1945

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Events that occurred in 1945 in Clemson history

  • Jefferson Standard Broadcasting Company, Inc., the media-centered division of the Jefferson Standard Insurance Company of Greensboro, North Carolina, is founded. It later merges with Pilot Life Insurance Company to form Jefferson-Pilot. Jefferson-Pilot owned WBT-AM-FM and WBTV, all of which are based in Charlotte, North Carolina.
  • April 13: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's funeral train, pulled by two Southern Railway Ps-4 class Heavy Pacific steam locomotives, Nos. 1409 and 1394, passes north through Clemson about 6 p.m., Eastern War Time, and thousands of citizens turn out to pay their respects as the consist slowly makes its way to Washington, D.C. from Warm Springs, Georgia. Roosevelt's casket is visible through the windows of the last car, the United States Secret Service-assigned Conneaut. President Roosevelt's own car, the Ferdinand Magellan, is so heavily armored that the bullet-proof glass windows cannot be removed to get the casket into it, so the next car of the train, assigned to the president's security, a Pullman 7-compartment/buffet/lounge, has to be switched to the end of the consist to accommodate the remains. The locomotives were watered at Gainesville, Georgia, and both the locomotive pair and the operating crews will be swapped at Greenville, South Carolina, a railroad division point. Sister Ps-4 locomotive No. 1401, which will lead the funeral train between Greenville and Salisbury, North Carolina, now resides in Railroad Hall at the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C., donated by Southern Railway President D.W. Brosnan in 1961. An aerial photo of the funeral train passing the Clemson depot taken by the 16th Photo Squadron, USAAF, is published in LIFE magazine's issue of April 23 on page 21 or 22 (Volume 18, Number 17).
  • May 7: V-E (Victory in Europe) Day - At 02:41, at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force|SHAEF headquarters in Reims, France, the Chief-of-Staff of the German Armed Forces High Command, Colonel General Alfred Jodl, signs the German Instrument of Surrender. All active operations are to cease at 23:01 Central European Time on May 8, 1945. However as the British are operating on British Double Summer Time this is 00:01 May 9 in London.
  • May 20: Graduation held. Mothers' Day observed.
  • July 23: The Clemson football team practices for the first time this year. There was no spring practice due to the wartime necessities.
  • August 15: Victory in the Pacific Day (V-P Day) (or Victory over Japan Day, V-J day), the celebration of the Surrender of Japan, which is initially announced on August 15, 1945 (August 14 North American date), ending combat in the Second World War. A formal Surrender is signed on the deck of the battleship USS Missouri on September 2. In Japan, the day is known as Shuusen-kinenbi, which literally means the "Memorial day for the end of the war". This is commemorated as Liberation Day in Korea and some other nations.
  • September: Use of the Issaqueena Bombing Range comes to an end with the conclusion of wartime training and all U.S. Army Air Force personnel except for two caretakers are withdrawn.
  • September 22: Clemson whups up on Presbyterian, 76-0, in Memorial Stadium, setting a new all-time high record for yardage gained - 597 yards. Clemson amasses 516 yards rushing and 83 passing. (Martin, Johnny, "Death Valley: 72 Years of Exciting Football at Clemson University", Independent Publishing Co., Anderson, S.C., 1968, Library of Congress card number 68-58849, pages 91-93.)
  • September 29: The Tigers lose at Georgia, 0-20.
  • October 6: Clemson plays night game at N.C. State, winning, 13-0.
  • October 13: Clemson defeats team from Naval Air Station Pensacola, 7-6, in last match-up with a wartime training program squad, in a game played in Memorial Stadium.
  • October 25: The Tigers and the Gamecocks battle to a 0-0 tie in Columbia. Kick-off at 2:30 p.m. EWT.
  • November 2: Clemson travels to Miami, Florida for night game with Miami, losing, 6-7.
  • November 10: The Tigers host Virginia Tech, blanking them, 35-0.
  • November 17: Road game to Tulane yields Clemson win, 47-20.
  • November 24: Clemson defeats Georgia Tech in Atlanta, 21-7.
  • December 1: The Tigers are defeated in Memorial Stadium by the sixteenth-ranked Wake Forest Demon Deacons, for a season record of 6-3-1, 2-1-1 in league play, for fourth place in the Southern Conference.
  • December 5: Future Clemson head basketball coach Cliff Ellis is born at Marianna, Florida.
  • December 17: The Issaqueena Bombing Range is declared excess to the needs of the Army Air Force.



1944 The 1940's 1946