[crowd cheering] (Mary Long) Death Valley... an ominous name for a field dedicated to sportsmanship.

It's a name drawn from intense pride in achievement, a name that comes from the struggle to make a dream come true.

The early years of Clemson's history were a struggle, not unlike the one over there.

There were no guarantees of victory.

There were setbacks and broken plays, but in the end the ball was carried across the goal line.

Victory was a dream that became reality, a dream that began with Thomas Green Clemson and his wife, Anna Maria Calhoun Clemson, a dream nurtured by the legendary Pitchfork Ben Tillman.

All were players in an important game in our state's history... players who made Clemson's first goal line drive.

♪ ♪ ♪ Clemson might well have been named Calhoun University or Tillman University, for Thomas Green Clemson, his wife, Anna Maria, daughter of John C. Calhoun, and Ben Tillman were all influential in establishing the school.

But the man for whom it's named planted the first seeds for the university.

He and his wife, Anna Maria, gave the land on which the university now stands.

Anna Maria's will, dated September 29, 1871, gave her land and properties to her husband with the idea that they be used for the building of a college.

Thomas's will, dated 1888, left 814 acres of land and $80,000 in assets for the founding of the college.

This was a larger gift than that made by either John Harvard or Elihu Yale who provided funds to have colleges named after them.

♪ It's clear that Thomas Clemson's heart was with the struggling farmers of his state.

In his will he wrote, "Feeling a great sympathy for the farmers of this state "and the difficulties with which they've had to contend "in their efforts to establish the business of agriculture "upon a prosperous basis, "and believing that there could be no permanent improvement in agriculture "without a knowledge of those sciences "which pertain particularly thereto, "I have determined to devote the bulk of my property "to the establishment of an agricultural college upon the Fort Hill place."

♪ This is the centerpiece of Fort Hill plantation, the home of John C. Calhoun and later of Thomas Clemson and his wife.

It was here that the dream of an agricultural college came to Clemson, a vision born due to the desperation of struggling farmers of the Reconstruction era.

When Clemson married Anna Maria and came here in 1838, South Carolina was quite different from the state it became after a bloody Civil War 50 years later.

He came to the South in its prime.

Clemson, too, was in his prime.

Before coming to South Carolina, Clemson led an exciting life.

He was born in Pennsylvania, reared a Quaker, and attended the American Literary, Scientific, and Military Academy in Norwich, Vermont.

At 19 he went to school in Paris, where he studied chemistry and mining.

While there he concentrated on his studies, politics, and the attractions of Paris.

In 1830 he took part in the uprising which overthrew Charles X and placed Louis Philippe on the throne.

♪ Three years later, at the age of 26, he was back in the United States.

In 1838 he met and married Anna Maria Calhoun.

John C. Calhoun put him in charge of this home during his absence.

Shortly after, Clemson bought a plantation of his own near the present-day town of Saluda.

He named it Canebrake.

He wasn't able to enjoy it for long.

In 1844 he received a diplomatic post due to the influence of Calhoun.

For seven years he was charge d'affaires in Belgium.

In the home are several examples of gifts received during his time in that country.

This beautiful chair and footstool were a gift to the Clemsons from the king of Belgium.

The arms are carved in a crude likeness of the king.

Here is a beautiful lace scarf given to Anna Maria by the queen of Spain.

♪ ♪ After his return to this country in 1852, Clemson bought a sizeable farm in Maryland.

He continued to serve the federal government.

Under President James Buchanan he forged the foundation of what would later become the United States Department of Agriculture.

He himself served as superintendent of agriculture, which was under the patent office up until the time of the War Between the States.

He and his wife both bitterly opposed secession, but his heart was with the South.

So when the guns of war took aim, Clemson left Maryland.

♪ He had been warned that he might be arrested due to his Southern sympathies.

So, leaving Anna Maria and their daughter Floride to manage the northern holding, he and his son Calhoun, under the cover of darkness, crossed the Potomac River, walked to Richmond, and presented themselves to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

During the war years Clemson used his mining skills to help provide raw materials for the war effort.

After the war ended, the Clemsons returned to Pendleton.

Anna Maria, strong willed as her father before her, in 1864 packed up the northern household and, by train and by foot, joined her family in Pendleton.

They were distressed to find the condition of family and friends because all were destitute, and almost all were penniless.

♪ In this building Clemson met with farmers of the surrounding area to discuss problems of their impoverished community.

This is the Pendleton Farmers Society.

The idea of Clemson College was formed here.

One year after the war, Clemson was elected president of this society, an office once held by his father-in-law, John C. Calhoun.

He was also elected chairman of a committee to study the establishment of a college for the sciences.

[door opening] [door closing] When Clemson saw the farms and fields of his beloved state, he realized the impact of the desolation of war and overcultivation.

He realized that his dream of teaching farmers the science of agriculture would change that.

