For Five Decades, Super Fan Dave Clawson Hardly Missed a Game

When I showed up at the freshman mixer in September 1973, I approached an information table for Gamma Sigma Sigma, a service sorority. A recent graduate I met there took me into the Grand Hall and introduced me to the guy she was dating at the time. That was Dave. We started dating in the spring of ’74 and got married in 1979.

We both ended up spending most of our time in higher ed. I applied for a job at Penn because Dave was working at Drexel at that point, and it would have been nice to be able to commute together in a car and not have to take SEPTA. The economics department offered me a job in early January 1985. I retired from the School of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Office in late 2017. Dave started working at Drexel in the summer of ’75. In spring of ’87 or ’88 he moved down to Jefferson and retired from Jefferson as University Registrar.

But Drexel was home. That was where I found likeminded and interesting people. I mostly grew up in the third floor of MacAlister Hall meeting all kinds of people from different places. Student organizations including Alpha Phi Omega, Gamma Sigma Sigma, Commuter Coalition, and Student Program Board had office space on the south side of that floor. The Triangle and The Lexerd had space on the north side.

I always loved basketball. My mother always swore I was only into basketball because of the short shorts. I might have gone to one or two games my freshman year because I had to either catch a ride or take SEPTA back to Roxborough. I cannot imagine Dave ever stopped going. He was one of the managers for his high school basketball team. He got to go to his reunion a couple of months before he passed, and he was bragging that he was a member of his high school and college athletic halls of fame and he never played a game.

Going to games became a routine thing for us. He just really loved basketball. I think he liked the camaraderie. He definitely went to hundreds of games. Probably over 1,000. The best memories are being there for the Women’s National Invitation Tournament Championship and being there when one of [NBA champion] Malik Rose’s (BS ’96, HD ’09, MS ’11) teams won and got to go to the NCAAs. Apparently, Malik squeezed Dave so hard he thought he was going to crack a rib. One of my favorite games was at The Palestra. We beat Navy with David Robinson. There was an alumni reception at the faculty club in MacAlister afterwards. The games went so long that the bartender wasn’t doing well. Dave and I ended up tending bar. Not well, but we tended bar.

In ’85 or ’86 somebody came up to him and said, “You’re running the clock today.” Apparently, he thought he was going to run the shot clock. But when he got up there, the guy running the shot clock said, “No, you’re going to run the scoreboard. It’s easier.” And that was it. He didn’t start working the women’s games until the late ’90s.

I started buying my season tickets so I could guarantee I’d keep the seat I’d been using. We came back from vacation one December, missing the Quinnipiac game. They returned my money for my season ticket, gave me a media pass, and gave Dave a raise. We never did hear why.

He took a whole lot of pride in not missing a game. It could be annoying. I remember the day of the first Eagles parade. Drexel had a game that night. He meandered his way on foot from Jefferson that night. Once he had a conference in Atlantic City. He and I and a friend of ours all drove back to Philly so he could work a game. And then we drove back to the conference in Atlantic City. I never would have told him we couldn’t have a cat in our bedroom because I didn’t want to find out if he’d choose me or the cat. Similar thing with basketball during Covid.

He was over the moon when he was inducted into the Drexel Athletics Hall of Fame. We kept inviting family and joking that we were going to fill the whole place up.

I’ve only been to two games since he passed. It’s sort of like you have to go to a game the first year, and then to the one when we named the scorer’s table after him. The donation that led to that scorer’s table being named for him is (Associate Athletics Director) Mike Tuberosa’s fault. We attended all but one game of the women's tournament in 2022. We missed one because Dave had to go to the hospital for a test. We splurged for VIP seats in the first row across from the men's home bench. Tubes came over to our seats along with a lot of other people. I think Dave was driving security nuts because everybody kept coming over to visit. And Tubes said, “They should name the scorer’s table after Dave.”

And in the fall of ’24 that really started haunting me. I emailed Mike and said, “Would you mind checking out the feasibility of it?” And he said, “No problem. For you, anything.” And we worked from there. DM