisonment. President Jimmy Carter conditionally commutes Hearst's sentence on February 1, 1979. The White House declared that it was the consensus of all of those most familiar with this case that but for the extraordinary criminal and degrading experiences that the petitioner suffered as a victim of the SLA, she would not have become a participant in the criminal acts for which she stands convicted and sentenced and would not have suffered the punishment and other consequences she has endured.
  • February 26: Two Greeks, Nick Vatakis and Milton Antonakos, from Anderson, South Carolina take over former Pat Belew's Gold Nugget on Sloan Street and open it as Nick's.
  • February 28: Leon Redbone performs on Saturday Night Live, offering up Fats Waller's "Ain't Misbehavin'"
  • Spring: IPTAY gives away a Chevette to a basketball fan for sinking a single basket from center-court in effort to attract fans to games in the face of departed Coach Tates Locke's NCAA three-year probation sensation. (Appropriately enough, Fulton C. Poston, Jr. (1980), a loyal Tiger basketball fan, sinks the winning shot and gets the Chevrolet. Ironically, his former roommate in Johnstone Hall C-601 had been the scamp who stole a hubcap off the car when it was parked on the Union Plaza in November 1975, and who subsequently returns the dingus to him, inscribed "Courtesy of Seneca Midnight Auto Parts.)
  • April 22: The Buzzard is published. Front page headline "Tate's Final Mistakes" about disgraced basketball coach Tates Locke. Excellent illustrations by Tiger artist Matt Crawford parody images described in Woodward & Bernstein's account of the downfall of President Richard Nixon over the Watergate scandal, with Nixon's praying with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger incident rendered as Tates Locke praying with Athletic Director Bill McClellan.
  • April 23: The punk rock band The Ramones release their first, self-titled, album.
  • Spring: The Clemson baseball team, coached by Bill Wilhelm, comes storming back from dismal 11-10 early season by winning 25 of their last 28 games for a 36-15 record and a stunning fifth place national ranking.
  • Student Union and Student Government offices completed in center of Johnstone Hall complex.
  • Edgar's, the Union night club opens.
  • Tiger Paw Restaurant loses license for underage violations.
  • May 6: Former Clemson basketball coach Tates Locke is hired by the Boston Braves basketball team.
  • May 12: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announces plans for a two-day course, "Technology Exchange Between the Textile Industry and Government," to be held at Clemson University to acquaint industry executives with new developments in textile research stemming from government-sponsored programs. Co-sponsored by NASA's Technology Utilization Office, the College of Industrial Management and Textile Science at Clemson, and the Economic Development Administration, the course would offer discussions by experts from industry, government, and the academic community on a wide range of subjects including new fiber developments, fire-retardent materials, and innovations in textile manufacture. Course themes would include industry-government cooperation, new needs and opportunities for cooperation, industrial developments adopted by the government, industry-government information systems presently available, and consumers' choices at retail. (NASA Release 76-88) Reference: http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1984NASSP4021.....R&db_key=AST&page_ind=91&plate_select=NO&data_type=GIF&type=SCREEN_GIF&classic=YES
  • May 28: Annie Tribble is named new head coach of the Women's Basketball Team.
  • May 29: Leon Redbone appears on Saturday Night Live, performing "Shine On Harvest Moon" and "My Walking Stick".
  • Pizza Hut relocates from the current location of Tiger Town Tavern, to their new building on Highway 123.
  • Late summer: McDonald's opens on the US 123 By Pass.
  • September 11: Clemson ekes out 10-7 win over Citadel in home opener.
  • September 18: In the Tigers' first televised football game since 1973, Clemson takes on the tenth-ranked Georgia Bulldogs in Death Valley but are shut-out, 0-41, in a game aired by ABC.
  • September 25: Clemson plays Georgia Tech to a 24-24 tie in an Atlanta night game.
  • September 30: Tom Chapin, Harry Chapin's younger brother, performs in Tillman Auditorium, sponsored by the Contemporary Entertainment Committee of the University Union.
  • October 2: The Tigers travel to Tennessee, where the Vols win, 19-21.
  • October 9: Clemson loses at Wake Forest, 14-20.
  • October 16: Clemson ties Duke, 18-18, in Death Valley.
  • Fall: Brouhaha at WSBF when two morning show deejays play a cart that has Country Joe & the Fish's Woodstock "Gimme an F" cheer in the background. Both jocks are kicked off the staff. In recent years the programming director at the time has admitted that with hindsight, he overreacted and would now have handled the matter more moderately.
  • Fall: Ground is broken for the new tennis courts, adjacent to the current ones near Riggs Field.
  • October 23: The Tigers lose at N.C. State, 21-38.
  • October 30: Clemson secures an unlikely win against Florida State in Tallahassee night game, 15-12.
  • November 6: The Tigers lose in Memorial Stadium to North Carolina, 23-27.
  • November 13: In the second televised game of the season, Clemson again gets embarrassed, this time in College Park by the eighth-ranked Maryland Terrapins, 20-0, in a match carried by ABC.
  • November 19: Flautist Tim Weisberg and his band appear in Tillman Auditorium to crowd of 1,300. Admission is a buck!
  • November 20: In a gratifying upset, the Tigers beat the Gamecocks in Death Valley, 28-9, to finish the season 3-6-2. The Cocks are 6-5. Clemson is 0-4-1 in conference, for seventh in the ACC.
  • December 1: Board of Trustees axes football coach Red Parker after stinker of a season but handles the firing badly. Many fans disapprove of the matter and even call for an ouster in the administration, but the complaints will come to nothing. Coach Charlie Pell takes over helm of the Tiger football program.
  • December 27: Atlanta businessman Ted Turner begins using a satellite to broadcast WTCG-17, his "Super Station", to cable networks.
  • Winter: Jordan Hall completed.



1975 The 1970's 1977