Daniel B.
Yelp
I'm not a Clemson fan, but I do like the Tigers and root for them when they're not playing one of my teams, Georgia Tech and Wake Forest. I love the ACC and generally root for ACC teams in non-conference play, especially bowl games, the College Football Playoff, and March Madness. Clemson has represented the league extremely well in recent years with two football national championships (2016, 2018) and their men's basketball team advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 as recently as 2018.
The first college football game I attended in person was a matchup between Wake and Clemson in Winston-Salem in the late 80s/early 90s. I remember my elementary school friends and I sat behind the Clemson players on the sidelines. My friend got one of the Clemson players' attention and said "Go Deacs!" while decked out in Wake gear. As kids, we thought it was funny at the time.
Clemson and Georgia Tech have a football rivalry that dates back to 1898 or 1902 depending on where you look. I still remember where I was my freshman year at Tech when we beat Clemson in Death Valley. October 28, 2000. George Godsey to Kerry Watkins, 16-yard touchdown reception with seven seconds left on the clock for the 31-28 come-from-behind win: https://youtu.be/8WXOg5YNaLQ?t=9094.
And of course, who can forget the 2004 game, also in Death Valley, where "a legend was born in Calvin Johnson." Another come-from-behind victory for the Jackets. That time, 28-24. Don't forget, the beloved Reggie Ball threw that pass. September 11, 2004. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JL6YQsw7Y4.
I was there at the 2009 ACC Championship Game in Tampa between Clemson and Tech. December 5, 2009. Tech won that game as well, 39-34. We beat Clemson two times in the same season that year. We actually beat Dabo Swinney five out of our first eight meetings against him (2008-2014), but once Dabo got the program established at an elite level, Clemson has pretty much owned us with an 8-2 record against Tech since 2010.
The 2016 (played in 2017) and 2018 (played in 2019) national championship games against Alabama were a lot of fun to watch. Deshaun Watson was absolutely clutch down the stretch in the 2016 title game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYp9hcsqqRE. In the 2018 title game, Clemson laid the smackdown on Bama, blowing out the Tide, 44-16. The 2019 title game (played in 2020) against LSU was painful to watch, with Clemson getting beaten by the better team, 42-25. However, there's no doubt that Dabo has now established Clemson football as one of the nation's powerhouse programs.
I've always liked Dabo. He seems like a swell guy.
Clemson men's basketball during the Rick Barnes era (1994-98) was memorable to me. He led the Tigers basketball team to the NCAA tournament three out of his four years with a Sweet 16 appearance in 1997 with talented players like Greg Buckner, Harold Jamison, and Terrell McIntyre.
I still remember watching a game between Clemson and North Carolina in Chapel Hill where so many Clemson players had fouled out that Clemson had to finish the game with only four players on the court. I've never seen anything like it since. That was January 29, 1998.
Clemson used to hold one of the worst and most well-known losing streaks in sports. They had lost 59 straight games on the road against Carolina, dating back to 1926. That 59-game losing streak is an NCAA record. Clemson finally broke that streak on January 11, 2020, beating the Tar Heels in the Dean Dome, 79-76 in overtime.
As far as Clemson fans go, they've always been some of the nicest and friendliest fans I've interacted with. Same goes with Auburn fans. Auburn is like the Clemson of the SEC. The two schools are similar, down to their colors (orange) and mascots (Tigers), and they share quite a bit of football history. The only negative experience I've had with a Clemson fan was at a Waffle House in Florida after the 2009 ACC Championship Game. A young Clemson female fan cursed out the staff of the Waffle House before storming out of the restaurant. She made a scene and was incredibly rude.
If you've ever seen those "IPTAY" stickers on Clemson fans' cars, it stands for "I pay ten a year." It means they donate to Clemson's athletic programs. The slogan is from 1934 and they've just kept the name even though it's outdated. It's kind of like how the Big Ten is still called the Big Ten even though there are 14 - not 10 - teams in the conference.