The Wolverines close their 133rd season on New
Year’s Day when they take on South Carolina in the Hall Of Fame corporate-steakhouse-chain bowl. This will be only the third meeting between
the schools - each team has beaten the other on their opponent’s turf so it’s
only appropriate that this rubber match is on neutral grounds. Michigan hasn’t
played the Gamecocks since 1985 which was before the MZone, before many MZone
readers were fans, hell, before many MZone readers were born. So you may be
wondering, who are these South Carolinians and what should we know about them?
To answer these and many other questions, the MZone is proud to present this
year's special bowl edition of KNOW YOUR FOE.
History – The University of South Carolina (also known as
USC or SC - no not that USC or SC – or Carolina – no, not that Carolina), was
founded in late 1801 as South Carolina College to “promote harmony between the
Lowcountry and the Backcountry.” For those not familiar, the lowcountry is the
southeastern part of the state, along the Atlantic while the backcountry is the
northwest portion, now known as Upstate. The first classes were held in 1805
with an enrollment of nine students. 
But like every other school in the South, USC’s history was
abruptly altered by the Civil War. Enrollment had grown to 72 in 1862, but all
of those students volunteered for the Confederate army in March. The college
temporarily closed and then opened to those under 18 which brought the enrollment to, again, nine. At that point the college was closed down and
converted into a hospital. The campus was likely spared destruction because of
its status as a hospital, preserving the historic Horseshoe which serves as the center of campus.
The college re-opened in 1866 and was converted to the
University of South Carolina in 1865. Unlike so many schools in the South, USC
had a measure of racial equity as racial discrimination was prevented in
admissions, and two black trustees were part of the governing board in 1869.
The first black student was admitted in 1873, decades ahead of most other
Southern schools.
Location – Columbia, South Carolina. Columbia is the state
capital and with a population around 130,000, the largest city in South
Carolina. Located smack dab in the middle of the Palmetto State, Columbia
enjoys a diversified economy highlighted by the state government, healthcare,
and the university. It also hosts a diversified list of famous natives, from
actors Aziz Ansari and Kristin Davis to musical acts Hootie and the Blowfish, and Toro
Y Moi, to NBAers Tyrone Corbin and
Alex English.
Amazingly, this isn’t the only Columbia to host a major university, and it’s not even unique in the conference. The most amazing feature of Columbia, however, is how freaking hot and humid it
gets in the summer. KYF found ourselves in Columbia a few Junes ago when the
mercury topped out near 110 and the humidity was almost as high. Wearing the
dark colors of the university is a death wish under those conditions.
Nickname – Gamecocks. One of the most unique nicknames, not
just in college athletics but all of sports, its origins for USC are somewhat
obscure. Some sources claim it was borne as an honor to Thomas Sumter, a South Carolina native and Revolutionary War hero. A British general
commented that Sumter “fought like a gamecock.” Whether that’s the case, the
university’s teams had several nicknames until 100 years ago. In 1902, USC
upset rival Clemson and students and fans paraded through the streets of
Columbia holding a transparency drawn by a math professor by the name of – we
kid you not – Horton Colcock. Two weeks later, newspaper reports began
referring to the team as the “Game Cocks”. The two words were joined a couple
of years later and the nickname has stuck since. KYF longs for the day when a
man named Horton Colcock would be considered a hero and a man of letters,
rather than the subject of relentless and horrendous ridicule.
A gamecock, of course, is a type of rooster that was often
used for cockfighting in which the roosters fought to the death. Though
cockfighting is legal throughout many regions of the world, it’s been illegal
in the United States since Louisiana became the last state to outlaw it in
2008. Cockfighting was a central plot point of The Little Jerry episode of Seinfeld
as well as the Chicken George character in Roots.
The South Carolina Gamecocks have entered pop culture most predominantly on
baseball caps worn by many a frat boy with the shortened ‘Cocks adorning the
front.
