TWO RIGHT TURNS

A Clemson Football tradition. Now a Clemson Football podcast.

Whether you choose to call it “The Most Exciting 25 Seconds in College Football” like Brent Musburger or prefer “The Grandest Entrance in Sports” per Chris Fowler’s parlance, one of college football’s most sacred and beloved traditions begins with two right turns.

It’s one right turn onto Avenue of Champions. It’s another onto Williamson Road. When the ride stops, orange pandemonium awaits.

The journey to Clemson is unique for every Tiger, but for every game since the 1972 regular season finale, the destination has been the same: Howard’s Rock, high atop The Hill at Death Valley in Memorial Stadium’s east end zone.

For some of Clemson’s gridiron gladiators, the journey to Clemson spans thousands of miles and hours by plane or car. But on gamedays, their journey from the locker room to Howard’s Rock is roughly a third of a mile spanning about one minute and 45 seconds in transit.

Launched in 2024, Clemson’s “2 Right Turns” podcast spotlights the young men, the staff and the journeys that comprise Clemson Football.

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Though Clemson has run down The Hill every year since Memorial Stadium opened in 1942, Clemson’s Two Right Turns tradition dates to 1972. From 1942-69, Clemson running down The Hill was a function of efficiency, not pageantry. Clemson’s locker room was in Fike Fieldhouse, just northeast of Memorial Stadium, so walking down Williamson Rd. and entering the stadium by The Hill was the quickest means of reaching the field.

In 1970, Clemson built locker rooms in the west end zone, and for the better part of three seasons, the tradition of running down The Hill laid dormant. However, prior to the final game of the 1972 season, defensive back Ben Anderson — one of the few Clemson walk-ons ever to start every game of his career — led a group of seniors into Head Coach Hootie Ingram’s office with an idea.

Rather than exiting the locker room and heading straight to the playing surface that would be dedicated in 1974 as Frank Howard Field, the team would instead exit the west side of the stadium to load buses staged on Centennial Blvd. The team then, by virtue of two right turns, rode around Memorial Stadium’s north side before disembarking at Howard’s Rock.

Clemson won that rainy 1972 contest against South Carolina with Anderson kneeling out a missed Gamecock field goal attempt to end the game, and one of college football’s hallowed traditions was born. After dying peacefully in 2015, Anderson now rests in Woodland Cemetery directly to the south of Memorial Stadium.

“They take those two right turns, and when they make the final turn, they can begin to hear the crowd and the noise in the open end of the stadium… They turn right here onto Williamson [Road] and the players say this is when they begin to feel it. You can’t help but your pulse comes up.” – Chris Fowler, ABC/ESPN