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Memorial Stadium, popularly known as "Death Valley" is home to the Clemson University Tigers NCAA Division I-A football team. Capacity is officially just over 81,000, though the record attendance was set in 1999 at 86,026. The stadium is one of the ten largest on-campus stadiums in the United States and is the largest in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Built in 1940s, the stadium has been expanded throughout the years, and a future expansion of the west side of the stadium is scheduled to start in 2004.
Among the most interesting features of the stadium are the grassy hill on the east side of the stadium, a popular sitting area for Clemson students. At the top of the hill lies "Howard's Rock", which is an imported rock from Death Valley, California that was presented to legendary Clemson coach Frank Howard in 1967. The Tigers' traditional team entrance involves each player rubbing the rock for magical powers and then running down the hill, a procession that has been termed "the most exciting 25 seconds in college football."
The term "Death Valley" comes from the fact that the field is physically situated in a valley. Two additional facts add to the mystique. First, the university cemetery sits on a hill that once overlooked the field before the upper decks were constructed. The other reference comes from a former Presbyterian College coach who complained that playing his teams in Clemson would be similar to entering Death Valley (California).
Before the Tigers played in Memorial Stadium, games were originally played on Bowman Field and later moved to Riggs Field, now home to Clemson's soccer teams.
Memorial Stadium was also the original home field for the Carolina Panthers of the NFL. When the Panthers played their inaugural season in 1995, their permanent stadium in Charlotte was still under construction; the team played its entire home schedule in Clemson. The arrangement ended with the opening of Ericsson Stadium, now Bank of America Stadium, at the start of the 1996 season.
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