The 1952 Clemson Tigers football team was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

team that represented

Clemson College Clemson University () is a public land-grant research university in Clemson, South Carolina. Founded in 1889, Clemson is the second-largest university in the student population in South Carolina. For the fall 2019 semester, the university enro ...

in the

Southern Conference The Southern Conference (SoCon) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I. Southern Conference football teams compete in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly ...

during the

1952 college football season The 1952 college football season ended with the unbeaten Michigan State Spartans (9–0) and Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (12–0) each claiming a national championship from different polls. Michigan State finished first according to two of the "w ...

. In its 13th season under head coach Frank Howard, the team compiled a 2–6–1 record and was outscored by a total of 157 to 112. The team played its home games at Memorial Stadium in

Clemson, South Carolina Clemson () is a city in Pickens and Anderson counties in the U.S. state of South Carolina. Clemson is home to Clemson University; in 2015, ''the Princeton Review'' cited the town of Clemson as ranking #1 in the United States for " town-and-gown" ...

. When Clemson and Maryland defied the Southern Conference's ban on postseason games by participating in bowl games after the 1951 season, the conference placed both schools on probation for one year and imposed a football scheduling boycott against them. Accordingly, Clemson was able to play games against only two conference opponents in 1952:

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

(also on probation) and

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

(the annual "Big Thursday" rivalry game was set by the South Carolina Legislature and was therefore exempted from the boycott). George Rodgers was the captain of the 1952 Clemson team. The team's statistical leaders included tailback Don King with 317 passing yards and fullback Red Whitten with 445 rushing yards. Four players tied for the scoring leadership with 18 points each: Don King, Red Whitten, tailback Billy Hair, and wingback Buck George. Three Clemson players were named to the All-South Carolina football team for 1952: Billy Hair, tackle Earl Wrightenberry, and guard Tom Barton. Clemson did not return to the Southern Conference, opting in June 1953 to leave the conference along with Duke Maryland, North Carolina, NC State, South Carolina, and Wake Forest in forming the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

(ACC).

Schedule

References

{{Clemson Tigers football navbox Clemson Clemson Tigers football seasons

Clemson Tigers football The Clemson Tigers are the American football team at Clemson University. The Tigers compete in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Atlantic Division of the Atlantic C ...