Note: The following appears in The Citadel football gameday program.
Today is Military Appreciation Day at Clemson, a fitting celebration with The Citadel in town. It is an anniversary season for the special day in Memorial Stadium, as the tradition dates to the 1994 season.
Military Appreciation Day is an appropriate celebration at Clemson, because this was a military school from its inception in 1889 until 1955. It is a heritage that longtime alumni are proud of and enjoy celebrating.
According to retired Sports Promotions Director John Seketa, the first Military Appreciation Day was Nov. 12, 1994 for a game against Georgia Tech. It was just one day after Veterans Day. The pregame featured the stadium’s first flyover of four F-16s at the conclusion of the national anthem.
The following year for the Veterans Day game against Duke in 1995, pregame and halftime ceremonies celebrated the 50-year anniversary of the end of World War II.
Seketa remembered the 1996 Military Appreciation Day as being a day the tradition expanded.
“A few weeks before the game, I heard from retired Air Force Colonel George Lindstedt about the tradition of the Senior Platoon. I didn’t even know anything about the Senior Platoon, but when I heard about it, I was on board with bringing the group back to Clemson to participate.”
The Senior Platoon was a group of Clemson students who marched fast-stepping in double cadence drills at various events between 1930 and 1960. During the era, the members were in demand throughout the year at many state events.
Over the years, they traveled to New Orleans to march in the Mardi Gras parade and twice performed in two of the most celebrated arenas in the country, Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park.
Prior to 1996, they had not marched at a Clemson football game since 1959, and it was Lindstedt’s idea to bring back as many living members as possible to march at the Nov. 16, 1996 game against NC State.
“Colonel Lindstedt got 43 former members of the Senior Platoon to come back for the game, and they were outstanding. It was the first of four times they (Alumni Senior Platoon) marched at halftime of a Clemson game.”
Over the past 30 years, The Citadel’s Summerall Guards silent drill team has performed at several halftime shows. Today, they performed on Bowman Field, Clemson’s first football field.
Military Appreciation Day has continued to grow over the years, bringing memorable days to Death Valley. In 1999, Colonel Ben Skardon “dotted the i” prior to the game. Skardon was a graduate of the Clemson class of 1938 and survived the Bataan Death March along with five other Clemson alumni during World War II.
Skardon was omnipresent at Military Appreciation Day until he passed away at the age of 104 in 2021.
“One of my most memorable moments at a Military Appreciation Day took place in the 2001 season, just 11 days after 9/11,” said Seketa. “We introduced four Clemson graduates who were POWs of various wars. Colonel Skardon was one of them, and he saluted all four sides of the stadium during that ceremony to a great ovation.”
At halftime of the 2009 Military Appreciation Day game, veterans came down the Hill as Tiger Band played the Armed Forces Medley.
“Seeing those veterans come down the Hill was a special moment.”
In 2011, a 21-gun salute by the Pershing Rifles from the Scroll of Honor Memorial was a highlight.
In 2013, Seketa “dotted the i” prior to the game against The Citadel. After 26 years working for Tiger athletics, it was a fitting honor for Seketa, who had done so much for the development of Military Appreciation Day.
“I tell people I am not the ‘Father of Military Appreciation Day’,” explained Seketa. “I just happened to be the football gameday coordinator when it started. All the credit should go to the cadets and members of Tiger Band who embraced the tributes to our soldiers.”
Today, Military Appreciation Day is celebrated at the end of Military Appreciation Week, which started 10 years ago and has various military-related activities throughout the week. Those could not happen without the assistance of The Clemson Corps, Army and Air Force ROTC, the Marine Corps, South Carolina Army National Guard, Clemson Military Affairs, Clemson Military & Veterans Engagement Office and multiple student organizations.
As sports information director during that time, I saw Seketa’s dedication to Military Appreciation Day first-hand. In 2010, he attended an ACC athletic director’s meeting to tell the group about what Clemson did for its Military Appreciation Day. Many ACC schools have started a similar celebration during home games.
Seketa has recently been involved in an advisory capacity for Military Appreciation Day. He also wrote a book on the history of Clemson’s Tiger mascots, titled “Clemson Through the Eyes of the Tiger.”
Seketa is the co-founder of the “Clemson 8” Challenge, a run/walk race every March on campus that raises scholarship money to send Clemson students and cadets to participate in the annual Bataan Memorial Death March Marathon in New Mexico.
