Clemson vs. South Carolina: "Passionate Hatred"

Each Wednesday, Clemson historian Sam Blackman joins us to talk a little Clemson football history. With this week being rivalry week, he talked about a few of the stories that make this rivalry between the Tigers and the Gamecocks so unique. 

On the fans:

"You pull for one team and despise the other. There's no sitting on the middle of the fence with this one.

This is one of those rivalries that you call maybe a passionate hatred for the other team. It's like that villain on television that you love to hate, and you watch it every week. A lot of families are divided this week."

On Big Thursday:

"When it used to be played on Big Thursday, it was basically a state holiday. Businesses would close and things would just come to a screeching halt. A lot of people sometimes think that it was played on Thanksgiving, but the only time this game was ever played on Thanksgiving was in 1963. That was because President Kennedy was assassinated on Friday, November 22nd. The Clemson team had already left to go to Columbia that day, and they noticed on the way down there some flags being lowered to half-staff. They didn't know what was going on, there were no cell phones at that time. They didn't find out till they got to the hotel that President Kennedy had been killed."

"There were discussions about whether they should play the next day out of respect. A lot of schools did postpone their games, and eventually, the two presidents announced the game would be postponed and played on Thanksgiving day."

The O.K. Pressley stories:

"One of my favorite stories was in 1928 both teams came into the game 5-0. A lot of hype was being built up around this game. Clemson's star player was O.K. Pressley. O.K. Pressley was Clemson's first All-American player and he played for head coach Josh Cody. He was hurt earlier in the Auburn game, and he missed the N.C. State game. He wanted to play in the South Carolina game so bad, but the doctors said, 'No, you can't play in the South Carolina game'."

"It was O.K. Pressley's senior season, and South Carolina was driving on the opening drive. O.K. went to coach Cody and asked to be put in, but coach firmly said, 'No'. South Carolina was on the Tigers' 10-yard line and O.K. Pressley looked at coach and just pleaded with him, saying coach, 'Let me go in'."

"Finally, Cody looked at the field and nodded and said go on in there and stop the Gamecocks. He charged out on the field, and on the first play he was in he tackled a South Carolina ball player for an eight-yard loss. The next play Pressley tackled a ballplayer for a seven-yard loss. The next two plays Pressley tackled runners for a five and seven-yard loss, he had knocked them out of field goal range. This was probably Clemson's greatest one-man defensive stand in the history of Clemson football. Pressley must have given Clemson quite a charge as they defeated the favored Gamecocks 32-0."

World War II:

"The war produced a weird situation. Years ago during the war, you just didn't know who was going to be on your team. You didn't know sometimes from one Saturday to another because sometimes some people had to go serve. But one of the most bizarre situations involved Cary Cox, he was a member of the 1942 Clemson football squad that beat South Carolina."

"He signed up for the V-12 program, and if I'm not mistaken that's a branch of the Navy. The training program was there at the University of South Carolina, Clemson was ROTC infantry. He had to go down there and the Naval instructors at South Carolina found out he had played football at Clemson, so they ordered him to play for the Gamecock football team."

"When it came time to play against Clemson, he didn't want to play. But the Gamecocks' head coach, who was also big in the Naval program, told him, 'Cox, I can't promise you you'll get a Naval commission if you play Thursday. But I can promise you, you won't get one if you don't play'. He left it up to Cox, but he ended up having to play. Cox and the Gamecocks defeated Clemson 33-6 that year."

Cox played at both Clemson and South Carolina and was a part of wins on both sides of the rivalry.

Enjoy the full audio from Sam Blackman above from our "Way Back Wednesday" segment.