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S“lt makes it it makes a |:'®d §ft ?! to tell people. It’s fun, dsracialkwhen we play each other. I think ip but it’ll be a D®8 tom.” NE COOPER ELLEFSON T-YEAR CHEMISTRY STUDENT, HAVING A TWIN SISTER WHO ATTENDS CLEMSON FILE PHOTO FROM GARNET & BUCK YEARBOOK Cocky shows the Tiger who’s boss in this comic that appeared in the 1990 Garnet & Black yearbook. Clemson beat USC that year with a score of 24-15. BY ALEXIS STRATTON THE GAMECOCK Over the years, USC and Clemson have competed against each other as unrelenting foes, striving to out-pass, out-score and outplay each other in football and other athletic contests. But for some families, the USC-Clemson rivalry is a matter not just of com peting schools, but of competing siblings. “It’s really fun. I really like it,” said second-year USC public rela tions student Brittany Perrotta, laughing about her rivalry with her twin sister, who attends Clemson. “But it is funny. We laugh a lot.” On both campuses, many exam ples of the USC-Clemson rivalry are manifested in families, many of whom will be at the Clemson game Saturday to live it out. “I’m going there this weekend and next weekend,” Perrotta said. “I’ll be sitting in the Clemson sec tion.” Perrotta, like most Carolina fans making the trip to Clemson, will be wearing garnet and black. Kelly Cheung, a first-year ad vertising student from USC who has an older sister at Clemson, will also attend the game. “I’ll wear my Carolina colors and everything,” Cheung said. Cheung said everyone thinks the school rivalry between the sib lings must be bad, “but it’s really not,” she said. “It’s not bad at all.” Anne Cooper Ellefson, a first year chemistry student at USC, also has a twin sister at Clemson, and she agrees that the family con nection adds to the rivalry fun. “It makes it interesting; it makes a good story to tell people,” Ellefson said. “It’s fun, especially when we play each other. I think it’ll be good natured, but it’ll be a lot of fun.” Ellefson’s twin, Rebecca, said having a mother who is a Carolina alumna also adds to the family dy namic. When Rebecca Ellefson de cided to go to Clemson, she said, her mother told her, “Burn all of your orange shirts before you come home.” “My mom cheers for USC if it’s a USC-Clemson game,” said Rebecca Ellefson, a first-year political sci ence student. “My dad’s sort of in the middle, a fair-weather fan.” Ted Ellefson, the twins’ father, agreed. “I’m fairly neutral,” he said. “I want both to be successful, and whoever wins, I think it’s the bet ter team. Now, of course, my wife, going to South Carolina, is a little more animated about it, a little more vocal about who she sup ports, but it’s not a problem to me.” It’s not a problem to most of the siblings, either. “I think it’ll be fun,” said Kelly Cheung’s sister, Jamie, a third year accounting student at Clemson. “I think it’ll just make it that much more exciting.” Anne Cooper Ellefson agrees. “I think* it’ll make the Carolina Clemson game more fun because it’s not just schools against each other; it’s kind of like twins against each other,” she said. Her sister also thinks the sibling _ rivalry will add her enjoyment of ♦ the game. “Well, it’ll be fine for me —she’s the one that’ll be in the stu dent section at the Clemson game,” Rebecca Ellefson said. “It will be pretty funny. If they (Carolina) win, it will be sort of annoying, but it’ll be OK.” But no matter how gracious the two sides are, few say they don’t and won’t tease each other about the game. “We fight about it, but it’s not anything that we take extremely seriously,” Perrotta said. Rebecca Ellefson feels the same way. “It really doesn’t do much to affect our relationship. It’s basical ly the same friendship, but it’s fun to get to taunt each other over it.” - • Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com the F GHT /orTFCKETS LANDING A PASS TO THE GAME IS NOT ALWAYS A SIMPLE TASK BY ALLYSON BIRD THE GAMECOCK As fans gear up for the Carolina-Clemson game, those with tickets have a win already. The annual lottery for student tickets leaves some die-hard fans scrambling for seats, while plac ing some less-enthusiastic students in a potentially profitable position. Ticket scalping “is a violation of South Carolina law,” said Ernie Ellis, USC’s director of Law Enforcement and Safety. Student scalpers are either cited or arrest ed, he said. “We write summons to court or transport them to jail.” Nonetheless, scalping has be come part of the Carolina Clemson tradition. Ticket-scalping laws have been in effect for 80 years. The focal point of legislation is New York state, where entertainment is a big business. According to Ticketsnow.com, it is illegal to sell tickets for more than 10 percent over retail price or to sell them within 1,000 feet of the event. But modern technology allows sellers to avoid such obstacles. That’s caused some people to ques tion the legality of established ticketing services, such as Ticketmaster. The Gotham Gazette in New York