CLEMSON — It all started in an empty parking lot in Florence, South Carolina on October 16, 1931.

After falling to The Citadel at old Florence Memorial Stadium, Clemson head coach Jess Neely, in his first year, Captain Frank Jervey and a couple of others met in a car outside the stadium to discuss ways Clemson could help its football program get back on track.

The meeting got the ball rolling towards the establishment of the IPTAY Foundation, which formally began on August 20, 1934. IPTAY, which stood for “I Pay Ten A Year” was the nation’s first scholarship fundraising organization.

Almost 100 years later, IPTAY is still out in front when it comes to helping Clemson Athletics compete at the highest level. But it does not just pay scholarships anymore.

With new NIL legislation in place, plus with the House Settlement now in activation mode, IPTAY is once again the main financial arm that is going to help the Tigers compete in this new revenue-sharing-NIL world of college athletics.

“We are going to try and meet you and be really transparent and communitive because in the last four years we have been in this NIL collective era,” Clemson athletic director Graham Neff said recently on the Mickey Plyler Show on The Roar 105.5 FM. “IPTAY and Clemson have worked a lot with our 110 Society, which is our collective. We have been encouraging dollars there, but we are going to transition the 110 Society to sun set or digest into Clemson and IPTAY.”

How can fans support Clemson Athletics? How can fans give to NIL?

“Now it is really going to be going back to IPTAY,” Neff said. “Our scholarship dollars are increasing significantly. We’re going to be really communitive with our commercial NIL.”

In other words, if someone wants to give to NIL, they can do it through IPTAY. If a small or medium size business owner wants to help with NIL at Clemson, they can now go through IPTAY.

Like it did nearly 94 years ago in that small parking lot outside Florence Memorial Stadium, IPTAY is ushering Clemson Athletics into the future, so the Tigers can continue to compete at the highest level.