Put ‘Em In The Dirt: College Football’s Fascination with Deadly Traditions and the Truth Behind Who is Left Behind without Burial Rites – Excerpt

July 11, 2023

By Marquise Drayton, Community Engagement Assistant for the African American Burial Ground and Woodland Cemetery Historic Preservation Project

This post is re-published from the July 2023 newsletter.

Ironically, both flagship universities in South Carolina and Louisiana stake their claim over who’s “the real Death Valley.”¹ According to a 1945 account by Presbyterian College Head Coach Lonnie McMillan, after a 76-0 loss from Frank Howard’s Clemson Tigers, he referred to the stadium as “Death Valley” because of the heat within it that made it hard to play as well as its natural ravine shape.² But after the recent bout between the shared mascot schools, LSU may have more of a stake in that claim. In 2015, University of Michigan Football Head Coach Jim Harbaugh smashed a buckeye nut with a hammer atop former coach Bo Schembechler’s grave ahead of the annual Michigan v. Ohio State rivalry game.³ University of Notre Dame fan Sylvester Cashen cared for the former Fighting Irish Football Head Coach Knute Rocke’s gravesite for many years.⁴ Ahead of the 2008 Georgia Bulldogs v. Alabama Crimson Tide game in Athens, GA, then University of Alabama Strength-And-Conditioning Coach Scott Cochran exclaimed in practice that “They’ll be wearing black because they’re coming to their own expletive funeral” as word came around that the Bulldogs were wearing an all-black uniform combination.⁵ From stadium nicknames to graveyards dedicated to beating opponents on the road, there is a unique commemoration of life’s end in college football regarding ways to document big wins.

However, the heroic folklore of the gridiron on Saturdays detracts from more realistic, dismal, and historical issues at southern Power Five schools. In September 2016, during my sophomore year at the University of North Carolina (UNC)-Chapel Hill, I tearfully witnessed a memorial to the 400+ unmarked burials of Black individuals in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery.⁶ UNC Basketball Head Coach Dean Smith, dramatist Paul Green, and previous UNC chancellors rest eternally at the campus cemetery. The sacred space is across from Carmichael Arena, where “Mike” Jordan once graced their hardwood floors as a student-athlete.⁷ In the fall, many Clemson Football fans who wear orange and purple inside Memorial Stadium are unaware of the vast unmarked burials of Black people from different generations since enslavement in Woodland Cemetery that sits above the south stand of the home side. And although the University of Georgia inters its past live dog mascots inside Sanford Stadium⁸ and the University of Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium has silent occupants that contrast from the loud fanbase on Saturdays,⁹ they also must reckon with their past ties to chattel slavery with cemeteries nearby their respective sporting venues. Thus, I seek to give life to underrepresented death at Clemson, UGA, and Florida State, which each holds deadly traditions for sport.

Before I dive into the facts about “the real Death Valley” in Woodland Cemetery beside Memorial Stadium (Nicknamed “Death Valley”), I want to address the folklore that Clemson Football shares in deadly traditions. As the Community Engagement Assistant for the Woodland Cemetery and African American Burial Ground Historic Preservation Project at Clemson University, I thoroughly enjoy asking undergraduate students to do this social experiment while taking them on tours of the campus cemetery. To pass the time while we walk to the next stop at Memorial Stadium from Walter Riggs’ tombstone (The first head coach for the Clemson Tigers football program¹⁰), I ask those who have cellphone access to look up “Clemson graveyard” on Google Images. What they often find in their lookup is fascinating. Many results in the search include pictures of the “The Graveyard” for Clemson Football, located next to their Allen Reeves Football and Indoor Practice Facility. There are only so many students who find more images of Woodland Cemetery within the algorithm. In researching this dichotomy, there is far more information about Clemson Athletics’ graveyard known than about the resting places of Black people in the African American Burial Ground.

