Anticipation and celebration

Football arrives and friends retire, plus my weekly shareables: Swimming toward peace, remembering an old amusement park, and messing with a bad monkey

Sep 02, 2024

Happy Labor Day, everyone! I hope you are celebrating by NOT laboring, at least if you don’t have to.

I think of today as the unofficial first day of fall, even though down here in the South it can still hit the 90s for the next couple of weeks. Sometime soon, though, we’ll wake up to a cool crisp morning, and it’ll be the season of apples and leaves.

College football, my favorite sport, kicked into full gear this past weekend. My Georgia Bulldogs thumped Clemson 34-3, so I am a happy and satisfied sports fan for at least another week.

College football is guaranteed to provide sublime and ridiculous moments every single week. My favorite from the weekend was this James Madison player who did a Metropolitan Opera-worthy flop against Charlotte … bonus to his teammate for the chest compressions:

This morning I wanted to bring in another college football fan to talk about his team—the South Carolina Gamecocks. Alan Piercy’s book A GAMECOCK ODYSSEY is excellent reading if you’re a college sports fan, and essential if you’re a USC sports fan. Here’s my short Q&A with Alan about USC football (and some basketball, too!)

Q: My late friend and mentor Frank Barrows used to say that no fan base in sports has invested more, and gotten less in return, than South Carolina football fans. Do you ever feel that way?

A: I think Mr. Barrows was onto something. Certainly it has been better over the last decade-and-a-half or so. We have multiple national championships now in baseball, and our women's basketball program is hands-down the best in the nation. Our football program had a great run under Coach Spurrier and has a dynamic, young leader now in Shane Beamer. Our men's basketball program has a Final Four to their credit in 2017, and like football, is led by a young, up-and-coming coach (Lamont Paris) who has the program back on track.

But there was a time when things were pretty bleak. We were 0-8 in bowl games until 1995. We went 43 years between NCAA tournament wins in men's basketball (1974-2017). We had multiple scandalous exposes in Sports Illustrated during the 80's. The "Chicken Curse" was real in people's imaginations, so much so that a few boosters hired an actual witch doctor to perform an exorcism (no, seriously) outside the gates of Williams-Brice Stadium a day before our first game as an SEC member in 1992. We started that season 0-5 and Coach Sparky Woods had to quell a growing player revolt. Curses are stubborn things!

But through it all, Gamecock fans supported their program on par with the blue bloods in college sports. South Carolina is a small state that for most of its history had no professional sports teams in close proximity (though the Panthers have changed that equation a bit). Gamecock (and yes, Tiger) sports are so interwoven into the fabric of the state's culture. The passion is second to none.

South Carolina's state motto is "Dum Spiro Spero," which translates to "While I breathe, I hope." Nowhere does that motto ring more true than in Williams-Brice Stadium, and Colonial Life Arena, and Founder's Park.

Q: The football program definitely gives off an SEC vibe. But do you ever wish they had stayed in the ACC? They would often be one of the top three teams there...

A: I have thought about this a lot over the years. Unlike the men's basketball program, where ACC teams refused to play South Carolina after 1971, Gamecock football continued a steady diet of ACC competition throughout the 70's and 80's. They played Clemson annually, of course, but UNC, Duke, Wake, and particularly NC State were scheduled regularly. South Carolina went 4-1 versus ACC competition in 1975, 5-1 in 1981, 3-0 in 1984, and 4-0 in 1987. Might those teams have won ACC championships for South Carolina? It's interesting to ponder. I believe from the perspective of the 70's and 80's South Carolina would have been better off staying in the ACC than going independent. The University suffered for its tempestuous decision to bolt the conference in '71. There's a reason Gamecock fans refer to that two decade period as "the wilderness."

As we sit here in 2024 though, USC has now enjoyed 33 years of lucrative stability in the SEC - almost twice as long as they were a member of the ACC. Would I want to change positions with, oh, let's say Clemson for example? I don't think so. Even given their remarkable run of success under Dabo, which is enviable to be sure, I believe South Carolina is the better-positioned school long term in this weird world of conference realignment we find ourselves navigating. I mean, Clemson and FSU are actually suing the ACC to get out.

With the additions of Mizzou, Texas A&M, and now Texas and Oklahoma over the years, South Carolina now feels almost like an "old-guard" SEC program. There are people approaching their 40's now, who have no living memory of USC outside of SEC membership. That is simply astounding to me. Do I wish the Gamecocks played the Tar Heels and Wolfpack every year instead of Mizzou and Texas A&M? As I sit here in Raleigh, you bet I do. But do I wish South Carolina was back in the ACC? Not even a little bit.

Q: What's a perfect football day in Columbia like for you?

A: I live in Raleigh now, so I don't get down to as many games as I would like these days. But there's nothing quite like gameday in Columbia. My wife, Melissa and I usually stay downtown and enjoy Soda City Market on Main Street early Saturday morning (which is phenomenal, BTW, if you have not been). It's neat to see all the vendors set up and thousands of people strolling along Main on a crisp fall morning. And it reminds me that Columbia no longer the same sleepy Southern capital it was when I lived there.

Then it's onto the Fairgrounds for tailgating with family and friends. And tailgating is really what it's always been about anyway. Win or lose, those gatherings are where the memories are created. I insist on getting to our seats in plenty of time for the pre-game. I find myself getting teary during the alma mater, and the old fight song, and "2001." So many memories from that old stadium come flooding back. If it's a perfect day, Carolina wins and we celebrate back at the tailgate. If we lose, we commiserate back at the tailgate, but truth be told, it's still a pretty great day. I don't live and die by Gamecock sports like I used to. It's more about the memories now, and the relationships. The tailgate is really the highlight of the whole darn thing, and those memories are what inspired the book.

