Sixty years ago, the Clemson family grew by one, one who quickly became one of the most recognizable, lovable and iconic members of the family: the Tiger mascot.
\nHe\u2019s been to every football game since his welcome to the Clemson family, done thousands of push-ups, visited hospitals and even danced at weddings. But only the select few actually have had the honor of bringing life to the Tiger.
\nWith around 350 appearances each year, committing to being the \u201cman in the suit\u201d is no small feat. These men must travel frequently and train extensively, spending hours brainstorming and executing creative and entertaining stunts, mastering the mascot\u2019s mannerisms and practicing hundreds of push-ups in preparation for sporting events all while still balancing a full student workload.
\nMichael Bays \u201997, M \u201999, Tiger mascot from 1994 through 1997 and record holder for most push-ups in his career, organized a reunion of former Tigers during Homecoming to share stories and memories of their glory days behind the mask as a celebration of the Tiger\u2019s 60th birthday.
\n\u201cNot only did being the Tiger bring me closer to my school,\u201d said Bays, \u201cbut it also brought me closer to many people and taught me that the most important thing is putting a smile on a person\u2019s face.\u201d
\nAn impressive total of 35 alumni and former Tiger mascots gathered together to tailgate, reunite at Death Valley and honor the birthday of their beloved mascot. Among others, this group included several Tiger legends such as Zach Mills \u201980, inventor of the push-up tradition, push-up record-setters like Bays, and the oldest living Tigers, Billy McCown \u201960 and *Steve \u201cFrog\u201d Morrison \u201963.
\n\u201cI think all of us feel a special connection to Clemson that nobody else can ever understand,\u201d said Bays. \u201cWhen the Tiger is around, it is magic. All I can say is that with 35 Tigers around, the magic is indescribable.\u201d
\nFor more stories of Mascots though the years, go to clemson.edu\/clemsonworld and click on \u201cAlumni Profiles.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Celebrating 60 Years of The Tiger Sixty years ago, the Clemson family grew by one, one who quickly became one of the most recognizable, lovable and iconic members of the family: the Tiger mascot. He\u2019s been to every football game since his welcome to the Clemson family, done thousands of push-ups, visited hospitals and even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":12325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[21],"tags":[172,3006,3298],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-12732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumniprofiles","tag-alumni-profiles","tag-tiger-mascot","tag-winter-2015"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2014\/12\/Profile-TigerMascots.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12732"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=12732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}