Returning to Clemson, Philip distinguished himself as a member of Alpha Phi Omega and was Co-captain of the 1948 Football Team which won the 1949 Gator Bowl. Philip made one of the biggest plays in Clemson football history, a blocked punt against South Carolina in 1948.
The Tigers were undefeated at the time when they found themselves trailing South Carolina 7-6 with just four minutes left in the game. With the line of scrimmage at the South Carolina 28, Gamecocks punter and quarterback Bob Hagan felt he just needed a solid punt to put the Tigers in poor field position. One more defensive stand against a Clemson team that had scored just six points to that point would do it. Philip took a different route on his rush, got by his man and blocked Hagan’s punt. The ball caromed to the 11-yard-line where Oscar Thompson picked up the ball and returned it for a touchdown. The Tigers went on to an 11-0 record in 1948, the school’s first undefeated season since 1900, and a number-11 final ranking in the AP poll, the highest in school history at the time. Clemson, Michigan and Notre Dame were the only college football teams with perfect records that year and most historians, former players and coaches, remember Philip’s blocked punt as the key play of that season.
Philip was Vice President of the 1949 Clemson Senior Class. Upon graduation, he signed with the New York Giants football team, playing in about five games, while attending graduate school, but a shoulder separation saw him finish out the season with the New Jersey Giants farm team, and although he was asked back the following year, he opted to focus on school and getting married. He attended Columbia University and Kings College prior to additional service in the Army in 1950-1951. Philip worked his way up to becoming vice president of the Milliken Company, where he worked until 1967. In 1978 he became Senior Vice President of American Express Company and then with Synco Property, Inc. until his retirement in 1985.
Philip also had a distinguished record of service as a Clemson alumnus, becoming President of the Board of the Clemson Foundation in 1989. With the resignation of Clemson President Max Lennon in 1994 Philip served Acting President for eleven months.
The Philip H. Prince Alumni Presidential Scholarship is a Scholarship sponsored by Clemson University. The Prince Award for Innovation in Teaching is an annual award named for Clemson President Emeritus Philip Prince and recognizes outstanding teachers who demonstrate creative and novel teaching methods in the classroom. Philip married Celeste Orr in 1950. She died Saturday, December 20, 2008 at the age of 80. They had two sons, Kevin and James.
Prince served in that position for 11 months and didn’t just “hold the fort” for someone else. Prince was given the task of reconstructing the administrative and academic divisions within the university, as he was faced with the challenges of continuous state funding cuts. He accomplished this by grouping the nine existing colleges into four and by combining administrative units. His successor later split one of the larger colleges into two, leaving the university with five colleges after restructuring. At the end of his 11 months, the term “acting” was removed and historically he is considered a full-time president. Philip was again recognized by the University with an honorary Doctorate of Humanities from Clemson in May of 1995.
Each year five faculty members are presented with the Phil Prince Award for Innovation in Teaching at the Victor Hurt Convocation that begins the academic year. In 2015, Philip received the Bond Clemson Distinguished Athletes Award at the Boston College game. It is an award presented each year to a former Clemson athlete who has distinguished themselves after graduation. Philip made one final significant contribution to the Clemson football program in the mid 2000s when he served as chairman of the fund-raising campaign for the West Endzone project. With his name connected to the project, it received instant credibility. The success of the Clemson program the last decade can be traced to the building of that facility at Memorial Stadium.
No comments:
Post a Comment