One of the common denominators on the coaching staffs of the Tigers’ three national championship teams has been the influence of Clemson graduates. Each of the 1981, 2016 and 2018 staffs have had at least three former Clemson graduates.
Note: The following appears in the Boston College football gameday program. Editor’s Note - This is the 40th anniversary of Clemson’s first national championship season in 1981. For each program in 2021, Tim Bourret takes us back to that season with features on players or games from the landmark year. It was the week of the Tulane contest, the second game of the 1981 season, and Ray Brown was waiting to get on an elevator in Mauldin Hall, the dorm that housed all the Tiger football players. When the elevator door opened, there were only four people inside, but it was full. At the very front of the group was 310-pound freshman middle guard William Perry, who seemed to take up half of the elevator by himself. At 6’4” and 245 pounds, Brown could see there was no room for him. But as he looked at Perry in the elevator, Brown said, “William, you are as big as a refrigerator.I am going to start calling you ‘GE’.” GE to this day stands for the worldwide corporation General Ele