Oculus Spirit [90820]
TigerPulse: 100%
Posts: 45503
Joined: 10/18/09
|
Enjoy my IPTAY, Tiger Paw Flag, Notre Dame Trip & Son Story.
Feb 4, 2011, 7:37 PM
|
| View Original Thread |
|
First, I'm rejoining IPTAY after some years away but know the reason. After 30 some years of being a member, going to home & away games & bowls, a divorce (Gamecock gal), sending kids to USC & Clemson, dating, moving around, getting old, retiring, on social security, getting even older....
BUT wait, after meeting a great gal, taking rigorous shag dance lessons last 2 years together, seeing the Tigers great recruiting class of players and new coaches...I'm getting my act back together and rejoining IPTAY since I feel like 45 today.
Hey, give me a break when I tell you some of my storied tales and rabid support for the TIGERS. In the 70' & 80's I use to wave the first 3x5' cotton tiger paw flag at home & away games (can see me on video in that great 197? Maryland game at College Park when Fuller/Clark/Butler & Team won the conference championship with win. Also, I wore out a RV & Camper driving to Florida for all the great bowls in 70's, 80's & 90's with Clemson grad son.
In fact, he & I drove up to Notre Dame in 1979 when he was 9 years old..and got to walk into the Fighting Irish football stadium that cold Friday afternoon with Danny Ford & team when they drove up in buses to check out the field. I asked him if we could come in with them..and as Danny & I walked from the dressing room onto that storied field I stated outloud that the field didn't look so scary or sacred to me...even though that great colorful mosaic figure of Jesus could be seen from there holding out his arms (called "Touchdown Jesus")..and just outside the stadium next to that Library building was the statue of Moses holding up his index finger (We're #1). All myth but very impressive!
Our team was a bit wide-eyed to say the least and my purpose of saying "this field is just like any other" in such a loud tone was to let them hear it outloud..at which Danny concurred so they would hear him.
As the team left the field I realized that my son had climbed up to the top of the seating section..and by the time we got back to the tunnel area and tried to open the door to the dressing room..it was locked. In desperation my 9 year son yelled out to a student on the other side of the iron gate to help us, but to no avail.
Earlier I had heard a loud piston sound coming from the other side of the stadium, so we crossed the field and up into the corridor area..and followed the sound to several students who were spray painting the nicked gold Notre Dame helmets with a fresh coat of paint..something they did frequently to make them look glossy new for TV games.
Asking for the way out they said to go through the ND dressing room, where we saw beautiful plaid carpeting and wood lockers. What a special scene since you could almost envision Knute Rockne or Joe Montana!
Later that night Will & I drove over to Elkhardt Indiana for a Clemson pep rally at the large domed Holiday Inn.
The next morning we put on all our orange gear and headed for the beautiful campus to tour, getting some lunch nearby before entering the stadium over a hour before the game...finding our seats in the end zone.
They say that Clemson bought up more than the allotted 5000 tickets available for sale..with my guess at 6000 fans showing up. And, Notre Dame officials were smart in that they split us up by placing half of us in one end zone while the other half were located on the sideline behind but to the left side of the team.
The reason for splitting up the Tiger fans was from what had happened the year earlier (1978) at Clemson where Joe Montana & team had come from behind to barely beat us, and going on to win the National Champion. (Later Joe would say that the noise at Clemson was the loudest all year, and maybe the most in his college career).
The noise level at Death Valley was so deafening that day in 1978 that it caused Coach Dan Divine to turn and give the North Stands the middle finger in defiance after eking out a hard-fought win, and then saying we had never heard real noise as we would the next year when visiting their stadium.
Well boys & girls...we Orange fans made some fine noise at South Bead in 1979, the 6000 of us...from screaming madly at the team as they left the field at halftime due to a sorry performance and being behind..to the winning TD in the 3rd quarter when our QB faked a hand-off and took off to the right side all alone scoring untouched from about 25 yards out..waving the ball up into the sky in the end zone..and the ensuing eruption of noise was not what Coach Devine had imagined from such a small group of visitors from the South.