“The Graveyard” can be visited by fans during the year to see how the football program documents ranked road wins dismally. Every offseason, Clemson HC Dabo Swinney and upperclassmen student-athletes unveil new tombstones to the current team that symbolizes wins earned from the previous season’s ranked away games.¹¹ The athletic program bases the ranking qualifications on the Coaches/Associated Press (AP) Top 25 Poll during the fall season (It used to be the Top 20 Poll until it expanded for both in the early 1990s).¹² One tombstone at the front row chronicles road wins over Top 20 teams from 1948-1986. A manufacturing company in nearby Easley, SC, initially crafted the symbolic tombstones.¹³ But since 2004, Kornegay Funeral Home of Camden, SC, has done so since then for Clemson Athletics.¹⁴ The cost of preparing a marker is undisclosed to the public.¹⁵ As of 2023, thirty-seven tombstones are in the makeshift graveyard beside the Seneca River.¹⁶ Swinney is responsible for twenty-six staked there, including two exclusive black granite stones at the far left denoting the 2016 and 2018 national championship victories against Alabama.¹⁷ One tombstone declares the 29-28 victory over the Virginia Cavaliers on October 10, 1992, as “the greatest comeback in Clemson history, as the Tigers scored the last twenty-nine points over the final thirty-two minutes of the game.” These granite markers tell stories of epic wins against adversaries away from Clemson, SC, like the controversial ending to the 2019 Fiesta Bowl against #2 Ohio State¹⁸ and the lopsided beatdown of the 2019 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Championship Game as the Tigers trumped the #22 Cavaliers 62-17 with it being the most significant margin of victory in conference championship game history.¹⁹ Two tombstones designated for ranked away wins against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish sport a four-leaf clover atop each tombstone, perhaps paying homage or poking fun at former Clemson Athletics Sports Information Director (SID) Tim Bourret’s connection to Clemson, SC, and South Bend, IN.²⁰ In early April, I walked out to the football cemetery to see two new tombstones dedicated to the double-overtime victory against #16 Wake Forest in Winston Salem, NC, on September 24, 2022, and the dominating win over #22 North Carolina on December 3, 2022, for the ACC Championship in Charlotte, NC. Both away games I attended as a Clemson fan. However, it is not an original idea from the Tigers, as it has directly resulted from another ACC deadly tradition in Florida State University (FSU)’s “Sod Cemetery” for their football program.²¹ The first tombstone dedicated to Florida State on September 9, 1989, can further tell how Clemson mimicked FSU’s idea.

