CLEMSON — Saturday’s Georgia Southern game has been designated as Hall of Fame Day at Clemson, as 11 former Clemson student-athletes and administrators will be inducted into the Clemson Athletic Hall of Fame over the weekend.

The game has also been designated as Football Reunion Day. Multiple Clemson teams celebrating anniversaries are being honored this weekend, including the 2016 National Championship Team, who is having its 10-anniversary.

Other teams to be honored are the 50-year (1976), 25-year (2001), and five-year (2021) reunion teams.

This year’s Hall of Fame class features two former Clemson Football players, career highlights for whom are included below:

DALTON FREEMAN, Center, 2009-12

• Was an All-American (First Team, AFCA, 2012) and All-American (Second Team, AP; Walter Camp, 2012) as the anchor of Clemson’s offensive line.
• Named as a finalist in both 2011 and 2012 for the Rimington Award, which recognizes the nation’s top center.
• Was a two-time All-ACC selection in 2011 and 2012 and was a four-time ACC Academic Honor Roll selection.
• Part of a select group of Clemson players to earn both All-America and Academic All-America honors in the same season.
• Team co-captain who was Clemson’s Leadership Award winner for 2012.
• Played 16 NFL games with the New York Jets.

GRADY JARRETT, Defensive Tackle, 2011-14

• Defensive leader who was a third-team All-American and first-team All-ACC selection in 2014.
• Key contributor to a Clemson defense that led the nation in 13 statistical categories in 2014, including total defense.
• Finished his collegiate career with 207 tackles and 29.5 tackles for loss across 48 games.
• Selected by the Atlanta Falcons in the fifth round of the 2015 NFL Draft and has earned one All-Pro honor and two Pro Bowl selections over his active 12-year NFL career.
• Recorded three sacks in Super Bowl LI, tied for the most in a single Super Bowl since the NFL adopted sacks as an official statistic in 1982.

Here are the accomplishments of the teams being honored:

1976 (50-Year Anniversary)

Two of the 1976 squad’s three victories were over coaches in the College Football Hall of Fame (Bobby Ross and Bobby Bowden), and a third (Jim Carlen) is on the ballot for induction in the future.

Red Parker’s final team was just 3-6-2, but seven of the 11 games were decided by four points or less. The season included some heartbreaking losses or ties.

The Tigers lost at Tennessee by a score of 21-19 and tied Duke, 18-18, on Homecoming, when the Blue Devils’ Vince Fusco kicked a 56-yard field goal that hit the crossbar and bounced over on the last play of the game.

The other tie was 24-24 against Georgia Tech, a game when the young Clemson offense showed what it would be in the future. The Tigers gained 248 rushing yards and 234 passing yards.

Sophomore Jerry Butler had five receptions for a career-high 165 yards to lead the aerial attack.

The season closed with a 28-9 victory over rival South Carolina in Death Valley. The squad included nine players who would be inducted into the Clemson Athletic Hall of Fame, but all nine were freshmen or sophomores in 1976: Butler, Steve Fuller, Joe Bostic, Lester Brown, Steve Kenney, Dwight Clark, Bubba Brown, Randy Scott and Jim Stuckey.

2001 (25-Year Anniversary)

Woodrow Dantzler became the first player in FBS history to total 2,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards in one season in 2001, an era in which teams played just 11 regular-season games and bowl game statistics did not count.

The 2001 team won four of its first five games, including a 47-44 overtime victory at No. 9 Georgia Tech. Dantzler totaled 254 passing yards and 164 rushing yards for 418 of Clemson’s 502 yards of total offense in the win.

Two weeks later, he recorded a then record 517 yards of total offense (333 passing yards, 184 rushing yards) against NC State and was just 16 rushing yards away from becoming the second player in college football history to amass 300 passing yards and 200 rushing yards in one game.

The Tigers came away with a 45-37 victory over the Philip Rivers-led Wolfpack and improved to No. 13 in the AP poll.

