It might seem hard to believe that a sleepy college town in South Carolina could come to be known as “Death Valley” in the college football world. Such is the dominance of the Clemson Tigers, who have become the team to beat in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Florida State Seminole fans may not like it, but Clemson has won four straight conference championships this decade along with two national titles. While fans await the next trophy chase, here are three things every Clemson Tigers fan should own.
Tiger Tumbler
We don’t know what Clemson players drink but they out to bottle it – the Tigers have been a dominating force in college football ever since coach Dabo Swinney took over in the 2008 season. Fans can concoct their own winning cocktails for this Tiger tumbler, which is powder-coated in a durable matte finish.
Gameday T-Shirt
It’s the logo that puts fear in the hearts and minds of Clemson’s rivals in the Atlantic Coast Conference. But do you know how the Clemson teams adopted “Tigers” as their mascot? According to legend, the college’s football team got a new coach in 1896 – Walter Riggs – who always admired the Princeton Tigers, so he passed the name onto his players too. The school was then known as the Clemson Agricultural College of South Carolina. Shorten it up to Clemson Tigers, and an empire was ready to be born.
Old School Clemson Cap
Even though Clemson’s players have been called the Tigers for more than a century, the tiger paw logo is fairly new. It was created from a mold of a Bengal tiger paw at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and formally adopted by the university in 1970.