Mascot – Cocky. The costumed version of a cartoon gamecock
made his official debut for the university in 1980. For the previous two years
USC had a costumed mascot named Big Spur, but it was considered too big and
unwieldy so Cocky was created as Big Spur’s son. Cocky was met with immediate
derision and not considered dignified enough for the university. Look at him –
I guess the measure of dignified has changed over time. Cocky started small
after the ridicule, becoming the mascot for the women’s teams and the baseball
team and slowly took over for Big Spur. Hear that Dave Brandon? Just introduce
some abomination of a mascot and plow through. Eventually everyone will accept
and even love it, no matter how undignified.
He’s won a mascot “National Championship” four times and has
had two of his portrayers move on to professional sports – one as Billy the
(Florida) Marlin and one as Sir Purr, the Carolina Panthers' mascot. So South
Carolina could be considered “Mascot U.” Cocky has become such a strong
representative of the university that one of the most active on-line message
boards is Cockytalk.com. Just be careful that you type that into your browser
correctly.
Colors – Garnet and Black. KYF has gone over the whole red/scarlet/cardinal/crimson thing many times before. But
South Carolina doesn’t really fall into that group of red teams. Garnet is
clearly a much darker shade of red and is more maroon than red. Only one other
team uses garnet as an official color (Florida State) and so South Carolina’s
colors, though a little dark together, are quite unique. And when combined with
the bright white of the helmets, this is an excellent combination. The
combo of Garnet and Black is used by the school and its fans as a
rallying cry, much the same way Maize and Blue is used for Michigan.
The school’s teams have always used the color combination as
they date back to 1895 when a banner was presented to the football team that
contained the colors.
Logo/Helmet – The South Carolina helmet has seen many
changes over the years, but it’s had a gamecock on the side since 1969 and
that’s been paired with a block C since 1975. The colors have changed since
then, including an unfortunate use of camouflage in 2011, but the current
crisp, white helmet with the unique logo is the best in the school’s history,
and among the best in college football.
Those helmets are so great because they use the great
Carolina logo. The unique nickname leads to the use of the
ornithological-correct gamecock. There’s no goofy cartoon here, and not some
generic logo that could have been designed by some 15 year old on his MacBook
Pro. Add in the use of the collegiate block C and it’s a
classic logo that should never be altered. Besides, the logo was a centerpiece
of an MZone classic from the deep past.
Fight song – TheFighting Gamecocks Lead The Way. This is one of the fastest tempos for a fight song that KYF has heard and it
sounds like a fight song that would be written for a Broadway musical. And for
good reason – the original tune, Step to
the Rear, was written for the musical How
Now, Dow Jones. The song was adapted as the new SC fight song in the late
1960s by former football coach and athletic director Paul Dietzel. He wrote the
lyrics to the new song, no doubt cashing in on royalties every time the song is
played. The lyrics are generic at best and lame at worst.
Hey, Let's give a cheer, Carolina is here,
The Fighting Gamecocks lead the way.
Who gives a care, If the going gets tough,
And when it is rough, that's when the 'Cocks get going.
Hail to our colors of garnet and Black,
In Carolina pride have we.
So, Go Gamecocks Go - FIGHT!
Drive for the goal - FIGHT!
USC will win today - GO COCKS!
So, let's give a cheer, Carolina is here.
The Fighting Gamecocks All The Way!
It’s unclear why the original fight song, Carolina Let Your Voices Ring was
changed by Dietzel. The song, though unspectacular, is clearly better than The Fighting Gamecocks Lead The Way. The
natural inclination for an ol’ Yankee like KYF was to assume there were some
politically incorrect lyrics in Carolina
Let Your Voices Ring, but that’s not the case, and the song is still played
as part of the band’s football pre-game show.
Carolina, Let your voices ring, to you we sing our praises
high
Ring out! Sing out! On to victory! Forever fight we'll do or
die
Carolina, Fight with all your might, let all unite in proud
acclaim
Then battle on together, one and all forever
Fight, we've got to win the game, Rah! Rah! Rah!
Garnet & Black we raise, Gamecocks forever praise
So fight for Carolina, Cheer for Carolina, Hail to our
U.S.C.
We cheer forever U.S.C.!
