“I would like to see a sports game like basketball or so” was my answer to the question of my Clemson host. He had made a nice program for us, but on Saturday evening January 23rd , there was a blank spot. Thus the question came what to do on Saturday evening?
When I mailed this answer I did not know that THE big basketball event was due on this Saturday evening when the Clemson Tigers had to play against Duke. I soon got the feeling that something special was going to happen: all week lots of students and staff spoke about the match and the local TV station was all day on campus to give an impression about the atmosphere. Despite this, I still thought that the game would be played in a sort of “Daalhof” sports hall, with only a couple of people attending the game. Nothing seems to be less true: in the evening when we entered the sports hall there was a huge mass of people packed in this hall: about 18.000 people for a game in college basketball! In the hall there was an unbelievable nice atmosphere including a brass band, cheerleaders (the Clemson cats) and lots of entertainment. Having lived in Australia, I am used to sports-minded people and this audience could easily match an Aussie audience during a swim trial. And of course, as everywhere outside Europe, supporters of the different sporting clubs just can sit next to each other. No aggression or whatsoever, watching a sports game is fun! On the other hand, sport is serious business at US universities: the best paid employee of Clemson is the football coach and, on some distance, the basketball coach is second. Then a big distance and the topdogs among the academics show up in the salary ranking. Another interesting thing that I noted was that all sorts of students shouted and cheered. My host told me that foreign students, visiting students and exchange students are among the most fanatic supporters of the sports teams at Clemson and that this helps to mix and mingle for the students. Yes, sport reconciles mates!