This is a reminder to all of us that institutions of higher learning are more than athletics.
Read to the Class of 1953
Golden Tiger 50th Anniversary Banquet
June 13, 2003
The sharp spire of Tillman Hall cut through the clouds and his stomach. This was home? Pictures of his mellow Chester, South Carolina home drifted into his consciousness. An image of winding streets encircling the town’s war monument eased his trembling. In his mind’s eye, he skidded along the streets delivering newspapers from his new red bicycle. He passed the Dixie Home Store, a reminder of his tenure as a butcher. Springs Mills covered the sleepy southern town with its security blanket of jobs. Today, September 7, 1949 that blanket seemed further than 110 miles away. William Washington Coogler, Jr. was about to become Cadet Bill Coogler. He would begin college life as a freshman “Rat”, a “servant-in-waiting” for the upper classman he was assigned to.
Anxiety swarmed like fire ants in his stomach. His parents and his aunt were about to fling him from Chester’s nest. Was he ready? He had chosen Clemson Agricultural and Mechanical over Duke (Show Me the Money) University. The pastures were too green in Durham, North Carolina. He and Art, his “year younger” brother were being separated by the meat cleaver of life. Stepping into Third Barracks was sterile and sobering. The aroma of his mother’s meals was only a memory here. There was no chatter with Art, that would come later when they decided to be roommates. Soon, his inspection instructions would be swirling through his head. Later, after injuring his hand breaking down a rifle, his commander gave him some advice. “Relax, Coogler, I put my pants on the same way you do.”
Chester High School, friendly faces, teachers who cared, dropping by to visit his parents at work—he was leaving that life. Route 9 from Chester to Spartanburg, Highway 93 from Spartanburg to Clemson–bridges that took a small town boy from Chester, not just to Clemson, but to the farthest reaches of his potential as a man.
A Tiger Pause
We were the long gray line of ‘49
When first we reached CU,
Reunions have come,
Reunions have gone,
Our Orange Brotherhood
to renew,
Golden Tigers we will always be,
Sharing memories,
the Class of ’53,
Shiny rifles, medals, and boots,
To cadet years we offer
Our fondest salutes.
-Ann L. Coogler
IN MEMORY OF:
CADET WILLIAM WASHINGTON COOGLER, JR.
AND CADET ARTHUR LAMAR COOGLER
Cadet Bill Coogler (left) Cadet Art Coogler (right)