When Jess Neely left Clemson for Rice in 1940, he left the job to Frank Howard, who accompanied him to Clemson from Alabama in 1931. Neely thought a lot of Howard, and he wanted to see him succeed as a head coach. Neely gave Howard one piece of advice before heading to Houston.
“Don’t ever let them talk you into building a big stadium,” Neely said to Howard. “Put about 10,000 seats behind the YMCA. That’s all you’ll ever need.”
As we all know, Howard did not listen to Neely’s advice. Soon after Neely left, Howard began drawing up plans for a 20,000-seat stadium located in a natural Valley a little west of Historic Riggs Field, now the soccer stadium at Clemson.