"Poor land," he said, "will be invigorated, "the recuperative energies of the exhausted soils restored.

"And wealth and prosperity will prevail where desolation, want, and wretchedness now obtain."

♪ For seven years following the war, the Clemsons lived near here in Pendleton at Mi Casa, home of Mrs. John C. Calhoun.

Calhoun had died in 1850 and had left Fort Hill to his wife.

She sold it to her son, Andrew, and moved to Mi Casa.

Mrs. Calhoun suffered from cancer.

She was nursed by Anna Maria and Floride.

It's said that during the last years of her life, her moans and screams could be heard throughout Mi Casa.

She died in the summer of 1866.

Andrew had died in 1865 and had paid little on the mortgages.

They were returned to Mrs. Calhoun, who left it in her estate to Anna Maria after many legal entanglements.

If Fort Hill had been left to the heirs of Andrew, it's likely that today there would be no Clemson University.

♪ By 1872 the Clemsons had moved back to Fort Hill.

This was Anna Maria Calhoun Clemson's home for three short years.

She died in 1875 of a heart attack, and during the three years prior to that, had seen the death of all her children.

Daughter Cornelia died in infancy.

Daughter Floride died suddenly in New York, and son John Calhoun Clemson was killed in a train wreck.

The last years were bitter ones for Thomas and Anna Maria Clemson.

♪ Before her death, Mrs. Clemson shared in her husband's dream for the establishment of a college.

Perhaps this encouraged him to go forward following the loss of his wife.

Clemson was determined to make his dream come true.

At this point fate brought the man who would carry on this dream for the establishment of a college.

Benjamin Ryan Tillman came to Fort Hill to pick up the torch from an aging Clemson.

The two could not have been more dissimilar... Clemson, well-educated, polished after years in France and Belgium, and Tillman, the rough-edged product of the postwar years.

The two men met but once, spent one day together at Fort Hill in 1886, and probably by the end of that day, Thomas Clemson had made the decision to give Fort Hill plantation to the state for the establishment of a school.

♪ As Clemson worked on his will, Pitchfork Ben went politicking.

He had long been an advocate of farmers' needs.

An accomplished speaker, he lashed out at lawyers and merchants and South Carolina College, which later became the University of South Carolina.

His interest in farmers' needs led him into a movement which soon dominated state politics.

He became executive director of the council of the Farmers' Association.

At this juncture he and Thomas Clemson met.

♪ Fueled by Clemson's enthusiasm, Tillman began a campaign to elect a governor and legislators who would support his farmers' association.

But the election of 1886 was not kind to the Tillman-Clemson forces.

Tillman's candidate for governor, J. C. Shepherd, lost the election, and the legislators were distinctly hostile.

Many began a campaign to take the wind out of the Tillman sails by changing South Carolina College to a university and adding to its agricultural program.

Temporarily defeated, Tillman retired briefly to his Edgefield County farm.

However, upon the death of Thomas Clemson in 1888, word came to Tillman about the contents of the will.

Tillman realized that once again he would be able to support the idea of an independent agricultural college.

"Fortune," he said, "has unexpectedly smiled on us in the munificent bequest of Mr.

Clemson."

♪ Thomas Clemson gave Fort Hill to the state under conditions of his will.

These conditions created one of the hottest political issues in the history of our state.

The chief justice of the State Supreme Court had to certify the will.

It could be accepted only if the land were used for an agricultural college.

The will appointed Colonel Richard W. Simpson executor and named six life trustees.

Two weeks after Clemson's death, the seven men met here, where once grew a great oak tree.

This marker commemorates the meeting of the first board of trustees of Clemson College.

♪ Later that year, the legislature met in Columbia.

Chairman Simpson told them of the will.

Pitchfork Ben Tillman began rallying his forces to ensure acceptance of the bequest.

But opposition came from many sources, particularly the two other state-supported schools, the University of South Carolina and The Citadel.

Church-affiliated schools joined in opposition, and opponents from other factions appeared.

Some felt that the name was wrong, that it should be Calhoun College because after all, Fort Hill was the home of John C. Calhoun, and not Clemson.

In all fairness, it was pointed out that Clemson had inherited Fort Hill from Calhoun and bailed it out with his own money.

Others felt the area should be set aside as a memorial to the great statesman John C. Calhoun as had been done with George Washington's Mount Vernon.

♪ The argument raged through the halls and chambers of the Statehouse.

Eighteen turbulent days were required for the passage of the Clemson Act.

In the Senate the vote came to a tie four times, and each time Lieutenant Governor W.L.

Mauldin of Greenville cast the tie-breaking vote.

Finally the act was ratified on Christmas Eve of 1888, but the governor didn't sign it into law for another year.

He waited for the Supreme Court to attest to the validity of the Clemson will, and finally the act became law in late November of 1889.

♪ With an act that set forth the particulars of the organization and with a $3,000 appropriation, the Board of Trustees set out to fulfill Thomas Clemson's dream.

