1974

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1974 in Clemson History

Events that occurred in 1974:

  • A new accounting and finance department is established, offering degrees in accounting and financial management.
  • McAdams Hall is renovated.
  • The number of women on the faculty has grown by this year to 105, twelve percent of the total. (Reel, Jerome V., Jr., "Women & Clemson University: Excellence - Yesterday and Today", Clemson University Digital Press, 2006, ISBN 0-9771263-6-6, page 13.)
  • Dr. Fred Shilstone joins faculty of the English Department.
  • The Oconee Memorial Hospital expands to provide additional space for ancillary and support services. ("The Heritage of Oconee County, Vol. 1, 1868-1995, The Blue Ridge Arts Council, Seneca, South Carolina, 1995, Library of Congress card number 95-61417, page 24.)
  • Two Clemson students from Hartsville, South Carolina, out walking on the Southern Railway Seneca River trestle over Lake Hartwell are caught by a freight train. One succeeds in getting out of the way, but the other is killed.
  • January 18: Central Dance Association presents Seals and Crofts in Littlejohn Coliseum at 8 p.m. Tickets are $5.25 in advance, $6.25 on the floor, and $6.25 at the door. On sale in Harcombe Commons and Schilletter Dining Hall, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. and 5 p.m.-7 p.m. (Display advert, The Tiger, Friday 18 January 1974, Volume LXVII, Number 16, page 5.)
  • February: Tiger Band graduate student, James L. Lucas, III, produces the 1974 edition of The Unhymnal, the Unofficial Songbook of the Clemson University Bands, during Concert Band season.
  • February 4: The 19-year-old grand--wing urban guerrilla group called the Symbionese Liberation Army.
  • March 4: Following a fad that begins at Florida State University, streakers begin a week or so of nude appearances on campus, although they are overwhelmingly all male, The Tiger reports on March 8. (Moore, Eileen Lanahan, Take a peak at the streaks, The Tiger, Friday 8 March 1974, Volume LXVII, Number 23, pages 1, 14.)
  • March 7: Pat Belew's Gold Nugget opens on Sloan Street in Clemson at noon. Eric & the Prospectors appear starting at 8 p.m., playing guitar, banjo and mandolin. A full-page advert on The Tiger's back page on March 1 promises "First 100 beers free," and "Girls: Thursday, Friday, Saturday, (March 7-9) Your beer is only 10c per glass, one thin dime...one tenth of a dollar...Come out and see the swingingest place east of the Seneca River!!"
  • March 14: The Midnight Man premieres at the Astro 3 theatre with a red carpet ceremony.
  • April 1: Comedian and musician Martin Mull and His Fabulous Furniture appears in a free concert in Tillman Auditorium.
  • April 4: The Buzzard is published as an insert inside The Tiger's issue closest to April Fools Day. Front page story "Students, countergorrilas (sic) clash over pizza".
  • April: Nancy Jacobs Qualls reelected to a second term as editor of The Tiger.
  • April 15: Kidnapped Patti Hearst is photographed wielding an M1 carbine while robbing the Sunset District branch of the Hibernia Bank at 1450 Noriega Street in San Francisco with other members of the Symbionese Liberation Army.
  • April 15-20: The Clemson Players in cooperation with the Dionysia Council, present Eugene Ionesco's "The Bald Soprano" and "The Lesson" in Daniel Auditorium.
  • May 17: Five members of the Symbionese Liberation Army die as the 1466 East 54th Street house in Los Angeles, California, burns down around them after they fight a two-hour gun battle with local and state police. None of the several thousand rounds fired by SLA members hit the authorities. In total, more than 9,000 rounds were fired by both sides, making this one of the largest shoot-outs in American history.
  • June 10: The Midnight Man in limited release in New York City, this date.
  • June 14: The Midnight Man released nationally in the United States by Universal Pictures.
  • June 30: Frank Howard retires from the University payroll, but continues to maintain his office in Jervey Athletic Center.
  • July 4: Rumors surface that several high school basketball stars have been offered illegal inducements to sign athletic grants-in-aid with Clemson. (Greenville News, 4 July 1974, McKale, Donald M., editor, "Tradition: A History of the Presidency of Clemson University", Mercer University Press, Macon, Georgia, 1988, ISBN 0-86554-296-1, page 208.)
  • July 6: The first live broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion is carried on National Public Radio, locally carried on WEPR 90.1 FM.
  • August: Dr. Alan Shaffer takes over as new head of the History Department. Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" reaches position number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. This song ranked number one on CMT's 20 Greatest Southern Rock Songs in July 2006.
  • August: Tiger Band fields the largest block band in Clemson history, shifting from 120 to 160 members. Hard recruiting was involved in this, I can tell you!
