Because "The Rock" came from Death Valley.
In the 1940s PC coach Lonnie McMillan used to say that he's taking his boys to play Clemson in Death Valley because they always get killed. It literally has nothing to do with Howard's Rock because it didn't come along until September 24th 1966.
The rock came from death valley, calf.
In the early 1900s Presbyterian college used to play Clemson and would get beat bad. The coach for Presbyterian used to say he was taking his team to Death Valley. But the name didn't stick till clemson coach Frank Howard started using the name in the 50 and 60s
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