Their first task was to establish the agricultural experiment station and begin a fertilizer service.

This would guarantee federal assistance and benefit farmers who had long supported establishment of the school.

The fertilizer service would become one of the college's main source of income in years ahead because the legislature had allocated 25 cents from each bag of fertilizer to benefit the college.

♪ ♪ In 1891 the cornerstone was laid for the main building.

Two thousand people braved a July rain to attend ceremonies.

A newspaper described the scene... "A stern face here, a bearded farmer there, "a prosperous merchant there, "a saucy belle from the city here, "and a quiet, subdued face of some pretty girl there, "from hills and the valleys, made up a diversified picture, pleasant to see and to describe."

The speaker praised the beginnings of the college and asked for blessings on the state.

He said that the school "would give practical education at low cost to any boy in South Carolina if only he be diligent."

He compared the weather to the stormy struggle for the beginning of the school.

Well acquainted with that struggle, the speaker, Governor Benjamin Ryan Tillman, proudly stood at the site of the building which would be named in his honor.

In 1893, five years after Thomas Clemson made the gift of Fort Hill, Clemson College opened its doors to students.

They were welcomed by the second president, Edwin Boone Craighead.

The first president had served until ill health forced his resignation the year before.

Among the 446 students that first year was the son of Pitchfork Ben, Benjamin R. Tillman Jr.

The school year ran until December, there was a break until February, and classes continued all through the summer so that teachers could give practical instruction while the crops were growing.

Later the schedule was changed to the usual scholastic year.

♪ Less than a year after opening, the college suffered another setback.

Tillman Hall, the main building, caught fire.

Flames spread fr om the third-floor laboratory throughout the building.

Bucket brigades managed to keep it from being a total loss.

The exterior walls were saved, and reconstruction put it back in use.

♪ From the beginning until 1955, Clemson students were governed by military discipline.

They were known as the Corps of Cadets and were under the guidance of a commandant appointed by the United States Army.

They wore uniforms and lived in barracks, not dormitories.

The day was very regimented... reveille at 6:30, followed by breakfast, sick call, chapel, and then classes.

The regulations read, "Classes shall be marched to recitations by officers appointed for that purpose."

After class the students were marched to a rendezvous point and then dismissed.

The rest of their day was similarly structured.

♪ Lectures were held until midday.

The afternoon was devoted to practical classwork.

Rules and regulations were strictly enforced.

Disobeying the president or the faculty or any disrespect prompted instant dismissal.

And other rules were just as strict.

Cigarette smoking was absolutely forbidden, although pipes and cigars were permitted at certain times, in certain areas.

Alcoholic beverages were forbidden, as was card playing.

It was against regulations to possess a deck of cards.

Hair had to be short, and absolutely no mustaches or whiskers.

The conduct of the cadets was watched to make sure that they, according to the manual, "conduct themselves upon every occasion "with propriety and decorum, which characterizes the society of gentlemen."

♪ For serious infractions of certain rules, a cadet might be dismissed.

There was a variety of lesser measures for other offenses.

Along with demerits, a cadet was sometime given punishment tours.

This involved walking around the parade ground known as the Bullring.

The tour included carrying a rifle for an hour.

Repeat offenders spent a great deal of time walking around the Bullring.

♪ Despite discipline, conformity, and strict regulations, students still found a way to assert their independence.

The most famous example of this occurred in 1908.

The year before, at commencement, students had paraded with their shirttails out.

Before the next commencement, the commandant read the cadets an order that stated pranks of any kind would not be tolerated.

At that, 300 cadets started marching right off campus!

They marched to nearby Pendleton and spent the day loafing.

By the end of the week, the college had dismissed all of them.

A special train was ordered, so most were sent home.

The president took a very firm stand and said, "The issue was, Who shall rule... the cadets or the authorities?"

♪ The college evidently won because it was more than a decade before students again challenged the strict military discipline.

The event is still remembered on campus, as are the dismissed students known as the Pendleton Guards.

Despite these troubles and the early struggles to establish the college, Clemson was firmly planted.

♪ In 1896 Clemson took on a challenge which would become one of its hallmarks... the game of football.

It graduated its first students and played its first football games.

It was defeated by the University of South Carolina, 6 to 12.

But rising to the occasion, during the next five years Clemson defeated its arch rival five times.

Now, in 1955 the gray uniforms disappeared forever from campus, and the student body became civilians.

In that year the first women were admitted to the school.

Nine years later, in 1964, the school was restructured and renamed Clemson University.

So this is how Clemson University began.

It was built on the shoulders of two legends... Thomas Green Clemson and Benjamin Ryan Tillman.

If they were alive today, they would understand what goes on here... the struggle for victory.

As a former president expressed the Clemson spirit, "We won't take a backseat to anybody in anything, anywhere."

And Thomas Clemson and Pitchfork Ben would agree.

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