Despite a constant threat of rain, Clemson University’s 2019 homecoming went off without a hitch. The chicken wire, pomp and a football victory over Boston College all came together to make the weekend a memorable one. The theme of “Welcome to the Dynasty” was the prompt for it all.
Eleven floats were constructed on Bowman Field alongside a house built by volunteers for Habitat for Humanity. The floats and the house are an annual tradition and the building took place from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. every day of the week leading up to the Friday of homecoming. The floats are approximately 25 feet tall. The mood is described as upbeat but stressful.
Sororities,fraternities and Central Spirit bring their own vision of the theme to life. Below are the floats that Clemson students showcased this year and the reasoning behind their themes.
Alpha Sigma Phi, Beta Upsilon Chi and Kappa Delta worked together to create a float reminiscent of The Beatles’ album “Abbey Road.”
“We wanted to incorporate all four parts of Clemson that are doing really well right now,” Lauren Andrews, a graduate communication, technology and society major, said. “I was sitting there thinking one night and I thought that we could do a play on ‘Abbey Road’ by The Beatles. I was listening to their music, and they have a song that’s called ‘I Get by With a Little Help From My Friends,’so the homecoming committee was talking and we thought it would be cute to incorporate that because no one part of Clemson would be what it is without their friends.”
Kappa Alpha, Phi Sigma Kappa and Alpha Chi Omega dedicated their float to Dabo Swinney and his legacy at Clemson thus far.
“We took the theme as Dabo’s dynasty,” Gianna Cooper, a sophomore genetics major, said. “So the first thing we’re doing is a timeline as all of his big wins that got us to be a winning team, going from like a losing record to a winning record…In the middle, we have three podiums, where the two on the sides are the national championships we’ve won recently, and the one in the middle is going to be a silhouette of what’s to come. In the middle trophy for the podium, we have an interactive thing where people can come and walk through and put their faces in like they’re taking pictures with the football players.”
Beta Theta Pi, Theta Chi and Chi Omega added 3-D elements to their float in the form of a giant football helmet, a tiger wearing a crown and Trevor Lawrence.
“The way we interpreted [the theme] was that due to our recent success with football, we started to gain a crowd and following,” Anna Kurisaki, a junior computer engineering major, said. “So because of that our school was growing in population, expanding it academically, and with that money we’re able to fund more research. Pretty much because of football we’re able to become a better school, and that’s why for our float, we decided to make this huge helmet to signify that football is the reason why we’re able to be the school that we are now and will be later.”
Zeta Tau Alpha, Alpha Gamma Rho and Sigma Kappa decided to incorporate a bit of Clemson’s football history in their float.
“We included jerseys from the 1981 team, the 2016 team, and the 2018 team, but we also put 2008 and 2012 [next to] the jerseys because those helped build our dynasty,” Cameron Calhoun, a junior psychology and business management major, said. “We included Danny Ford’s face and Dabo’s face because those are two very iconic coaches. We also have ring faces to represent our dynasty from beginning to end.”
Phi Delta Theta and Delta Delta Delta not only completed their float, but also added a giant tiger and national championship trophy.
“I tried to put a lot of emphasis on the academic and athletic dynasties, so the buildings pictured…are each building where classes are held,” Gee Smith, a sophomore pre-business major, said. “So we have Tillman, the oldest of the three, the library and the new business school, which is almost done being built. We have the tiger leaning on the trophy out front and it has the three rings on its fingers. It’s a little more than 20 feet tall so it’s pretty big, and the centerpiece of the background is the three Sports Illustrated covers from the years that we won the national championship spliced together. I just did my best to represent both the athletic and academic dynasties over the years.”
Alpha Delta Pi, Phi Gamma Delta and Kappa Sigma stayed true to the idea of a dynasty with an interactive throne and crenellations attached to their float.
“We decided to make the theme more of a regal sign, so we made a classic throne and a castle-esque kind of design,” Garrett Dell, a senior industrial engineering major, said. “Then we wanted to incorporate different elements of Clemson being a dynasty and why we’re great, so we micropomped the six different scenes from Tilman to the top of both of our rings.”