  • August 9: Richard Milhouse Nixon resigns as president of the United States of America, the result of his involvement in the cover-up of the Watergate break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters, located in the condominium complex of that name, by agents of the Committee to Reelect the President. Jazz-rock trumpeter Bill Chase ("Get It On") is killed in a 5 p.m. plane crash at Jackson, Minnesota, when the Piper PA-30 Comanche, N8129Y, he is on crashes short of the runway while attempting to land in heavy rain. Pilot error. Improper IFR operation. All 6 aboard killed.
  • August 30: The Union sponsors The Dean Scott Show in the Amphitheatre, a musical impressionist of several famous performers including Elvis, Ray Charles, James Brown, Buddy Holly, Buck Owens and Johnny Cash, among others.
  • September: Contracts are let for construction of new biological sciences building to be named Jordan Hall. It will be constructed behind Long Hall.
  • September: The Jefferson Starship releases their Dragonfly album, and the lead track, "Ride the Tiger" gets immediate and sustained airplay on WSBF. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIufUOm_cWY
  • September 8: President Gerald R. Ford issues Proclamation 4311, which gives former President Richard M. Nixon a full and unconditional pardon for any crimes he may have committed against the United States while President. In a televised broadcast to the nation, Ford explains that he felt the pardon was in the best interests of the country, and that the Nixon family's situation "is a tragedy in which we all have played a part. It could go on and on and on, or someone must write the end to it. I have concluded that only I can do that, and if I can, I must." When he announces the Nixon pardon, Ford also introduces a conditional amnesty program for Vietnam War draft dodgers who had fled to countries such as Canada. Unconditional amnesty, however, will not come about until the Jimmy Carter Presidency.
  • September 9: Unit 2, the second nuclear reactor of the Oconee Generating Station, is put on line by Duke Power.
  • September 10: Student Senate elections held.
  • September 14: The Tigers open the football season with a roadtrip to College Station, Texas, to face the twentieth-ranked Texas A&M Aggies. Clemson fans listen grimly to the Tiger Sports Network as broadcaster Jim Phillips describes the ignominius 0-24 shut-out.
  • September 15: The Chamber Music Series presents the Gilbert and Sullivan Quartet in "An Evening with Gilbert and Sullivan" in Daniel Auditorium.
  • September 16: Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm is first featured presentation of the semester by the Speakers Bureau, held in Tillman Auditorium.
  • September 17: Student Senate run-off elections held.
  • September 18: Charles "Pug" Ravenel, candidate for governor, makes campaign appearance in the Amphitheatre. Though popular with many students, Ravenel will not gain the governor's mansion.
  • September 21: The Peter Yarrow Band performs in Tillman Auditorium, admission is $1.50 for students, $2 for general public.
  • September 21: Clemson plays night game against fifteenth-ranked North Carolina State Wolfpack in Raleigh, their Homecoming. The Tigers go down, 10-31. Fistfights break out in the visitor stands during the fourth quarter. Presented with apples by the N.C. State marching band instead of the customary soda following half-time, Tiger Band members eject afore-mentioned projectiles onto the playing field to express displeasure with almost everything. After the game, band members horrify Greyhound drivers by engaging in games of Rock the Bus, while buses are parked on a slope in the Wolfpack's meadow parking lot.
  • September 23: Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity turns drunken gripe session idea about having a parade to buck up campus spirits after two-game losing season opener into reality when they enlist the Central Spirit Committee in their brainstorm.
  • September 27: First Friday founded with the "Wreck Tech" Parade, followed by a pep rally in the Amphitheatre. Clemson beats Georgia Tech, 21-17, and goes on to win every home game. Ironically, in seventeen meetings between 1953 and 1977, this is the only time that the Yellowjackets presume to take the roadtrip to Clemson. And they come away LOSERS! HA!!
  • October 3: The Chamber Music Series presents a combined vocalist and piano program in Daniel Auditorium. Soprano Charlotte Weaver with pianist Kaylene Wilbur present art songs and operatic arias in the first portion. Oboist Ruth Mock also accompanies Weaver on her opening number. In second program of the evening, Dr. Lillian Harder and Alice Hudnall Cash perform piano for four hands.
  • October 5: Clemson hosts Georgia, winning, 28-24. Central Dance Association presents Black Oak Arkansas in concert in Littlejohn Coliseum. Montrose and T. Rex are opening acts. Tix run $5.25 in advance, $6.25 for the floor, and $6.25 at the door.
  • October 10: ABC sportscaster Frank Gifford (pre-Kathy Lee) speaks in Tillman Auditorium.
  • October 12: Clemson loses to Maryland in College Park, 0-41.
  • Mid-October: The Clemson Players present "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" in Daniel Auditorium. Basketball Coach Tates Locke is reprimanded by the ACC for a recruiting violation. He is restricted from off-campus recruiting until August 1, 1975. He won't even last that long as Clemson's basketball coach...
  • October 14: The National Marionette Theatre performs in Daniel Auditorium.
  • October 17: Royal Uppsala University Chorus of Sweden performs in Littlejohn Coliseum, presented by the University Concert Series.
