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When it comes to college football stadiums, Clemson Memorial Stadium is right up there with some of the biggest names and brands in the sport.
The Tigers have been playing games at Memorial Stadium since September 1942. In the first game held there, coach Frank Howard’s team defeated Presbyterian College, 32-13, on Sept. 19, 1942.
It was six years later that Presbyterian coach Lonnie McMillan is first recorded as having referred to Memorial Stadium as “Death Valley.” LSU wouldn’t claim the moniker for its own use until another 10 years had passed.
On Thursday, 247Sports ranked the 10 greatest stadium atmospheres in college football. Clemson and the original Death Valley was No. 6 on the list, one spot below Oregon’s Autzen Stadium in Eugene, and one spot ahead of Washington’s Husky Stadium.
247Sports’ Carter Bahns said:
“Clemson flirted with the college football stadium decibel record more than a decade ago, and that was even before the program took off as a perennial national power. Memorial Stadium built a reputation over the ensuing years as a death trap for ACC foes as Dabo Swinney built his school into a blue-blood. That has not waned much over the last couple of down seasons, and with the Tigers poised for another potentially special year in 2025, the venue will again be packed to the brim. College football pageantry will be at its finest in Week 1 when Clemson fans attempt to show LSU which team boasts the ‘real’ Death Valley in a premier non-conference clash.”
Clemson was the only ACC and non-SEC/Big Ten venue on 247Sports’ list.
Topping the list at No. 1? Tiger Stadium at LSU, which the school (strangely) did not start advertising as “Death Valley” until after the 1959 Sugar Bowl at old Tulane Stadium in New Orleans. The Bayou Bengals defeated Clemson, 7-0, after they and Heisman Trophy winner Billy Cannon had…
Source link : https://clemsonwire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/clemson/football/2025/05/15/clemson-football-death-valley-greatest-stadium-atmospheres-lsu-tigers/83651329007/
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Publish date : 2025-05-15 19:20:00
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