Timeline

• Thomas Green Clemson was born in Philadelphia.

• Thomas Green Clemson signed his will to create Clemson Agricultural College of South Carolina.

• Thomas Green Clemson died.

• Thomas Green Clemson’s will, endowing Clemson College, was accepted by the state.

• The S.C. Experimental Farm was opened by the Clemson College Trustees.

• Clemson College opened with 446 students and 15 faculty under President Edwin Boone Craighead.

• The first class graduated in December followed by the school’s first alumni meeting.
• The first intercollegiate football game was played Oct. 28 against Furman. (We won!)

• The Alumni Association was organized.

• John Heisman, in his first year as head coach, led Clemson’s football team to its first undefeated season and conference championship.

• The Cooperative Extension Service was established, fulfilling our land-grant mission. (The 4-H program got its footing in 1923.)
• The first Homecoming reunion was held.

• The entire senior class enlisted in World War I.

• The Clemson College Foundation and IPTAY were founded.
• The Clemson Alumni Association was incorporated.

• Clemson Experimental Forest land was acquired through the federal Land Reclamation Act.

• 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.)

• More than 6,000 Clemson students and alumni served in WWII; 373 died, 57 from the Class of 1941. The Class of 1944 was the smallest class in Clemson history with 13 graduates.

• The military system of discipline was dropped; Clemson’s first women enrolled as full-time, degree-seeking students. (The first degree granted to a woman, Margaret Marie Snider, was in 1957.)

• 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 Hartwell Lake to prevent flooding of campus.)

• 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.)

• Clemson Agricultural College was renamed Clemson University in recognition of expanded academic offerings and research pursuits.

• The Tiger Paw was adopted as Clemson’s athletics symbol.
• (Other sports firsts: Running down “The Hill,” 1942; Tigerama, 1957; Rubbing Howard’s Rock, 1966; First Friday Parade, 1974.)

• Women’s varsity athletics began.

• The 1981 Tigers claimed Clemson’s first national football championship, Jan. 1, 1982, defeating the Nebraska Cornhuskers 22-15 in the Orange Bowl.

• Clemson scored 100 percent —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.)

• 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.

• On April 6, 1988, the 100th anniversary of Thomas Green Clemson’s death, the University’s Centennial Celebration began.

• 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.

• 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.

• Under President James F. Barker ’70, Clemson was named 2001 “Public College of the Year” by TIME magazine.

• 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.

• Phi Beta Kappa Society, America’s oldest and most prestigious academic honor society, established a chapter at Clemson.

• U.S.News & World Report ranked Clemson 22nd among all public national universities.
• The Princeton Review ranked the University No. 1 among America’s best colleges with the happiest students.
• Clemson’s Habitat for Humanity chapter was named Campus Chapter of the Year by Habitat for Humanity International.
• Clemson was named the “Best Place to Work in Academia” among academic institutions in The Scientist magazine’s annual survey of its readers.

• Research funding totaled $187,292,161, the highest on record, including the largest single grant in the University’s history.
• According to TOP500, Clemson ranks in the top 10 among supercomputing sites within all public and private U.S. universities.

• Freshman applications set a new record at 16,865, and the incoming class scored a record high SAT average of 1231. 
• Clemson launched the public phase of The Will to Lead: A Campaign for Clemson to raise in excess of  $600 million in support of Clemson students and faculty by July 2012.

• Clemson launched 2020 Road Map, a decade-long plan for reaching our top-20 goal.

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