And then it was "hold-on" for your dear life since the never-ending 4th quarter seemed to give the Irish too many chances to come back, but the boys from Pickens County kept up their defensive play..and they fought, played smart and got pumped by our screams of support with the famous Clemson College military C-L-E-M & Cadence Count..plus the band pumping out Tiger Rag over & over & over....over the great sounds of that famous Notre Dame fight song & their fighting Irishman mascot that stirred them up repeatedly.
It was a battle to say the least in that cold, gray atmosphere in Indiana..and during this tense drama my 3x5' Paw Flag was waved with great energy...even being ripped from my hands from a ND student who had brazenly sneaked down the tight aisle past a dozen Clemson fans and lunging at me, taking the flag right from my hands..but he tripped & fell near the end of the aisle as we yelled for Tiger fans to stop him, where I rushed and jumped down onto him (as my 9 year old son cried and went up to be comforted by a Clemson couple sitting behind us).
I put my foot on his chest and told him to get the h**l away...and when I recovered the flag off the steps I had to put the two-part aluminum pole back together (the top part was now bent which I straightened up on my knee), and then I shoved our logo high up into the air in the end zone area, pumping that great paw image up & down vigorously...which invoked 3000 Clemson fans it seemed to let out a roar all at once...and then the other 3000 Clemson fans across the way started to yell..not really knowing what was going on over at our end zone, but they just wanted to get rowdy too.
After that fantastic win was secured, at a school that had so much football history & folklore going for it, my son WILL & I immediately jumped over a brick wall and down onto the playing field, and through the marching 6'2" tall elite Notre Dame marching guards wearing their plaid pleated kilts & batons, one pushing into me with disgust with his elbow.
Within minutes there were hundreds of Clemson fans on the divoted grass tuft field screaming & hugging...and then the band came down and started playing Tiger Rag and then the Alma Mater...and it was then that I begged the band director if I could come up onto his small aluminum ladder so I could get up higher as I waved my flag. And the two of us shared the last shake rung of that ladder, holding onto each other with one hand so as not to fall off..with him directing the band with his left hand..and me waving that tattered paw flag with my right hand. It was that very moment that I realized just how beautiful our fight song & Dear Old Clemson Alma Mater sounded..with Tiger Band so proudly blaring it out.
It was probably on of the most glorious road wins in my 52 years...and they say that Jim Phillip's reporting this wild scene on the radio was an award winning commentary. I wish you young Tigernetters could have been born or old enough to have been at that great game.
With all the excitement, the noise, the wild pandemonium of celebrating, the thousands of Notre Dame fans still standing in disbelief & taking in this crazy scene...it was hard to leave that sacred field of play...but Will & I had to drive the 700 long miles home.
So, I went to a phone booth (no cell phones in that era) after the game and called my family in Greenville, and agreed we'd drive til dark (left South Bead around 6pm) and probably would stay at Indiannapolis or Cincinnati. However, we were so pumped up that we drove 12 straight hours back to Greenville, blowing the horn at every Clemson car we saw.
But, since I was so wide-eyed I didn't stop to sleep but instead drove 12 straight hours, past Indy, Cincy, Knoxville, Asheville and finally to Greenville..where I bought every newspaper in the stands so I could read them. I put Will to bed, read 6 sports sections while sitting on top of the guest potti so not to wake up wife & daughter, and finally went to bed at 7am Sunday morn exhausted to say the least! Later my wife was so surprised we were there since we weren't supposed to be back until late Sunday afternoon.
So, with this said..I'm getting that old road-weary, torn, bloody 3x5' Orange Tiger Paw Flag out of storage...and get it cleaned up & ready for the 2011 Spring Game in April..so to see if at age 69 & 9/10th years of age I still have it in my rotar cup damaged right arm to wave it as high as I did on that historic day in South Bend at Notre Dame when our TIGERS played ball with great pride. Later, sadly, they lost to USC on the last play of the game before playing the Baylor Bears with Michael Singletary in the Peach Bowl..another cold & gray day.
Hey, life is going to be good to us Tiger fans again since it appears we might get back to those glory years when we really played football with lots of gusto, spirit, pride and won our share. Go TIGERS!
|
|
50
