REPORT: Howard’s Rock Was Vandalized

Nov 24, 2012; Clemson, SC, USA; Members of the Clemson University ROTC guard Howard’s Rock.

Another hallowed monument of college football tradition was desecrated, according to OrangeAndWhite.com. Howard’s Rock was vandalized, a huge chunk of the stone each member of the Clemson football team touches when running onto the Memorial Stadium field removed. Details of the vandalism are limited currently, but the immediate parallel most fans will draw is to the destruction of Toomer’s Oaks at Auburn. Alabama Crimson Tide fan Harvey Updyke gained infamy for admitting to poisoning the oaks on the Paul Finebaum Show in 2011. Updyke finished a 76-day jail sentence on Monday, and Auburn officially bid farewell to the oaks in April, ending one of the most celebrated traditions in college football.

Another recent instance of vandalism worth keeping in mind is that in April, an orange paw was painted on the field of Clemson’s in-state rival South Carolina.

The Clemson-South Carolina series, like Alabama-Auburn, caps each regular season. South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier misses no opportunity to stoke the fire with anti-Tiger rhetoric, though the Old Ball Coach’s rhetoric is playful.

The rivalry is not always so jovial in nature, and can get particularly heated. In 2004, a brawl marred the annual meeting.

Two years later, an inebriated fan shot and killed his friend over a bet placed on the Palmetto State contest.