Hartzog Award

The Hartzog Award was a Tiger Band awards banquet booby prize in the 1970s. Named for Clemson President Henry Simms Hartzog, (1897-1902), who presided over Clemson's first student walk-out in 1902 in The Case of the Purloined Test Tubes, the Hartzog Award was conferred upon that revered member of Tiger Band who had committed the greatest fuck up of the season. Records of the recipients of this cherished honour are sketchy at best, and the award would be discontinued in a more politically correct era. That being said, Clemson Wiki editor C. Mark Sublette, now freely admits, acknowledges, and embraces the fact that he collared this historic award in his Freshman year in the midst of "the Sound That Shakes the Southland - Tiger Rag!"

Most people won the Hartzog for a supreme singular screw-up. I may have been the only recipient who got it on general principle. I lived off campus on Lakeview Circle in 1974 (one of the earliest Freshman to live off-campus - no room at the inn when I was accepted...), and frequently wore hiking boots to school.

And to band practice, where the standard of the day was white tennis shoes. Which I didn't have spare pair of to leave in the band room... NOT that I'm making excuses, y'know. No, never! - - - RIGHT!

Anyway, the text of my 12" X 16" hand-drawn poster board certificate:

In recognition of his innumerable screw-ups, his memorable snafus, his general klutziness, and his overall dedication to the spirit of Hartzog, [Mark Sublette] is hereby presented this award.

Presented this 18th day of April, anno Domini 1975

(signed) Bruce F. Cook, Director, Tiger Band

(signed) Tony R. Stapleton, Tiger Band Commander

The crest, rendered ever so deftly by the late James L. Lucas, III, woodwind-player, staff writer for The Tiger, brother of Delta Chapter, Mu Beta Psi, and of Debbie Lucas Stapleton, depicts a right-facing turkey in profile, wearing a Queen's Guards busbee, white belt, and sash, as per the Tiger Band uniform, 1963-1977. The fowl is an overlay on a bend sinister coat of arms, with a diagonal band from lower left to upper right, dividing the shield into two fields. The upper left field has notation for a busted pair of eighth notes, while the lower right panel depicts a broken double-pane window. This, despite the fact that I never broke any glass on a band trip. "A Complete Guide to Heraldry" by Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, (Bracken Books, London, 1929, ISBN 1-85891-079-x, page 114), observes that "[t]he bend sinister is very frequently stated to be the mark of illegitimacy." The supposed Latin above the coat of arms reads "Semper Incompetensus" ("always incompetent"). Olive branches are carried to the right and left of the crest.

The equivalent award for Concert Band was the Fopaw Award ("faux pas"). It, too, would be dropped as public tastes changed. The late Rick Shreve won this award in 1978 for dropping a mute during a quiet section of a live performance.

"If you have skeletons in your closet, you might as well make 'em dance!"

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