Clemson University was founded in 1889 after Thomas Green Clemson, the son-in-law of John C. Calhoun, gave $80,000 and 814 acres of his estate for the creation of an agricultural college. The state legislature was not at all sure that it wanted to accept this gift and establish a rival to the University of South Carolina in Columbia; the votes establishing Clemson passed by only one vote after intensive lobbying by Governor Benjamin R. Tillman. The main administration building is therefore named Tillman Hall. The schools have been rivals ever since. Here, student cadets parade on Bowman Field near the Administration building in 1911.
Courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library.