Citations

1. McGee, Ryan. 2020. “A Heated LSU-Clemson Debate: Who Plays in the Real Death Valley?” ESPN. The Walt Disney Company. January 3, 2020. https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/28412865/a-heated-lsu-clemson-debate-plays-real-death-valley.
2. Raynor, Grace. 2018. “Sorry LSU, but Clemson’s Football Stadium Is the Original Death Valley.” The Post and Courier. Evening Post Industries. August 8, 2018. https://www.postandcourier.com/sports/sorry-lsu-but-clemsons-football-stadium-is-the-original-death-valley/article_7437d57a-9403-11e8-9023-8f903fe214b6.html.
3. Smith, Marty. 2015. “Meet than Man Who Takes Care of ‘The Rock.’” ESPN. The Walt Disney Company. September 18, 2015. https://www.espn.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_/id/115661/meet-the-man-who-takes-care-of-the-rock.
4. ESPN.com news services. 2015. “Jim Harbaugh Smashes Buckeye at Bo Schembechler’s Grave.” ESPN. The Walt Disney Company. September 18, 2015. https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/14219539/michigan-wolverines-coach-jim-harbaugh-smashes-buckeye-bo-schembechler-grave.
5. Towers, Chip. 2020. “Q&A: Georgia’s Scott Cochran Owns up to Infamous ‘Funeral Comments.’” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Cox Enterprises. September 7, 2020. https://www.ajc.com/sports/georgia-bulldogs/qa-georgias-scott-cochran-owns-up-to-infamous-funeral-comments/CGO6R4BCBFGGJMQGLFNDGPQXZM/.
6. Leoneda, Inge. 2016. “Monument Remembering African Americans Unveiled At Old Chapel Hill Cemetery.” WUNC 91.5. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. September 20, 2016. https://www.southbendtribune.com/story/sports/college/2020/11/07/clemson-had-its-eyes-on-notre-dame-since-the-1960s/116120204/.
7. UNC Athletic Communications. 2020. “Celebrate Carolina: Jordan at Carmichael.” Go Heels. UNC Athletics. July 26, 2020. https://goheels.com/news/2020/7/26/womens-basketball-celebrate-carolina-jordan-in-carmichael.aspx#:~:text=Michael%20Jordan%20played%20his%20entire,then%20known%20as%20Carmichael%20Auditorium).
8. Durando, Bennett. 2019. “A Very Good Boy: Uga’s Lasting Impact at UGA Extends All the Way to a Puppy Cemetery.” Columbia Missourian. University of Missouri. November 9, 2019. https://www.columbiamissourian.com/sports/mizzou_football/a-very-good-boy-ugas-lasting-impact-at-uga-extends-all-the-way-to-a/article_32fd5686-0331-11ea-8c5c-bb683777a0f5.html.
9. Casagrande, Michael. 2018. “The Story of Alabama Football’s Quiet Neighbors.” AL.Com. Advance Local Media LLC. September 19, 2018. https://www.al.com/alabamafootball/2018/09/the_story_of_alabama_footballs.html.
10. Clemson University. 1996. “Clemson Football Media Guide – 1996” Football Media Guides, pg. 4. Clemson University Libraries. 1996. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/fball_media/36.
11. Sapakoff, Gene. 2019. “Clemson Aims to Add an Ohio State Tombstone to Its Football Graveyard.” The Post and Courier. Evening Post Industries. December 27, 2019. https://www.postandcourier.com/sports/clemson/clemson-aims-to-add-an-ohio-state-tombstone-to-its-football-graveyard/article_28dfd166-2356-11ea-b02f-efa429d80c68.html.
12. Clemson Athletic Communications. 2023. “The Graveyard.” Clemson Tigers. Clemson Athletics. 2023. https://clemsontigers.com/the-graveyard/.
13. Hale, David. 2016. “Honoring the Past in College Football.” ESPN. The Walt Disney Company. April 6, 2016. https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/15145869/grave-stones-sod-cemeteries-death-remembrances-college-football.
14. Sapakoff, Gene. 2019. “Clemson Aims to Add an Ohio State Tombstone to Its Football Graveyard.” The Post and Courier. Evening Post Industries. December 27, 2019. https://www.postandcourier.com/sports/clemson/clemson-aims-to-add-an-ohio-state-tombstone-to-its-football-graveyard/article_28dfd166-2356-11ea-b02f-efa429d80c68.html.
15. Ibid.
16. Clemson Athletic Communications. 2023. “The Graveyard.” Clemson Tigers. Clemson Athletics. 2023. https://clemsontigers.com/the-graveyard/.
17. Ibid.
18. Fischer, Bryan. 2019. “No. 3 Clemson Storms Back to Beat No. 2 Ohio State and Setup Tigers vs. Tigers in the National Title Game.” NBC Sports. National Broadcasting Company. December 29, 2019. https://collegefootball.nbcsports.com/2019/12/29/no-3-clemson-storms-back-to-beat-no-2-ohio-state-and-setup-tigers-vs-tigers-in-the-national-title-game/.
19. McGuire, Kevin. 2019. “No. 3 Clemson Wins Fifth Consecutive ACC Championship as They Return to College Football Playoff.” NBC Sports. National Broadcasting Company. December 7, 2019. https://collegefootball.nbcsports.com/2019/12/07/no-3-clemson-wins-fifth-consecutive-acc-championship-as-they-return-to-college-football-playoff/.
20. Bourret, Tim. 2020. “Clemson Had Its Eyes on Notre Dame since the 1960s.” South Bend Tribune. Gannett. November 7, 2020. https://www.southbendtribune.com/story/sports/college/2020/11/07/clemson-had-its-eyes-on-notre-dame-since-the-1960s/116120204/.
21. Sapakoff, Gene. 2019. “Clemson Aims to Add an Ohio State Tombstone to Its Football Graveyard.” The Post and Courier. Evening Post Industries. December 27, 2019. https://www.postandcourier.com/sports/clemson/clemson-aims-to-add-an-ohio-state-tombstone-to-its-football-graveyard/article_28dfd166-2356-11ea-b02f-efa429d80c68.html.