Delta Zeta and Delta Chi came together to showcase the most exciting 30 seconds in college football. (The Tiger was unable to capture pictures of the float without the tarp.)
“When me and Tim, the Delta Chi homecoming chair, met to talk about it, we were like ‘everyone’s going to try to focus on football but Clemson to me is more than that,’” Sarah Bigger, a junior language and international health major, said. “So of course the middle is football…but on the right side we have the stadium, the library, Tillman and Sikes because I think the Clemson dynasty is also the academics and how good of a school we are so those are some iconic things. And then we have on the left side the tiger and the tiger cub because that’s like the Clemson family and things like that. So we just kinda thought those three things would be good examples.”
Pi Kappa Phi, Delta Tau Delta and Pi Beta Phi dedicated part of their float to iconic press coverages of Clemson.
“We really wanted to pick out really big moments in Clemson’s history, so we have the Sports Illustrated cover after the national championship and then Dabo kissing the national championship trophy — the picture that was in the newspaper,” Kaylin Woods, a senior parks, recreation and tourism major, said. “Then the middle is just classic Clemson, the stadium and the hill. The process has been exhausting, really really fun but exhausting…But it’s really cool to see a lot of Greek life come together and just work together.”
Kappa Kappa Gamma, Sigma Nu and Phi Kappa Alpha brought a Clemson sunset to life with their float, and they also incorporated changing Sports Illustrated covers.
“The vision is basically all football-based with the mountains and the hills and the sunset making it cohesive,” Maggie Walker, a senior graphic communications major, said. “But basically we’re going to have four panels on the side with a 1981 Sports Illustrated national championship cover and the 2018 one, and then [we’ll] be flipping to a silhouette of Dabo holding the 2011 ACC championship trophy and then Dabo holding the national championship trophy.”
Gamma Phi Beta, Alpha Tau Omega and Alpha Phi put the national championship trophy center stage on their float.
“They really wanted us to emphasize not us just being a dynasty in sports, but also academic wise,” Brandi Eff, a junior psychology major, said. “So a few aspects that we have of it that kinda ties into the theme is that we obviously have the trophy that’s like our centerpiece of the float…But we didn’t want to focus just on the sports aspect of it, so on each side we’ve got a couple things that really stand out at our university. We have Tillman of course, which is the most iconic building at Clemson…We’ve got the smokestacks in the back which is something that is kinda minor but we thought that it would tie in a good element for not just our academic history, but also our history in South Carolina and our university…On the other side, we’re going to have the Welcome to Clemson sign that you see when you first come into Bowman and it’s going to have a little stage behind it that kids can come up and take pictures behind it…And then another thing that we tied in is the bell…it’s the one at Carillon Gardens that was donated by the class on 1939, so we thought that was just a small homecoming touch because homecoming’s main purpose is to welcome back alumni.”
Central Spirit, the largest student organization on Clemson’s campus, built their own float and featured the three national championship rings.
“So the vision of the float is to do the championship rings for each of the years we have won the national championship in football,” Emily Morrison, a secondary education English major, said. “We start with 1981, and then 2016, and then obviously 2018. The 2018 is in the middle and it’s the biggest in orange just because it’s the biggest thing. But we also really want to pay homage to the other teams who proceeded that and got us there, which is why they’re also on the side. So it’s basically a pyramid but flat, so it’s like it’s leading up to the big idea.”
The Habitat for Humanity house was also completed in time for homecoming. The house and its surroundings were kept clean at all times, and volunteers ranged from Clemson students to members of the community. During the nights leading up to Friday, teams of four people stay and switch off to guard the house. When it is moved off of Bowman Field, it will become a home to a family in need.
Homecoming, complete with all the pomp and circumstance these hills can handle, has concluded, but there will be another one next year, calling alumni back to Clemson and inviting victory to Death Valley once more
