Tiger Family,
We hope you’ve had a great summer and are as excited about the upcoming year as we are!
It’s been a busy few months, and we can’t wait to welcome everyone back to campus. In July, we closed the books on FY15 and it was – in nearly every aspect – a record breaking year. On the field successes included three ACC titles and another 10-win football season, while in the classroom our student-athletes posted a record 3.02 grade point average and set records in the Academic Progress Rate and Graduation Success Rate.
Your generosity and passion also helped lead IPTAY to a remarkable $60.1 million in pledges and donations last year. The $25.5 million raised by the annual fund is an all-time high, and we’ve also announced three Cornerstone Partners who made gifts in excess of $17.5 million combined.
While all of our fall sports returned to campus in the past few weeks, this week we’ll have every one of our student-athletes back for the start of the fall semester. Classes begin Wednesday, and each of our 19 sports programs will begin getting ready for their upcoming seasons with either offseason workouts or preseason practices. Both men’s and women’s soccer began their seasons with exhibitions last week, and volleyball will scrimmage next weekend. Football continues its preasons prep work, and our first official athletic competition of the 2015-16 year is Friday night as women’s soccer takes on Texas in Charleston.
Next weekend, we hope you can join us for our annual Fan Day at Memorial Stadium. We’ll open the gates at 2:30 p.m., and you can see the layout of autograph lines and more information HERE.
If you haven’t visited in a while, you’ll see a few new features upon arrival. One of the most discussed architectural features is of course the Oculus/Bridge project, and it’s progress is nearly complete. We still have some work to do on the finishing, but the scaffolding came down last week and the bridge will be operational for opening weekend.
Progress continues on the suites renovations and the new 600-seat South Club as furniture began arriving last week. Both areas will be up and operational for our Sept. 5 season-opener.
Head coach Monte Lee and his baseball program will move into their new building in the next week, and as we finish that project we turn our attention to the new football operations facility. I want to thank the IPTAY Board and our Clemson Board of Trustees for their continued support as we speed this important project along.
You can keep up with each of our capital projects at ClemsonTigers.com and our Expand and Enhance hub HERE.
Among other summer upkeep and routine maintenance projects, the playing surface of Historic Riggs Field (celebrating its 100th year this fall) was completely redone and we’re working on a new entrance to Jervey Gym as it will serve as the home of both volleyball and women’s basketball this year.
Later this week, we’ll release the “15 for 15” gameday experience improvements for the upcoming year. Our Solid Orange Fan Advisory Board has provided tremendous feedback and input, identifying areas of focus; and the experience each of our fans has at our events remains a top priority for our department.
On a personal note, last week I attended a meeting of the 2015 College Football Playoff selection committee. I am again honored to be a part of the selection process, and look forward to another exciting college football season!
As you are all aware, this is a busy and exciting time for everyone on campus, and we’re ready to welcome you back for another wonderful year of Clemson Tigers athletics. Thanks for all you do to support our student-athletes!
Go Tigers,
Dan Radakovich
December 8, 2024
