|
|
Home |
|
State, 24-0, in the 1931 Rose Bowl Howard ws known as the "Little Giant" of the Tide's "Herd of Red Elephants."
The bald veteran came to his first coaching post under Jess Neely as a line tutor. "At least that was my title," Howard recalled. "Actually, I also coached track, was ticket manager, recruited players and had charge of football equipment. In my spare time I cut grass, lined tennis courts and operated the canteen while the regular man was out to lunch." Howard was not only track coach from 1931-39, but served as baseball caoch in 1943 and his 12-3 record that year is still among the best percentages for a season in Clemson history.
Howard held the line coaching post until Neely went to Rice University as head coach in 1940. When the Clemson Athletic Council met to name a successor to Neely, Prof. Sam Rhodes, a council member, nominated Howard to be the new head coach. Howard, standing in the back of the room listening to the discussion, said, "I second the nomination." He got the job and never left. Altogether, he served Clemson 43 years.
When he retired as head coach following the 1969 season he was the nation's dean of coaches, having been a head football coach at a major institution longer than anyone else in the United States. When he retired he was one of five active coaches with 150 or more victories.
While coach in 1939, the Tigers' record (8-1) was good enough to merit a trip to Dallas where Clemson met undefeated Boston College under the late Frank Leahy in the 1940 Cotton Bowl. The 1948 mark of 10-0 carried Clemson to the 1949 Gator Bowl and two years later, a 9-0-1 record sent the Tigers to Miami's Orange Bowl (1950). The Country Gentlemen were champions on their first three bowl ventures. Boston College fell 6-3. Missouri was nipped in the Gator, 24-23 (Howard said this is the best football game he ever witnessed), and Miami felt the Tiger claws, 15-14. The total point spread in these three bowl wins was five points.
The Gator Bowl beckoned the Tigers again in January, 1952, and by being conference champions in 1956, Clemson played in the '57 Orange Bowl classic again. Miami downed Clemson, 14-0 in the second Gator Bowl trip and Colorado led Clemson, 20-0, then trialed 21-20, before finally defeating the Tigers, 27-21, in the second Orange Bowl. The Tigers then played in the 1959 Sugar Bowl and held No. 1-ranked Louisiana State to a standstill before losing, 7-0.
The invitation to play in th efirst Bluebonnet Bowl in Houston in December 1959 was the eighth bowl that Howard had been a part of either as a player, assistant coach or head coach. It was the seventh bowl trip for a Clemson team and the sixth in 12 years. Howard said that Clemson's 23-7 triumph over seventh ranked Texas Christian in the Bluebonnet Bowl was the best performance he had ever witnessed by a Clemson team.
|
|