Hello Tiger fans!
As we closed the book on the fiscal year, it’s been a great year for Clemson. We wish to thank all of our investors for helping IPTAY achieve a donation mark of cash and pledges worth $26.7 million, including annual capital and planned giving. We are also projecting a department surplus of approximately $850,000, which will continue the strong financial position of the program.
Yesterday, we welcomed Mark Elliott into the Clemson family as our new head coach for track & field and cross country. Mark has a terrific résumé as both a longtime coach and student-athlete at LSU, where he was a part of 22 NCAA Championships. We look forward to continuing the ascent of our track & field program under his leadership into amongst the best in the country. I’d like to thank Barbara Kennedy-Dixon, Janie Hodge and Kyle Young for their assistance in the search process.
We announced a few weeks ago that Danny Ford and Bill Wilhelm would be inducted into the Clemson Ring of Honor. On behalf of Clemson Athletics, we want to congratulate two giants in our history. I had the pleasure recently of having a brief conversation with Coach Ford. He is incredibly excited and thankful for this honor. We all look forward to this fall, when we will unveil his name in the Ring of Honor. We also look forward to next spring when a similar ceremony will be held at Doug Kingsmore Stadium for Coach Wilhelm. The Ring of Honor is now more complete with the addition of these two Clemson legends.
We wish to thank the Clemson University Police Department, the State Law Enforcement Division and the 13th Circuit Solicitor’s Office for acting in a swift, thorough manner with regards to the vandalism to Howard’s Rock. At this point in time, there is still work to do. But we thank them for their dogged pursuit of this case. Moving forward, we have begun to implement more stringent monitoring and surveillance of this campus treasure. Howard’s Rock is important not only to the Clemson family and fanbase, but also is one of the treasured pieces of college football history.
Speaking of football, we have only 54 days before the start of the season. Anticipation is building on campus. This is the time of year when a lot of planning and preparation related to gameday coordination is ongoing. Van Hilderbrand and his staff, as well as Mike Money and his staff, are doing a great job of creating a gameday environment that everyone enjoys and Clemson is noted for. Their efforts should not go unnoticed.
While we’re all focused on the Aug. 31 opener versus the University of Georgia, let’s remember Clemson Athletics will be in action in three other sports prior to that date. Women’s soccer opens the regular season at Auburn on Aug. 23 before returning home to face Furman on Aug. 25. Men’s soccer opens with a home exhibition on Aug. 21 and the regular season starts on Aug. 30 against Mercer. Volleyball will hold its Orange & White Scrimmage on Aug. 23 and start the regular season the weekend of the Georgia football game on the road.
Dan Radakovich
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April 24, 2024
