Photos of the most famous car in the Memorial Stadium parking lot were taped to the windows of a silver SUV at Jeff Herbert’s tailgate party before Clemson’s game with Georgia Tech last week. It was another Saturday of constant rain, which dampened the festivities, but Herbert has partied through plenty of bad weather.
The real disappointment is that his regular vehicle is sitting in a garage, awaiting a new engine after 34 years of trips back and forth between Herbert’s home in Anderson, South Carolina, and myriad destinations around the ACC. The Paw Bearer is a converted 1967 Cadillac hearse, and it’s been a fixture of the Herbert tailgate for as long as most Clemson fans can remember.