re: Who was first? Clemson/LSU?

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Clemson has always been Death Valley due to the famous rock they have that is from Death Valley, California.

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Define "always"...

Per Wiki:

Frank Howard Field at Memorial Stadium, popularly known as Death Valley, is home to the Clemson University Tigers, a NCAA Division I-A football team located in Clemson, South Carolina. Currently, the stadium is the second largest in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Built in 1941-1942, the stadium has been expanded throughout the years, with the most recent expansion, the WestZone, begun in 2004.

Death Valley

The term "Death Valley" comes from the fact that the field is physically situated in a valley. But two additional facts also add to the mystique. First, the university cemetery sits on a hill that once overlooked the field before the upper decks were constructed. The other reference comes from the late Lonnie McMillian, the former football coach at Presbyterian College. He told sports writers in 1948 that he had "to take his team up to Clemson and play in death valley" where they rarely scored or gained a victory. The nickname stuck to an extent, but when Clemson Head Coach Frank Howard started calling it that in the 1950s, the nickname really caught on.

"Howard's Rock"

In the early 1960s, the rock was given to then head coach Frank Howard by a friend, Samuel Columbus Jones, (Clemson Class of 1919). It was presented to Howard by Jones, saying "Here's you a rock coming from Death Valley, California, to Death Valley, South Carolina." Howard didn't think anything else about the rock and it was used as a door stop in his office for several years. In September 1966, while cleaning out his office, Howard noticed the rock and told IPTAY executive director Gene Willimon, "Take this rock and throw it over the fence or out in the ditch...do something with it, but get it out of my office." Willimon had the rock placed on a pedestal at the top of the east endzone hill that the team ran down to enter the field for games. On September 24, 1966, the first time Clemson players ran by the rock, they beat conference rival Virginia, 40-35. Howard, seizing on the motivational potential of "The Rock", told his players, "Give me 110% or keep your filthy hands off of my rock." The team started rubbing the Rock for the first game of 1967, which was a 23-6 waxing of ACC foe Wake Forest.