'With Flying Colors' Clemson's Uniforms: Their History, Their Stories

Each week, we are joined by Clemson historian Sam Blackman to talk about unique topics and stories that have surrounded the Clemson football team throughout the decades. This week we got into uniforms, and the memorable moments that impacted fans based on the uniforms the Tigers chose to play in on the field.

Clemson's uniforms haven't changed a whole lot over the years. Sure, on occasion you get something unexpected, like when Clemson broke out the orange britches for the first time in 1980 against South Carolina, or when they went all purple for the first ever Death Valley Gameday game against Georgia Tech in 2006.

But for the most part, the Tigers have avoided going the Oregon route and wearing a million different uniform combinations and colors. How did Clemson get their uniforms, though? What about their nickname and colors? That's what we asked Sam Blackman during this week's Way Back Wednesday edition of Clemson Sports Talk. 

"Well, there's three or four different theories, I don't think we'll ever get down to the bottom of which of them is the actual one, but one I always like to go with is Walter Merritt Riggs was Clemson's very first football coach, and he graduated from Auburn," says Blackman, talking about Clemson's colors and the nickname Tigers. "The players really loved him. They admired him and respected him. He helped them get the football program started. The fourth year of the program he coached the team for free because they were low on funds, not too many coaches would do that these days...I think to pay tribute to mister Riggs, they said he came from Auburn their nickname was Tigers, and they used orange and blue, let's honor mister Riggs and use that nickname Tigers. I think that was the true story. Some people think you know Princeton was a football power back then and we wanted to emulate them. Then I've heard another story where Thomas Green Clemson had a cane with a tiger head on it, and another story that the early football teams wore striped colors and they resembled tigers. But I think it was just to honor mister Riggs."

I mentioned the orange britches and the all purple uniforms above, but there was another famous uniform combination that the Tigers once wore; the Sugar Bowl Blues uniforms against LSU in the Sugar Bowl. Blackman talked about how those uniforms were born.

Clemson Sports Talk

Woody Aydlette, our very own Lowell Aydlette's grandfather played in that 1959 Sugar Bowl game.

"In 1958, Clemson was going to play LSU in the 1959 Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. Everyone had black and white televisions at the time; there were no color sets like you have now. You'd be hard-pressed to find a black and white set now. The television executives at NBC wanted Clemson to wear a darker color because they wore orange and LSU liked to wear white at home. They were afraid no one would be able to tell who was Clemson and who was LSU so they came to Clemson and asked if they would wear a dark color. They didn't have a lot of time to see about it, and I guess the best coach Howard could do was order a dark blue jersey because I guess purple you would have to special order. He chose blue with white numerals, real broad numbers and an orange helmet with a stripe. That's what they did, and they became known as Sugar Bowl Blues. Of course, LSU beat Clemson just 7-0, they were ranked #1 in the country behind Billy Cannon. Clemson gave them a great game. I think Clemson had a bad snap and LSU eventually scored off of that, and that was the only score of the game, but Clemson played a great game that day. Then in 1962, some of the players talked Coach Howard into pulling out those Sugar Blues jerseys they had left over, and they wore them against South Carolina. Rodney Rogers kicked a field goal with about a minute and a half to go in the game, and Clemson claimed a 20-17 victory."

In 1967, Clemson made another interesting decision with their uniforms, as they painted their shoes orange for a big game against NC State, who was known for wearing white shoes on their defense. 

"The players went around, also Fred Hoover the trainer and Herman McGee... they went around, I understand something like seven or eight stores looking for orange paint," Blackman explains. "They finally got everything done, and I think coach Howard was so excited about it too, but they kept it a secret. I talked to Buddy Gore who was a great running back in that era and was ACC player of the year. He said to this day when he comes back to Clemson; he can still hear that roar whenever they came down from Fike Field House down the street. When they first entered the stadium, everyone just went crazy because they saw those orange shoes. Clemson defeated NC State 14-6... a sportswriter asked coach Howard if those orange shoes won that game for Clemson. Coach Howard said 'No, but I'll tell you what. Whenever football players believe in something like that, orange shoes or a jersey or something, usually good things will happen, and that's what happened today. It gave them confidence and changed the outcome of the game.'"

Clemson doesn't do a whole lot of changing with their uniforms. You're unlikely ever to see anything like the Swamp uniforms Florida wore just a week ago or a million different uniform combinations from the Tigers. 

Clemson has a strong history with their colors and uniforms, and likely will preserve that as much as possible, which is an aspect of the program I admire. So when Clemson does wear a new combination or a new color, it'll be for a big moment. And it'll be a big deal in Clemson history.