Tiger Fans can be Proud to Participate in Military Appreciation Day “Purple Out”
The “Purple Out” initiative began as a brainchild of the student body several years ago, but took a while to gain momentum. That momentum hit a tipping point when the athletic department realized the drive the students had to make it a reality, and about a year and a half ago, threw its support behind the initiative.
In August 2012, it was decided that the “Purple Out” would happen, but the Clemson student government and athletic department decided to wait until this football season to do it to make certain it was done the right way, according to Student Senate Athletic Chairman Hunter Bagnal, who serves as a liaison between the two.
To get the ball rolling, a student competition was held to find an official “Purple Out” logo for the shirts, a process that was considerably more complicated than it sounds.
“The tricky thing about Clemson is we have a lot of symbols here – the academic Tiger face, the Clemson Paw, certain fonts we can use – so it’s really tricky trying to make sure you’re not stepping on any toes with this,” Bagnal said. “We got about 35 designs and ended up meeting and put them all on the wall, and William Craig’s just jumped out at us instantly. We had to talk to the Department of Defense as far as making sure the Purple Heart was good to go, and his design just lined up so well that we knew he’d won.”
Clemson sure looked sharp back in the eighties. Go back to full orange and white. That purple sucks.