Memorial Stadium (Clemson)

• Clemson Tigers (NCAA ) (since 1942)
• Carolina Panthers (NFL ) ( 1995)

The Memorial Stadium (also known as Death Valley ) is a football stadium on the campus of Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina. It serves as the venue for home games of the college teams Clemson Tigers. The stadium has a capacity of 82,000 spectators. Prior to the completion of the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte here also played the Carolina Panthers NFL team during the season 1995.

History

The Memorial Stadium was opened on 19 September 1942. The building cost $ 125,000 and the stadium at that time had a spectator capacity of 20,000. A first expansion in 1958 increased the capacity to 38,000 and two years later, 5,658 more seats were added. The southern upper deck was built in 1978 and the northern followed in 1983. Consequently, the total capacity was brought to about 80,000. The previous attendance record dates from 1999. The game against the Florida State University tracked 86 092 spectators.

In addition to the geographical position in a valley led two reasons to nickname Death Valley. On one hand, the university cemetery is located on a hill that overlooked the field before the upper decks were built. The other reference comes from Lonnie McMillian, a former football coach at Presbyterian College. He said the 1948 journalists that he " must lead his team to Clemson and play there in Death Valley " where they rarely scored points or victory was taken. The nickname was especially popular in the 1950s, as head coach Frank Howard began to use it. He later received from a former Clemson University a stone from the Death Valley in California. This is now the player input in the stadium.

The playing field in Memorial Stadium was named in honor of former coach than Frank Howard Field.