Gridiron Rivalry Celebrates Textile Industry
By Chad Austin, News Services
The South loves college football and its college football rivalries. Sometimes those games take on a life of their own, which is often reflected by the catchy monikers associated with the games.
Alabama and Auburn have the "Iron Bowl." Ole Miss and Mississippi State have the "Egg Bowl." For Georgia and Georgia Tech, it's just "Clean, Old Fashioned Hate." Whenever NC State and Clemson tangle on the gridiron, it's aptly dubbed the "Textile Bowl."
Although the series between the Wolfpack and the Tigers dates back to 1906, the game became known as the "Textile Bowl" in 1981 as a way to celebrate both institutions' contributions to the textile industry. And while the industry has undergone significant changes in recent years, there's still plenty to celebrate with the 27th installment of the "Textile Bowl" slated for this Saturday at noon in Carter-Finley Stadium.
"The game was solely a means to publicize textiles education at these two schools," says Lennie Barton, a 1977 NC State textiles graduate who currently serves as executive director of the NC State Alumni Association. "NC State is the only textiles school in North Carolina, and Clemson is the only textiles school in South Carolina. There is nowhere else like that in the country."
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| In 1991, the College of Textiles moved into its current home: a state-of-the-art complex on Centennial Campus. Photo: Roger Winstead. |
With NC State and Clemson boasting two leading textile education programs, the schools' proximity in neighboring states and their affiliation with the Atlantic Coast Conference, officials worked on a grassroots level to promote the game in the news media as the "Textile Bowl." Shortly thereafter, textile manufacturing associations in North and South Carolina rallied behind the annual contest and used the game as a way to promote the textile industry, its companies and its products. Those organizations established scholarships that were presented to textiles students at halftime.
For many years, the week leading up to the NC State-Clemson game was also known as "Textile Week" in North and South Carolina, with industry and the colleges holding a series of events to celebrate the textiles industry. This year, in an attempt to revive the atmosphere surrounding the game, NC State's College of Textiles is sponsoring several events this week, including a clothing drive for earthquake victims in Peru, picnics for current students and interactive games with a textiles theme.
On Friday, administrators and students at NC State will welcome a delegation of about 20 fiber and polymer students from Clemson, who will tour the College of Textiles, attend the college's annual textiles tailgate before the game and watch the game at Carter-Finley Stadium. The student exchange is an annual event in which the institution holding the game hosts students from the visiting school for the weekend.
For Kent Hester, director of student and career services at the NC State College of Textiles, a "Textile Bowl" trip he took to Clemson as a freshman in 1985 solidified his desire to start his career with the college as a student recruiter. Now he's gone from attending "Textile Bowl" trips as a student to chaperoning students on current trips.
"We've turned the game into a learning experience," Hester says.
And while the dynamics of the textile industry have changed since the game was dubbed the "Textile Bowl," Hester says there's still reason to use the game as a way to promote the textile industry and textile education.
"There are many companies who might not consider themselves a traditional textile company, but their products are still part of the textile supply chain," Hester says. "Because of the changes in the industry, we've had to do a lot of things differently but we've never stopped celebrating the game."
Front page photo: The NC State and Clemson football teams square off in a game from the 1980s. Photo: 1990 Agromeck, Vol. 88.