Clemson Football: Throwback Thursday – Jerry Butler

Throwback Thursday looks back on great Tigers from the past. Today we look at Clemson Football star Jerry Butler.

Jerry Butler – Wide Receiver, 1975-78

• Ring Of Honor Inductee
• First team All-American by Associated Press & Sporting News in 1978
• 135 receptions
• 2,159 receiving yards (12th best in school history)
• 11 touchdowns

Butler came to the Tigers from Ware Shoals High School, about 45 miles to the southeast of Clemson. He committed to play for head coach Red Parker.

When Steve Fuller started slinging the ball for the Tigers, his primary target was Butler. His Clemson career started slow with just one game as a freshman, but was a regular in the Tigers’ receiver rotation as a sophomore, catching 33 passes and four touchdowns. Clemson struggled on the field and Parker was dismissed at the end of the season.

Charley Pell took over for the 1977 season, and the Tigers rebounded immediately. Butler became Fuller’s main target. By the end of Butler’s college career, he was a first-team All-American receiver. The most famous moment of his college career came on November 19, 1977, at Williams-Brice Stadium. With the Tigers trailing the Gamecocks, Butler was on the receiving end of a Fuller pass that became known as “The Catch”.

Jerry Butler was part of one of the most famous moments in Clemson Football history

That touchdown gave Clemson the 31-27 victory over South Carolina. Pell infamously bolted Clemson to become the head coach at Florida before the bowl game in Butler’s senior season. Danny Ford took over as head coach for Butler’s last college start – the 1978 Gator Bowl against the Ohio State Buckeyes. That game was infamous in its own right as it was Buckeye coach Woody Hayes’s final game.

Butler was a 1st round pick to the Buffalo Bills in the 1979 NFL Draft, where he had a productive career that was ultimately derailed by injuries.

Butler was named to the Clemson Hall of Fame in 1986 and to the Ring of Honor in 1999. In 2019, he was honored with the Brian Dawkins Lifetime Achievement Award for leadership on the field and in his community.