So here’s a song with a better tune and better lyrics and
you change it for something from Broadway with lyrics written by your football
coach? It doesn’t make sense. Besides, how successful can you expect your teams
to be when your fight song is a Broadway tune? KYF has to wonder if some
marketing guys thought it would create great synergy. We wouldn’t be surprised
if Dave Brandon is in touch with Andrew Lloyd Weber right now about changing The Victors.
Academics – According to the most recent U. S. News rankingof America's Best Colleges, South Carolina
languishes at 115th, which ties them with four schools, including Oregon. This
ranking would put them at the bottom of the Big Ten well behind current
cellar-dweller Nebraska (#101), and marks South Carolina as – by far – the
worst academic institution to play Michigan this season. But the Gamecocks
don’t care about that - they’re ranked 9th in the 14-team Southeast Conference,
and well behind in-state rival Clemson (#68).
Athletics – South Carolina has been a bit of a nomad
regarding conference affiliation. The football and basketball teams were part
of the Southern Conference from 1922 until 1953 when the Gamecocks became a
founding member of the Atlantic Coast Conference. But too many recruiting
disputes led USC to leave the conference and play as an independent starting in
1971. Football remained independent while the rest of the teams joined the
Metro Conference in 1983. Finally, in 1991 Carolina joined the Southeast
Conference when it expanded to 12 schools.
No matter which conference they’re competing in, South
Carolina has had surprisingly little success. The school offers 19 varsity
sports (Michigan has 27), but the Gamecocks can only claim three national
championships in any sport. The 2002 women’s track and field team was the first
Gamecock championship team, followed by back to back national titles for the
baseball team in 2010 and 2011. And, no, KYF doesn’t count national titles in
women’s equestrian. Even conference titles are scarce. The football team has
never won the SEC and has won just one conference title in its history (1969,
ACC) though its years as an independent may have limited this number. The men’s
basketball team has one SEC championship (1997) and has only made eight NCAA
tournaments. The two NIT titles are no longer impressive to Michigan fans. Baseball
is, by far, the most successful team at South Carolina, having won those
national titles, along with three SEC titles in the past 12 years, to go along
with 11 College World Series appearances which include four runner-up finishes.
The football team was under .500 for their history until a
couple of years ago, and has only won as many as nine games five times (including
the past three seasons). The Gamecocks play in 80,250 seat Williams-Brice
stadium, which resembles one of those baseball cookie-cutter stadiums built in
the early ‘70s, but displays one of the loudest crowds on Saturdays.
Despite all of the baseball success, there haven’t been that
many major leaguers who wore the Garnet and Black. The most well-known is
former Met Mookie Wilson. The basketball team has sent only 22 players to the
NBA, with former Nugget Alex English being the most successful. The football
team has had 11 first round picks, including the #1 overall, Heisman winner
George Rogers in 1981. Sterling Sharpe is probably the most successful Gamecock
in the NFL, along with current Falcon defensive end John Abraham.
Famous alums – For a school with such a long history, South
Carolina’s list of famous alumni is disappointing. They did corner the market
on blond newsreaders in the ‘90s, with Rita Cosby, Leeza Gibbons, and Van Earl
Wright all being Gamecocks. All four members of the band Hootie and the
Blowfish attended the university which might have been cool in 1994 but not so
much today. Not only was that Hootie not the only Hootie to have attended SC,
but he’s not even the only famous Hootie. William “Hootie” Johnson, the former
chairman of the Augusta National Golf Club is an SC alum, as is Robert McNair,
owner of the NFL’s Houston Texans.
The list also includes plenty of local politicians,
including plenty of congressmen, senators, and governors, but, alas, no U.S.Presidents.
The Game – The end to this uneventful season takes place in
a generic bowl against a solid, but bland team. No wonder there seems
to be a lack of enthusiasm for this bowl game compared to last year. This
year’s Michigan team is still hard to read, even after 12 games. They have
little difficulty with teams that aren’t as good as they are. But they haven’t
beaten a good team all year, and have shown a propensity to cough up the
football – and the game – against those better teams. The poor coaching
performance against Ohio still resonates, and is a concern going up against a
much better squad.
SOUTH CAROLINA 16
MICHIGAN 9
Posts
