We like to spell at C-L-E-M-S-O-N

For those of you poor souls who have never been fortunate enough to attend and be a part of a Clemson football game (or those of you Gamecocks, who choose the Dark Side,) you ought to know that we Clemson folks have a special talent. We may not have the strongest football team, the #1 national ranking of public universities, the country's most beautiful campus, the school with the best food, the dorms resembling the most like palaces, but we are freaking amazing spellers. I may be so bold as to say that Clemson is THE best school in the entire country for spelling. In fact, I think after I am going to contact US News College Ranking about adding a new category about the school with the best spelling record. That will put Clemson at #1 for sure.

You see, you can not be on the Clemson campus, surrounded by Clemson folks, at Death Valley during a game, or at a drunken party without hearing the spellers in action. The Student Body is made of cold misfit Northerners (like myself) and warm Palmetto-sporting South Carolinians, Chinese Exchange Student and regular ones, Fraternity Boys and Gothic ones, cheerleaders and book worms, 4.0 and academic probation people, and so it's just one of those things that we all have in common. We can all spell, and we are damn good at it.

Whenever our Clemson Tigers need some support, you can always hear a classic, "C-L-E-M-S-O-N!" with the lovely fist pumping into the air and andrenaline ripping through people's hearts. The trick with this particular cheer is to know that the last letter also merits a hand circle in mid-air. It has taken me all of two games to realize that this circle is in a leftward motion. Some drunk guy that reaked of Vodka called me a flipping idiot for having that incorrect. I do not think I will ever mistake it again so long as I live.

Another crucial spell is the quick and easy motivator. That being said, after a field goal, or in between downs, or plays, a nice quick and simple, "C-L-E-M-S-O-N T-I-G-E-R-S!!!" Say this with speed and enthusiasm and with the loudest possible voice your body can muster, and then you'll probably have it.

Usually in the third or fourth quarter, the cheerleaders lead the entire stadium in a rousing rendition of good old-fashioned spelling. The Stadium is broken up into 6 portions, each calling out a letter in our lovely name. Where I stand on the Hill, I have thus called L and O. But I can not imaine being the opponent team when the entire Stadium of 80,300 people are screaming at the tops of their lungs the name of home team. I get chills thinking about it, and I am the one doing it.

The fact of the matter is short and simple, we like to spell Clemson. That's who we are, and who we always be. In the spirirt of my University, I say C-L-E-M-S-O-N!