City reported 1.1_x ...ill. „ UIUl, Mill! JV/1 vice charges, Ticketmaster can exceed the 10-percent lim it over the ticket’s face value. For the Carolina-Clemson game, tickets are issued through the two schools’ ticket offices. USC uses a lottery system be cause not enough tickets Eure avail able for all students. To sign up for the lottery, students have their IDs scanned during a regular tick et distribution. Tickets for home, games are free — if you get them from the To watch Clemson and Carolina battle It out, some fans try lotteries or online auctions. school — and they are $37 for this year’s battle, to be held at Clemson. Only the student body president is guaranteed a ticket. Clemson doesn’t use the lottery system. “When the game is at Clemson, we do our best to get all the full-time students into the game,” said Bobby Skelton, assis er for Clemson. He said he had 11,000 student tickets for pick-up last week, which included 6,000 seats and o,uw uc«.eis iur uie hill where students sit at Death Valley. He said when the game is held in Columbia, about 1,500 tickets are sold at Clemson first-come, first-served. “We don’t tend to have a prob lem with scalping,” Skelton said. Ellis agreed that scalping ar rests and citations are not a big problem, but they do tend to pick up in anticipation of the game be tween the rivals. “I think scalping of athletic event tickets is relative to de mand,” he said. Gone are the days of posters ad vertising “Tickets available.” Since the 1960s, scalping has re ceived more negative attention and has become a riskier endeav or. Plus, there are easier, less risky ways to make a buck. But the bids are already up on Ebay.com. With reserve prices as high as $187.50 for one ticket and $415 for four, the rules can be bent online. Sellers can advertise the tick ets, but claim to be selling a “re served parking pass” or “a col lectible tiger-paw pin” with com plimentary tickets. In doing so, they can skirt the issue of scalp ing by claiming the small bonus is the actual object up for bid. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockndesk@hotmail.com . 1. , V ' 1 : . \ FILE PHOTO FROM GARNET & BUCK YEARBOOK The Gamecocks and the Tigers face off in the 1991 game, in which Clemson won 41-24. FILE PHOTO FROM GARNET & BUCK YEARBOOK USC fans found a creative way to display their loyalty before the 1987 game, In which Clemson beat USC 20-7. TAILGATING * in tiger town BY HOLLY DUTTON THE GAMECOCK Death Valley, the nickname for Clemson Memorial Stadium, has a capacity of 81,473. But with an estimated 90,000 people ex pected to show up for the game against USC on Saturday, tail gating will be just a pregame ex perience for the 8,500 or so peo ple at Clemson who will head back to televisions in warm rooms or in downtown Clemson to watch the game. Ashley Gaskin, a second-year advertising student at USC, said she plans to tailgate with some of her friends at Clemson, then “we’re going back to their apart ment or house, and we’re going to watch the game there since I don’t have tickets.” Tiger Town Tavern owner Susan Farish expects business to pick up and plans to serve as many people as the tavern will hold. “We expect to be a little over twice as busy as normal” for this game, she said. The Subway restaurant in downtown Clemson is gearing up to make more than 650 sand wiches that day. Because Death Valley is right on campus, tailgating is not spread throughout a city as it is in Columbia. “At Clemson, I normally just stay in one spot up there,” Gaskin said. At USC, “I am run ning around to a million differ ent places. Tailgating is scat tered throughout the campus. You just have to go up there and experience it.” Gaskin said most people tail gate around the stadium but that some also tailgate all along Perimeter Road, Main Street and campus parking lots. “It’s really wherever you can find a parking spot,” she said. “There isn’t one specific area to tailgate.” An estimated 90,000 fans will M be fighting for the 18,000 parking spots reserved for Clemson home football games. “Parking is a pain, so if you can find a spot, stay and tailgate there,” Gaskin said. Besides the parking problem, Gamecock fans can expect plenty of orange and probably some ob noxious fans. “There is a sickening amount of orange up there,” Gaskin said. “It’s really disgusting, and Clemson fans like to play the ‘Tiger Rag’ (Clemson’s fight song) really loudly and a lot. You will probably hear this song at least 100 times before leaving Clemson.” Despite the rivalry, the schools’ student radio stations, WUSC-FM at USC and WSCF-FM at Clemson, have teamed up to £ sponsor a battle of the bands and a huge pep rally Friday night for fans who arrive early. Marty Kern, assistant direc tor of major events at Clemson, said the event is free and open for both Carolina and Clemson fans. The pep rally will begin at 7 p.m. Love Apple and Stretch Armstrong will be among the Columbia bands going against their Clemson competition. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com