Note: The following appears in The Citadel football gameday program.
Throughout this season, we have documented past victories in each gameday program that have been important to the rise of the Clemson program under Head Coach Dabo Swinney.
While we all love to recall those victories, every program’s history also has setbacks that have moved the program in a positive direction.
An example in recent years would be Clemson’s loss in the 2010 Meineke Car Care Bowl, when Tajh Boyd led the Tigers to two touchdowns in the fourth quarter of a loss to South Florida. That defeat concluded a losing season and led to a total evaluation of the Tiger program by Swinney.
Additionally, it gave the staff confidence in Boyd entering the 2011 season, and he went on to a Clemson Hall of Fame career. The Tigers have finished in the top 25 every year since, including two national championships, eight ACC championships and six straight trips to the College Football Playoff, the longest streak in the nation.
Historically, perhaps the most positive effect of a Clemson loss might have taken place on Oct. 16, 1931 at Florence, S.C. That day, The Citadel defeated the Tigers 6-0 at Florence Memorial Stadium in front of a crowd of 6,000 fans. It was the last time The Citadel beat Clemson and it was the 100th win in Bulldog history. It was shocking at the time because Clemson was coming off three straight eight-win seasons and a 24-8 record the previous three years.
Jess Neely was in his first year as Clemson’s head coach. The squad had just one victory at the time of the defeat and had scored only one touchdown. Clemson ended that 1931 season with only one victory and three total touchdowns.
Neely and Clemson administrators had expected much more, so a meeting was held after the game in an automobile in a parking lot outside the stadium. The group in the car included Neely, Ends Coach Joe Davis, Captain Frank Jervey and Captain Pete Hefner.
Clemson was a military school at the time, and Hefner and Jervey were military staff members at Clemson and were keenly interested in its athletic programs. Hefner also assisted Neely in coaching the team in his spare time.
The meeting centered around what it was going to take to bring Clemson back to a winning level. Neely was only 33 at the time and had come to Clemson the previous winter after three seasons as an assistant coach under Head Coach Wallace Wade at Alabama.
Neely learned enough from Wade and the Alabama program to know that…