The Clemson Insider · Nov 24, 2019
The birth of the Orange Pants
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One of the greatest secrets in Clemson history came in 1980. The funny thing is the secret had nothing to do with a coaching change, an injury or anything of that nature.
Instead, one of the best orchestrated secrets to come out of the Clemson Athletic Department revolved around pants. That is right, pants. In particular, they were the orange pants.
It was in the summer of 1980 when the idea of the Clemson football team wearing orange pants presented itself to then equipment manager Len Gough. That summer, he received several samples of orange plants from several distributors.