1807
Thomas Green Clemson was born in Philadelphia.
1886
Thomas Green Clemson signed his will to create the Clemson Agricultural College of South Carolina.
1888
Thomas Green Clemson died.
1889
Thomas Green Clemson’s will, endowing Clemson College, was accepted by the state.
1890
S.C. Experimental Farm was opened by Clemson College Trustees.
1893
Clemson College opened with 446 students and 15 faculty under President Edwin Boone Craighead.
1896
First class graduated in December followed by the first meeting of the Clemson Alumni Association.
First intercollegiate football game was played Oct. 28 against Furman. (We won!)
1897
Alumni Association was organized.
1900
John Heisman, in his first year as head coach, led Clemson’s football team to its first undefeated season and conference championship.
1914
Cooperative Extension Service was established, fulfilling our land-grant mission. (The 4-H program got its footing in 1923.)
First Homecoming reunion was held.
1917
Entire senior class enlisted in World War I.
1933-34
Clemson College Foundation and IPTAY were founded.
Clemson Alumni Association was incorporated.
1935
Clemson Experimental Forest land was acquired through the federal Land Reclamation Act.
1940
Legendary Frank Howard began his 30-year stint as head football coach. (He guided Clemson to six top-20 seasons, eight conference championships, 100 conference victories, 165 overall wins and eight bowl games.)
1941-45
More than 6,000 Clemson students and alumni served “gladly to the defense of our nation” in WWII; 373 died, 57 from the Class of 1941. The Class of 1944 was the smallest class in Clemson history with 13 graduates.
1955
Military system of discipline dropped; first women enrolled as full-time, degree-seeking students. (First degree granted to a woman, Margaret Marie Snider, was in 1957.)
1959
Robert C. Edwards ’33 was named Clemson’s eighth president, ushering in a 20-year reign marked by dramatic growth and change. (Earlier efforts led to modification of construction plans for Lake Hartwell to prevent flooding of campus.)
1963
Clemson achieved “integration with dignity” when its first black student, Harvey B. Gantt, enrolled. (Gantt graduated in 1965 with honors in architecture and later served two terms as mayor of Charlotte, N.C.)
1964
Clemson Agricultural College was renamed Clemson University in recognition of expanded academic offerings and research pursuits.
1970
The Tiger Paw was adopted as Clemson athletics symbol.
(Other sports firsts: Running down “The Hill,” 1942; Tigerama, 1957; Rubbing Howard’s Rock, 1966; First Friday Parade, 1974.)
1975
Women’s varsity athletics began.
1982
The 1981 Tigers claimed Clemson’s first national football championship, Jan. 1, 1982, defeating the Nebraska Cornhuskers 22-15 in the Orange Bowl.
1984
Clemson scored 100% – six out of six – in awards to seniors who applied for Fulbright scholarships and grants for international study.
The 1984 men’s soccer team won Clemson’s first national soccer championship with a 2-1 victory over Indiana. (They were national champions again in 1987.)
1987-92
The Campaign for Clemson, chaired by Philip H. Prince ’49, raised more than $101 million for academic needs. Prince would later serve as Clemson’s 12th president.
1988
On April 6, 1988, the 100th anniversary of Thomas Green Clemson’s death, the University’s Centennial Celebration began.
1996-2001
The Clemson Commitment capital campaign, also chaired by Philip H. Prince ’49, raised more than $295 million to support Clemson’s efforts to become a national top-20 public university.
1998
The nation’s only National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center dedicated to materials research, and the first national engineering research center in South Carolina, was established at Clemson.
2000
Under President James F. Barker ’70, Clemson was named 2001 “Public College of the Year” by TIME magazine.
2003
Clemson broke ground for the International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR).
Clemson won its first NCAA Golf Championship, with the Tigers starting and ending the year as the No. 1 ranked team in the nation.
2006
U.S.News & World Report ranked Clemson 30th among all public national universities, the only South Carolina school in the top 50.
Phi Beta Kappa Society, America’s oldest and most prestigious academic honor society, selected Clemson as one of six new chapters to be established in 2007.
Clemson Pershing Rifles took the national title for the fourth year in a row (their fifth in the last seven years), and the Flyin’ Tigers Air Force ROTC unit was named most outstanding midsized detachment in the nation.
Students Enrolled
1893 — 446
1921— 1,007
1947 — 3,215
1965 — 5,000
1974 — 10,000
2000 — 16,053
2006 — 17,165
Degrees Awarded
1896 — 14
1914 — 1,000
1939 — 5,000
1952 — 10,000
1982 — 50,000
1998 — 100,000
2001 — 111,071
2006 — 130,604