The Tigers finished the season by winning their last two games to finish with a 7-5 record. The year finished with a 49-24 victory over Louisiana Tech in the Humanitarian Bowl in Clemson’s only football game in the state of Idaho.

It snowed overnight and Clemson student managers made a Howard’s Rock out of snow for the Tigers to rub as they came on the field for a game that started at 10:30 a.m. local time, the earliest kickoff in program history.

Senior offensive lineman Kyle Young earned first-team Academic All-America honors for the third time in his career, at the time one of just two offensive linemen in college football history to accomplish that feat. He remains one of three ACC football players to be a three-time first-team Academic All-American.

Chad Carson led the defense with 137 tackles and John Leake added 134 tackles.

2016 (10-Year Anniversary)

Clemson’s first national championship team in 35 years won seven games by a touchdown or less, the most in school history.

Dabo Swinney’s team posted a 14-1 record against the nation’s most difficult schedule, including 11 games against FBS schools that finished the season with a winning record and five games against opponents that won 10 or more games.

Six opponents finished the season in the AP Top 25: No. 2 Alabama, No. 6 Ohio State, No. 8 Florida State, No. 16 Virginia Tech, No. 21 Louisville and No. 24 Auburn.

Clemson was never ranked No. 1 in the AP poll that year until it beat Alabama in the national championship game. The Crimson Tide had been ranked No. 1 in every poll prior to the game.

The regular-season meeting between Clemson and No. 3 Louisville was one of the most electric atmospheres in the history of Death Valley, as the game featured Heisman Trophy frontrunners Deshaun Watson and Lamar Jackson.

The game was decided in the final seconds when Marcus Edmond tackled Louisville wide receiver James Quick one yard short of a first down at the three-yard line.

Later in the season, Edmond had a walk-off interception to give the Tigers a 24-17 overtime win against NC State. Clemson defeated No. 2 Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl in dominating fashion, 31-0. It was the first time an Urban Meyer-coached team had been shut out in 194 games and the first time Ohio State had been shut out since 1993.

The win over Alabama was landmark in many ways. The Crimson Tide had won 26 games in a row and 16 games in a row over AP Top 25 teams. The Tigers overcame a 24-14 deficit entering the fourth quarter and won on a touchdown pass from Watson to Hunter Renfrow with one second left.

Alabama head coach Nick Saban had been 97-0 when leading by 10+ points entering the fourth quarter.

Seven Tigers were named to various All-America teams: Ben Boulware, Jordan Leggett, Cordrea Tankersley, Carlos Watkins, Deshaun Watson, Christian Wilkins and Mike Williams.

2021 (Five-Year Anniversary)

Clemson rebounded from a 4-3 start in 2021 to earn Clemson’s 11th consecutive 10-win season. The No. 3 Tigers opened the season against No. 5 Georgia in Charlotte, a defensive battle in which no offensive touchdowns were scored and the two teams combined for just 436 yards of total offense in a 10-3 Georgia win.

The Tigers dropped road conference games to NC State in overtime and to a ranked Pittsburgh team to register a 4-3 record at midseason, but the team responded to win its last six games, including a 48-27 victory over No. 13 Wake Forest.

The regular season ended with a dominating 30-0 win at rival South Carolina. The season concluded with a 20-13 bowl win over Iowa State in Orlando, Fla. Clemson’s defense played a significant role in propelling the Tigers to 10 wins and a top-15 final ranking.

In his final season with the Tigers, Brent Venables led a defensive unit that finished second in the nation in scoring defense (14.8), second in redzone defense, fifth in pass efficiency defense, seventh in rushing defense, eighth in total defense and ninth in sacks per game. The defense was led in tackles by James Skalski (100).

Baylon Spector added 85 tackles and Trenton Simpson had 78. Three defensive players were named to All-America teams, as Mario Goodrich, Myles Murphy and Skalski were all selected.

–courtesy Clemson Athletic Communications