For those of us old enough to remember, there was a time when the Clemson and Virginia football series was as one sided as any series possibly could be. The two teams met for the first time in 1955, a game Clemson would win 20-7. What followed turned out to be utter domination.
Clemson won the first 29 games in the series, setting a record for the most consecutive wins to start a series in college football history. The 29 game winning streak is also tied for the sixth longest winning streak for one team over another in NCAA history.
It was a run that lasted through all or parts of eight US Presidential Administrations. Five different university presidents came and went through Charlottesville, and Virginia went through nine different head football coaches over the time period. It is referred to as “The Streak.”
Frank Howard, who was Clemson’s head coach from 1940-69, went 11-0 against the Cavaliers. After a come from behind win over UVA in 1958, Howard infamously referred to Virginia as “white meat,” a reference to them being “easy pickings” for his Tigers.
It wasn’t until 1990 that Virginia was finally able to knock off the Clemson football team. The Wahoo’s were coming off of an ACC conference title and ranked #15 in the preseason polls. They had Shawn Moore at QB and Herman Moore at WR. They had Terry Kirby at RB and Chris Slade at LB.
It was a very good UVA team and even the fans could sense the end was coming. Scott Stadium was close to 5000 people over capacity that day. When the gun sounded as time expired, UVA fans rushed the field to celebrate the long awaited victory. The goal posts were actually torn down before the game had officially ended. All good things come to an end, and the “The Streak” was no different.
**You can see the condensed version of that game at the link below.
Clemson vs Virginia 1990 (Condensed)
