It’s hard to find anyone who loves Clemson as much as former Tiger great Jeff Bostic.

“I am a Clemson fan,” he said. “If you cut me on one arm, I’m going to bleed orange and the other one I’m going to bleed purple.”

Bostic was in Tampa, Florida last Monday night when he saw his beloved Tigers win the program’s first national championship in 35 years. The former All-ACC center, who played at Clemson from 1977-’79, was sitting on the 35-yard line and about 25 rows up when Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson threw the game-winning touchdown pass to Hunter Renfrow with two seconds to play.

“It felt like I won a Super Bowl,” Bostic said.

Bostic knows a thing or two about winning a Super Bowl. He won three Super Bowls as the starting center for the Washington Redskins from 1980-’93.

“I had so many teammates from the pros call me to congratulate me and one of them was Dave Butts,” Bostic said. “He asked me what does it feel like, and I said, ‘Dave, It feels like we just won a Super Bowl.’”

Jeff Bostic, along with his brother Joe, was a part of those Clemson teams in the late 1970s that turned the football program back around. After winning the 1959 Bluebonnet Bowl, the Clemson program failed to reach a bowl game until Bostic’s sophomore season when they went 8-2-1 and were invited to the 1977 Gator Bowl.

The next season, led by two-time ACC Player of the Year Steve Fuller, they won the ACC for the first time in 10 years and ended the season 11-1 following a dramatic 17-15 victory over Ohio State in the 1978 Gator Bowl. They finished ranked No. 6 in the final Associated Press Poll that year.

“It’s pride. I was a small part of this years ago,” Bostic said. “I think a lot of people kind of think about our era as putting Clemson football back on the map, but these guys put Clemson on top of the map. It is a sense of pride over a 40-year span.

“Clemson gave me a start in college football that led me to a great pro career so I have a lot that I owe to this university. I was All In before Dabo got here.”

Bostic was one of the estimated 70,000 people that came to Death Valley on Saturday to celebrate Clemson’s national championship.

“This is what Clemson Nation is. Clemson Nation shows up,” he said. “We are there when you win. We are there when you lose. We are there to support you. Go look at Alabama. They show back up in Tuscaloosa and there are about fifteen fans for them. That’s disgusting.”

–Photo Credit: Dawson Powers-USA TODAY Sports
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