  • October 19: The Tigers defeat Duke in Death Valley, 17-13. CDA plans to host the Eagles in concert in Littlejohn Coliseum, Atlanta Rhythm Section as opening act. Tickets are sold for $5.25 for general admission, $6.25 on the floor! But the week of the show, the Eagles cancel their fall tour...
  • October 24: Entertainer and author Orsen Bean speaks in Tillman Auditorium. The Chamber Music Series sponsors a performance by the Anderson String Quartet in Daniel Auditorium.
  • October 26: Clemson loses game to Tennessee in game played in Knoxville, 28-29, when the Vols "score" on touchdown pass to ineligible receiver in the fourth quarter - naturally the SEC refs rule it valid, and the Tigers go home mad. That night, Tiger Band members, staying at the Holiday Inn next to I-40 in Knoxville, change the marquee sign from "Welcome Vols Fans - Kids Eat Free Here" to "Eat Shit Vols". Altered sign stays up for about three hours, until a state trooper pulls in off the interstate, and suggests that the board be taken down. Drunken upperclassman alarms band members when he plays Spiderman across the decorative brick facade between balconies of the Holiday Inn. Another walks through a glass door behind a curtain - no injuries there either. Ahh, those were the rowdy days!
  • October 30: Dr. Maynard Mack, Sterling Professor of English at Yale University, speaks on topic of "Othello: A Candle in the Dark" in Daniel Auditorium.
  • November 1: Halloween issue of The Buzzard is published as single-sheet, four-page insert inside The Tiger. Front page story is "Violators of student rules brutally murdered".
  • Fall: The Chronicle struggles to stay alive amidst staffing and funding troubles.
  • November 2: Clemson plays Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, winning, 21-9.
  • November 1-November 3: Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity sponsor 46-hour marathon volleyball tourney in Fike Fieldhouse to raise money for the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation.
  • November 5: Election day - classes are cancelled. Union hosts November Nonsense on Bowman Field.
  • November 9: Clemson defeats North Carolina, 54-32, in Death Valley. The Atlanta Rhythm Section's song "Doraville" creeps onto the Billboard Top 40, reaching number 38 in a two-week stay. This was the band's first song to reach the 40. (Whitburn, Joel, "The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits", Billboard Publications, Inc., New York, 1985, ISBN 0-8230-7518-4, page 27.)
  • November 11: Student Senate votes emergency funding of $6,900 for two issues of The Chronicle. The staff had requested funds for three issues.
  • November 14: Journalist Robert Katz speaks in Tillman Auditorium on facts and fictions behind conspiracy theories about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Tenor Dr. Hong K. Mir, accompanied by pianist Linda Barlage, appears in Daniel Auditorium as part of the Chamber Series.
  • November 16: Clemson hosts Virginia, wins, 28-9. Frank Howard Field is dedicated during halftime ceremony. First open air cycling road race held at the Y Beach. A lab project of students in the Recreation and Parks Administration, and sponsored by the Student Union, two races are held - one for novices and one for more experienced riders.
  • November 19: Hot air balloon inflated and launched on a tether on Bowman Field. George Bernard Shaw's play "Don Juan in Hell" is performed in Littlejohn Coliseum as part of the University Concert Series. Cast includes Ricardo Montalban, Edward Mulhare, Kurt Kasznar and Myrna Loy. Reviews are lukewarm.
  • November 19-November 24: The Clemson Players present Henrik Ibsen's play "Ghosts" in Daniel Auditorium.
  • November 22: The Massed Bands, Pipes, Drums and Dancers of Her Majesty's Welsh Guardsmen and Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders perform in Littlejohn Coliseum as part of the University Concert Series - and it's true what they say about what's worn under them kilts! The University Union sponsors the Carolina Weekend Beer Bust at the Y-Beach gym, music provided by band Dryewater. Admission is $2.
  • November 23: Clemson beats South Carolina Gamecocks in Death Valley, 39-21, to complete unbeaten home season. Tigers go 7-4 overall, 4-2 in conference play, for second in the ACC.
  • November 24: Union sponsors the Not So Erotic Film Festival at the Y Theatre from 1-5 p.m. and 6-10 p.m. and offers "Mr. Roberts", "Ensign Pulver", "Wackiest Ship in the Army" and "Stagecoach".
  • December 3: Clemson University enrollment tops 10,000 for the first time.
  • December 3: Conjurist and psychic-debunker The Amazing Randi performs "From Beyond Understanding" in Tillman Auditorium. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9w7jHYriFo
  • December 5: The Clemson University Chorus, directed by Dr. John H. Butler, presents its Christmas concert in Tillman Auditorium.
  • Post-football season: Coach Red Parker named ACC Coach of the Year.
  • December 16: Unit 3, the third and final nuclear reactor at the Oconee Generating Station, is placed on line by Duke Power.
  • Winter: Construction begins on the University Square Shopping Mall on the Old Greenville Highway up the hill from the Esso Club.


1973 The 1970's 1975