By Will Vandervort.

The first time I understood what Howard’s Rock means to Clemson I was probably about 14 years old.

I had heard the story about Howard’s Rock, how it had mystical powers and how Frank Howard told his players to keep “their filthy hands of his rock” if they were not willing to give 110 percent every time the Tigers ran down the Hill and on to the field that now bears his name.

I really started watching Clemson football when I was nine years old – the year the Tigers won the national championship. At that time, I came obsessed with anything orange. I wanted to watch the Tigers every time they came on television—which in those days was not often—and I listened to Jim Phillips call the games on the radio.

When I was 10 years old, I moved from Greenville to Bamberg – some three and a half hours away from Clemson. Though my stepfather was a Clemson College graduate, it was hard to get back to Tigertown so my passion for Clemson football mostly came to life through Phillips’ powerful voice.

I had read books on Clemson football and even wrote a kids book when I was 12 years old. And yes I still have it. I like to look at it from time-to-time as a reminder that this is when my career as a sportswriter first began.

But, like I said, I really did not get an understanding of what Howard’s Rock really meant to Clemson until the 1986 North Carolina at Clemson game. Like I said, I was obsessed with anything Clemson and I read the story on Howard’s Rock countless times, but there was something about the way Brent Musburger, who calling the game for CBS at the time, described Howard’s Rock and the passion he displayed in doing it. At that point, I got it. I understood exactly why it was an iconic symbol in college football and why it was a part of the “Most Exciting Twenty-Five Seconds in College Football.”

Howard’s Rock represents all that is Clemson. It’s not just a piece of flint that was placed on top of a pedestal. S.C. Jones, who brought the iconic rock from Death Valley, California and presented it to Howard, was just like you and I. He was a Clemson man. He loved Clemson. He loved everything about it. When he gave Howard his rock sometime in the 1960s, Clemson football was not that big. No one outside the state of South Carolina knew anything about Clemson really.

But Clemson was a special place to him. Why? Probably for the same reasons it was special to my stepfather and all the former cadets that were apart of Clemson’s rich military history.

That’s what Howard’s Rock means to me. It’s not about Clemson football. It’s about Clemson and how much one former cadet loved it so much he wanted to show his appreciation to Howard for all he did in making the Clemson Family proud.

Since 1992, three vandals have tried to take this away from the Clemson Family. In June of 2013 Micah Rogers, a self-proclaimed Clemson fan, chipped a large portion of the Rock away in hopes of taking it off its pedestal atop the Hill above the east end zone.

Then on Wednesday morning another vandal attempted to take the Rock by smashing the casing that now protects it because of Rogers’ failed attempt.

There’s talk and others have written ideas that maybe can protect Howard’s Rock from future attempts. They are all good ones and ones that I definitely appreciate. But if we truly want to protect the Rock from future attacks, then let’s not worry about how the security should be around it and all of those things. Trust me, Clemson is doing its job to protect it and let’s face it the new security they placed on the Rock after the 2013 attack did work.

As fans, alumni and the media, let’s instead turn our attention to educating others why Howard’s Rock is so special to Clemson. Obviously, Rogers’ family did an awful job of explaining why Howard’s Rock is special to Clemson and the young man that tried to take the Rock on Wednesday was obviously unaware of it too.

See Howard’s Rock just isn’t about college football or Clemson football and what happens on Saturday afternoons in the fall. No, it’s about us. It’s about our love for Clemson and all the memories we have shared with our grandfather, our dad, our brothers, our classmates and our friends.

It’s about Clemson, and nothing more.