Q: Your book focuses on the period between 1971 (when South Carolina left the ACC) and 1991 (when the Gamecocks joined the SEC). Which player or coach from that period do you find the most fascinating?

A: Gosh, there are so many great characters, players, and coaches from that time. It's hard to pick just one. But if pressed, I would have to go with Frank McGuire, who brought such notoriety and success to the Gamecock men's basketball program and elevated the University as a whole. The rivalries between South Carolina and UNC, Duke, Maryland, etc... they were so heated in the late 60's and early 70's. McGuire was such a dynamic presence in the ACC, literally from the very origins of the conference in 1953 (when he was with UNC). He won a national championship with the Tar Heels in '57, and then built South Carolina into a legit top-five caliber program at the moment the Gamecocks stepped away from the conference. Their ACC tournament title in '71 was USC's final Atlantic Coast Conference game, and is still one of the classics in the long history of that legendary tournament.

After '71, no ACC member other than Clemson would play South Carolina. Without those intense regional rivalries, McGuire was left to cobble together a national schedule, filled with great programs like Marquette, Houston, and UNLV, etc. But fan interest began to wane as those opponents, good as they were, just didn't hold the intensity and allure of the old Tobacco Road rivalries. USC still fielded powerful teams for a number of years, and great players like Brian Winters, Alex English, and Mike Dunleavy, but wins grew more scarce, attendance dropped off, and top assistants retired or pursued opportunities elsewhere. The program's slow decline in the post-ACC years was a death by a thousand cuts. But man, when it was great, it was really great, and Frank McGuire was a beloved figure in the state of South Carolina.

As a kid growing up in the post-McGuire era, I was fascinated by those teams and McGuire himself. In some ways, I think he's still the most consequential coach to ever spend time at South Carolina because he took USC from a backwater - an absolute doormat in the ACC - to a national contender, and for a fleeting time, made basketball king in football-crazed South Carolina.

Q: One more basketball question, then: If there's a Mount Rushmore of USC sports, is Dawn Staley already on it?

A: Without a doubt! Coach Staley has been such a gift for USC, and it has been a profound joy to watch her program over the last 16 years. I hope she stays 16 more! Dawn Staley, Frank McGuire, Steve Spurrier, and Ray Tanner are on USC's Mount Rushmore of coaches in my opinion. But nobody outshines Coach Staley. It's nothing short of amazing what she has done at the University of South Carolina, and for women's basketball in general. God bless Dawn Staley!

(Thanks for the conversation, Alan. Buy his book!)

I want to take a moment, before we get to this week’s top 10 list, to celebrate two friends who retired on Friday.

Ann Doss Helms has been one of the best education reporters in America for more than two decades—first at the Charlotte Observer and more recently at WFAE. Ann and I first worked together at the Observer way back in 1993. We sat next to each other in the features department. Here’s what a different world it was in media: the Observer had hired so many people that there weren’t enough computer terminals for everyone. (This was before everybody had a laptop.) Ann and I shared a computer terminal that was installed between our desks on a swivel. I don’t remember us ever fighting over whose turn it was. I just remember lots of laughing. And that’s been true ever since.

Nancy Webb worked for the Observer (and its current parent company, McClatchy) for 40 years. Most of that work was behind the scenes—she spent many years editing the Observer’s letters to the editor and op-ed columns, and eventually did that for other McClatchy papers as well. It was demanding and difficult work—YOU try telling an impassioned letter writer that they need to cut two-thirds of their screed to get it in the paper. Nancy handled it all with a quiet grace and a sense of humor. The people who do the kind of work Nancy did never get the credit they deserve, either inside the building or outside it. Make sure you think about that the next time you see or hear a piece of journalism that moves you.

Here’s to two of the very best.

10 things I wanted to share this week:

This week’s SouthBound featured my guest Valerie Bauerlein, who has written the definitive book on the Alex Murdaugh murder case: THE DEVIL AT HIS ELBOW. Her book just hit the NYT bestseller list, and it’s well-deserved. I learned so much from reading the book and talking to Valerie.
My weekly for WFAE was about Labor Day, and being kind to those who are at our service.
I don’t normally recommend things I know you’ll have to pay to read … but Holly Anderson wrote such a moving piece on the terror and beauty of the swimming pool, as she tries to recover from a long illness, that it’s worth the 10 bucks all by itself. Plus, if you love college football and other weirdness, Channel 6 is a great purchase.
Another piece that moved me: Mike Tanier, my old Sports on Earth colleague, on the death of Wonderland.
My Sunday morning ritual during college football season is reading my buddy David Hale’s ESPN recap of the Saturday craziness. So glad it’s back.
Sorry there’s so much sports in here this week … but I also had to include Pablo Torre’s conversation with Wright Thompson about Caitlin Clark. (If you haven’t read Wright’s story on Caitlin, go do that right now.)
Speaking of Wright: Just a reminder that I’ll be in conversation with him at Park Road Books in Charlotte on Sept. 29 to talk about his upcoming book THE BARN, which America will be talking about very soon.
British crime drama update #1: We finished off GRANITE HARBOUR, which made us extra-happy for the subtitles function: between the Scottish accents and the Jamaican accents, we would’ve had a hard time keeping up.
British crime drama update #2: We have started GEORGE GENTLY, which we really like so far—straight-arrow master detective solves cases while tutoring his cocky but talented protege in rural northern England.
My late-night guilty pleasure this week has been BAD MONKEY, with Vince Vaughn starring in an adaptation of a Carl Hiaasen novel. It definitely has the sun-baked, slightly stoned, violent/hilarious/absurd Hiaasen vibe. Loving it so far.

Have a great week, everybody.