Gene Moorhead displays the ticket he used to get into the 1959 Clemson vs. South Carolina football game, an event known then as “Big Thursday.” A close-up view of the ticket appears at right. There was a sense of finality at Williams-Brice Stadium that brisk October day in 1959, a day known by both Clemson and South Carolina alums as one in which a tradition died.

For more than five decades, the rival institutions met in Columbia to settle their annual battle for bragging rights in the Palmetto State. The event came to be known as “Big Thursday.”

When Clemson began its football program in 1896, head coach Walter Riggs scheduled then South Carolina College to a Thursday morning game held in conjunction with the South Carolina State Fair, thus starting a tradition renewed 57 of the next 61 years.

An event anticipated by residents statewide, the meeting between the rivals warranted a day off for students at state-supported schools like South Carolina, Clemson, Winthrop and others.

However, as the clock ticked to zero, finishing off the Tigers’ 27-0 victory over the hated Gamecocks on that Thursday in 1959, everyone in the stands, including current Upstate Piedmont Chamber of Commerce Director Gene Moorhead, who at the time was a student at Clemson, knew it would be the last time the schools would settle their differences in the shadow of the state fair.

“Clemson head coach Frank Howard did not believe it was fair for the game to be held every year in Columbia, in the University of South Carolina’s backyard,” Moorhead said. “So when that happened, everyone pretty much knew that it was the last time.”

Clemson got the most of the rival Gamecocks on “Big Thursday,” holding a 33-21-3 advantage.

Celebrations were held last week across the state marking the 50th anniversary of the final “Big Thursday” contest.

Moorhead was reminded of the sights and sounds at the game after stumbling across his ticket looking through souvenirs he’s kept over the years. Though loving his team getting the best of rival South Carolina, he said the game sticks out in his mind more for another incident.

“A local boy, Johnny Moss, jumped out of the stands at halftime and rung a rooster’s neck,” Moorhead said. “The stands poured out because of that. But for us Clemson folks, that kind of symbolized what was happening on the field.”

Each school now plays host to their hated rival every other year, usually taking place the Saturday after Thanksgiving. While tradition dies hard, Moorhead believes the rivalry continues to take on a life of its own.

“Everyone would welcome some of the old traditions, but many new ones have been adopted and the rivalry remains strong,” he said.