It’s a fall Saturday in Clemson. The place is teeming with orange, and the excitement is palpable in the cool air. Hundreds of loyal fans line the lot, waiting. It’s almost time.
Every home game, about two hours before kickoff in the Rogers Family Lot (Lot 5), the Clemson Football team, led by head coach Dabo Swinney, deboards the buses and walks to the team entrance in the West End Zone of Memorial Stadium on a 200-yard path lined with the Clemson faithful. Alumni, students and fans cheer on the team, chanting Cadence Counts and reaching for high-fives from their favorite players as they walk by. This is Tiger Walk.
Tiger Walk began when Swinney was named head coach during the 2008 season. He wanted another way to hype up his players before home games and create more buy-in from the Clemson fan base following major changes in the program. It soon became clear that Tiger Walk added yet another layer to Clemson’s legendary game day experience. It’s been a pregame constant ever since.
“It’s five minutes of intense interaction with the fan base,” Swinney said. “When you walk through Tiger Walk, there is no way you can’t be ready to play.”
In 2023, Clemson unveiled the Brown Family Tiger Walk, a new entrance and brick walkway designed to support this beloved tradition. The names of every team captain in Clemson Football history are embedded in the path. New lighting has also been installed to increase safety for fans as well as ADA improvements and upgrades to landscaping that include more than 100 new trees.
Clemson celebrated the new Tiger Walk before the first home game of the 2023 season with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on September 9, 2023. Swinney did the honors alongside his wife, Kathleen, Jim and Candace Brown, and President Clements.
That day, Tiger Walk ushered the team into the stadium and propelled it to a 66–17 victory against Charleston Southern.
