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Clemson v. South Carolina: Call it “Big Saturday” or Don’t Call It Anything At All

Reclaiming the proper name of the gridiron grudge match between the Gamecocks and Tigers

NCAA Football: Clemson at South Carolina Joshua S. Kelly-USA TODAY Sports

It’s that time of year.

For college football fans in the Palmetto State, it’s that time of year to start thinking about the Clemson-Carolina game.

And for my friends on SB Nation, it’s time to have to listen to another of my rants to re-brand the annual South Carolina-Clemson rivalry game as “Big Saturday”.

[If any players are reading, this isn’t for you - y’all better be thinking about nothing but UNC-A Western Carolina [Ed: derp]- or else].

An Old School Game deserves an Old School Name.

If you want the full history, I wrote it about it first back in 2013 - Carolina-Clemson: Let's Call it "Big Saturday" in honor of old "Big Thursday".

When I teased it, I said “It's the longest, unbroken football rivalry in the South - played every year without fail since 1909 (with the first meeting in 1896) - and it is long past due that it got its old name back.

But why, you may ask?

This is what I wrote back then:

The iconic image of CU Coach Frank Howard blowing a kiss goodbye to the final Big Thursday game in 1959 is one of the most famous in South Carolina sports photo-journalism.

It was none other than the late Furman Bisher - the legendary sports columnist at the Atlanta Constitution-Journal who wrote:

Furman Bisher (1918-2012)

Do we really need more history than that? Call it what it should be called!

I’m sick of hearing about “The Civil War” (Oregon v. Oregon State) and “Clean Old Fashioned Hate” (UGA-Ga. Tech) while we’re stuck with the ‘Palmetto Bowl.’

Yawn.

It may no longer be held on Thursday at the State Fair. But it’s still “Big”. It might be the only thing Clemson and Carolina can agree on. Let’s call it what it is.

Big Saturday.

Who’s with me?

Here endeth (the annual) rant.

Old School