Editor’s note: Last summer The Clemson Insider ran a series of stories that chronicled Clemson’s 11-year battle with rival Georgia from 1977-’87. The series was so popular we decided to run it again this summer in preparation for the Tigers’ visit to Athens — it’s first trip to Sanford Stadium since 2002. From 1977-’87 no rivalry in the country was more intense or competitive than the Clemson-Georgia Series. In those 11 years, the two teams battled to a 5-5-1 record, which started with a one-point Clemson victory in 1977 in Athens and ended with a one-point Clemson victory in 1987 in Clemson. The average margin of victory in the series during that 11-year stretch was 4.7 points per game. Nine of the 11 games were decided by a touchdown or less.

Charlie Pell just sat on the floor in the Clemson locker room and cried. Here he was, a 36-year old man at the time, laid out on the floor crying over a football game.

But Clemson’s 7-6 victory over Georgia at the time was not just any football game. Pell, his team, and anyone wearing the orange and white that day at Sanford Stadium in Athens, GA understood what that victory meant.

The Tigers were coming off a 21-14 loss to No. 10 Maryland the week before, a game man-for-man every player and coach on the team felt they should have won. The loss started creeping self-doubt back into the players’ heads, something Pell and his assistant coaches worked tirelessly on in the preseason to remove.

In 1975 and 1976, Clemson only won five games combined and were winless in the ACC (0-4-1) in 1976. It’s still the only year since the conference began in 1953 that a Clemson team failed to win an ACC game.

“We have come a million miles since last February,” Pell said after the Georgia win.

The Tigers came from a million miles away against Georgia, too. In 1976, the Bulldogs embarrassed Clemson, 41-0, in Death Valley as Ray Goff and company ran up and down the field.

“They had beaten us like a drum,” said Clemson linebacker Randy Scott in the 2003 Game Day program.

If the program at Clemson was to turn around, the Tigers knew they had to go to Georgia and do something special. The Bulldogs were the defending SEC Champions and were one of the standards for success in that era.

They were where Clemson wanted to be at and the only way to get there was to not just compete against them, but beat them.

“That game gave us the realization that we belonged,” Scott said.

Playing in the rain for much of the afternoon, the Tigers and Bulldogs battled in what can be classified as a defensive struggle. If it was not for the importance of the victory and what it meant for the Clemson program, the 1977 game could be very forgettable.

Clemson managed only 236 yards of offense as quarterback Steve Fuller completed just four passes and fumbled twice, losing one of them. The Bulldogs weren’t much better. Georgia had only 280 total yards and turned the football over four times – two interceptions and two fumbles.

The Tigers finally broke finally broke a scoreless game in the third quarter following a Georgia muffed punt which Clemson recovered on the Bulldogs’ 49-yard line. After two runs by Tracy Perry picked up a Clemson first down, Fuller found wide receiver Jerry Butler for 15 yards and a first down at the 23-yard line.

On third-and-10 a few plays later, Fuller went over the middle to Dwight Clark for 17 yards and the Tigers had a first-and-goal at the Georgia six. Two plays later, following a Georgia penalty, Lester Brown went over from two yards out to give Clemson a 7-0 lead with 6:24 to play in the quarter.

The Tigers were successful on third down three times on that scoring drive. They converted on only four third downs the rest of the game.

Georgia finally got things going on its next possession and moved the ball to the Clemson 19. On third-and-eight, quarterback Jeff Pyburn, who was intercepted twice in the first half, scrambled for seven yards to the 12.

Instead of kicking a field goal, the Bulldogs elected to go for it on fourth down-and-one and Scott and company held Pyburn for no gain on a quarterback keeper.

“It was a great day for our defense,” Pell said.

Georgia had another great opportunity to get points on the board in the fourth quarter when Marvin Sims punt from his own 16 sailed just 26 yards to the 42 and an interference penalty on the Tigers moved the ball to the Clemson 27.

Pyburn then ran off right tackle for 16 yards and the Bulldogs were in business at the Clemson 11. However, the wet conditions came into play and to Clemson’s advantage. After a run gained three yards on first down, Pyburn slipped for one-yard on second down and then slipped again for a five-yard loss when he dropped back to pass on third down.

The Bulldogs then missed a 30-yard field goal attempt and the score remained 7-0 with 6:04 to play.

Starting from its own 20, Clemson went on a 13-play drive that consumed five minutes and 35 seconds from the clock. Facing fourth-and-one from the Georgia 40, it appeared the Tigers had the game won. All they needed to do was pick up one more first down. But Fuller, who had played better in the second half, kept the football like he had done earlier on a third down play in which he picked four yards and a first down, except this time he fumbled the ball and the Bulldogs recovered it at their own 42 with 29 seconds to play.

That’s when Georgia head coach Vince Dooley dug into his bag of tricks. He called for a lateral pass to tight end Ulysses Norris just behind the line of scrimmage, who then threw a perfectly thrown ball to wide receiver Jesse Murray for 50 yards to the Clemson eight.

“I just threw the football and (Murray) made me look like a quarterback,” Norris said.

Then with six seconds to play, Pyburn hit Norris for an eight-yard score to pull Georgia within one point.

The Bulldogs decided to go for the win instead of the tie—there was no overtime in college football in those days—but they took too long to get the play in from the sideline and they were penalized for a delay of game.

But Dooley still wanted to go for the win as he kept Pyburn and the offense out on the field.

“I thought since we had an opportunity to win the game, we would go and try,” Dooley said. “I didn’t feel we deserved to win in the first place so I thought I would stretch our luck to see if we could win it.”

Clemson nearly helped Georgia do just that. The Tigers only had 10 men on the field and Scott could not get a timeout called. But luckily, defensive end Steve Gibbs dropped back into coverage and broke up a pass that was attended to Norris.

“It was a great play by him,” Scott said.

The Tigers recovered the onside kick and Fuller just fell to the ground on the next play to run out the last six seconds as Clemson upset No. 17 Georgia, 7-6, for the program’s first win in Athens since 1914 – a span of 18 games.

“I’ve been in football a pretty good while—in some big ones like the Orange Bowl, the national championship—but I’ve never been around a group of men that worked harder and paid more for the price to get what they’ve got today,” Pell said.

Scott finished the game with 14 tackles to go along with his interception and a forced fumble. He was named ACC Player of the Week for his actions in what was Clemson’s biggest win since beating No. 7 TCU in the 1959 Bluebonnet Bowl.

“That win in Athens gave us the confidence to become a good team,” Scott said.

Basking in the glow of his first victory as a head coach, and what it meant for the program, Pell ordered the bus driver to pull over at a convenience store on the way back to Clemson that afternoon and ran inside and bought every player and coach a cigar.

It became a rite of passage to fire up a victory cigar after each win that season as Clemson went on a seven-game winning streak and then got a dramatic victory over rival South Carolina thanks to “The Catch” to earn an invitation to play in the 1977 Gator Bowl, the program’s first bowl appearance in 18 years at the time.

Now you know why, at 36 years old, Charlie Pell was laid out on the ground crying over a football game after his Tigers did the unthinkable.