By Will Vandervort.

By Will Vandervort

Today we continue our series of articles at theClemsonInisder.com that will take a look back at the best Clemson victories in the Clemson-South Carolina Rivalry. In the days leading up to the State’s Big Game, we will count down, in our opinion, the Tigers 10 best victories over the hated Gamecocks.

No. 8: Clemson 13, South Carolina 7 (October 21, 1948)

He is simply known as the guy who blocked the punt.

Though Phil Prince climbed the corporate later and worked for corporations such as Milliken and Co., and then later as the vice president for American Express, while also serving as Clemson University’s President in the mid-1990s, he is best known for his blocked punt which lifted Clemson to a 13-7 victory over South Carolina.

There is a reason why this is the case. The punt just wasn’t in any ole game or during any ole season. Nope, it came in the South Carolina game, which was then known as Big Thursday, and it turned out to be the biggest play in an undefeated season.

“Yes, I blocked the punt,” Prince said to The (Columbia) State Newspaper in 2003.

With Clemson trailing the Gamecocks 7-6 with a little more than four minutes to play, South Carolina’s Bo Hagan dropped back to punt from his own 24. Prince, who played tackle, changed his rush and broke free.

“The coaches had taught us that,” he said. “Nobody touched me.”

The football ricocheted off of Prince’s forearm. His teammate, Oscar Thompson, scooped up the football at the 11-yardline and rumbled into the end zone for what turned out to be the game-winner. A few minutes later, Bobby Gage intercepted a Hagan pass to seal the victory.

Clemson went onto win its remaining seven games, including a 24-23 victory over Missouri in the 1949 Gator Bowl, to claim its first undefeated season in 48 years at 11-0.

“Honestly, before the season began, I thought maybe we might win six (games), and again I thought maybe we might lose six,” former Clemson head coach Frank Howard said in Bob Bradley’s book, Death Valley Days. “I probably chewed more tobacco that year than ever before. If I had to guess why we had such a good season, I’d say it was because we all pitched in with the material we had, worked hard and played hard.”

Years later, Howard called that 1948 team the greatest one he ever coached.

“Remember,” Prince said. “That 1948 team was Clemson’s greatest, and the main remembrance for me is not the blocked punt, but the greatness of the team. There still is a lot of love for each other.”

But none of it would have been possible if it was not for the guy who blocked that punt against South Carolina.

And so no one forgets, that guy’s name is Phil Prince.