David Caraviello - Hidden History of Gamecocks Football

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC

www.historypress.com

Copyright 2020 by David Caraviello

All rights reserved

E-Book year 2020

Front cover: Russell Maxey Photograph Collection, courtesy of Richland Library, Columbia, S.C

First published 2020

ISBN 978.1.4396.7080.4

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020938436

Print Edition 978.1.4671.4331.8

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

PREFACE

The University of South Carolina Gamecocks began playing football in 1892 and since then have become as much a part of the Palmetto States fiber as shrimp boats, boiled peanuts and humidity. Another certain state school has enjoyed periods of greater on-field success, but from the Sea Islands to the Appalachian foothills, the Gamecocks have always been the larger presence. South Carolina is the bigger school with the larger enrollment, with double the number of living alumni compared to its Upstate rival. If you live and work within the confines of this little pie-shaped state, the gridiron struggles and successes of the states flagship university are plainly evident all around.

And goodness, what a roller-coaster ride its been. An out-of-nowhere breakthrough in 1984, which had the Gamecocks on the cusp of the national championship game, scuttled by an unthinkable loss to a Navy team that would go 4-6-1. An unparalleled assemblage of talent in 1987 that appeared to set South Carolina on the right track for years to come, derailed the following season by a scandal and the death of its head coach. Consecutive 1-10 and 0-11 seasons that had the program wandering in the wilderness as never before. The unprecedented success coinciding with the arrival of Steve Spurrier, who beat Clemson five straight times and won eleven games three years in a row before recruiting shortcomings again sent the Gamecocks tumbling into mediocrity.

Its a long-running saga thats become well known to just about anyone who grew up a sports fan in South Carolina. Its certainly been that way for me, someone born and raised in the Palmetto State, who attended the University of South Carolina, twice covered the Gamecocks as a newspaper beat writer and ascended that elevator to the press box level at Williams-Brice Stadium more times than I can count. The first came in mid-September 1988, when the press box was on the club level between the two decks on the stadiums west side. It was open-air, so the heat and noise and atmosphere could all come flooding in. Joe Morrison was in his final season as head coach, and the program was weeks away from the publication of a Sports Illustrated expos that would allege widespread steroid use in the Gamecocks locker room. But on that Saturday in 1988, before a victory over East Carolina, few had an inkling of the tumult to come.

The press box had yet to be moved to a much more spacious and well-appointed facility perched atop the west stands upper deck. There were only low-rise seats behind either end zone; the football office building, topped by its updated scoreboard, had yet to be built on one end; and The Zone suite area and its accompanying upper deck were still years away from reality on the other. The area surrounding the stadium was a wasteland of boxy commercial buildings bordered by the ramshackle state farmers market, giving no indication of the lush, landscaped tailgating areas yet to come. Many of South Carolinas facilities were behind the times, a vestige of years as an independent, but that fact that didnt truly hit home until four years later when the Gamecocks joined the SEC. Morrison could only have dreamed of a practice complex such as the one South Carolina completed in 2019, complete with a one-hundred-yard indoor facility and a $50 million operations center.

For those who remember how things used to be, the physical transformation of South Carolinas football program has been stunning, with the Gamecocks benefiting from some amenities that even more successful SEC rivals have yet to construct. With its adjacent tailgate areas and surrounding plaza, Williams-Brice now looks like part of the main campus rather than this far outpost where the football team operates. After years of having coaches offices located in one place, strength and conditioning facilities based in another and practice fields situated across a four-lane highwaywhich had to be blocked twice a day by university police so players could safely navigate iteverything is consolidated in one area. The Gamecocks have never been better equipped to succeed.

Oh, but then theres that not-so-small matter of performance on the field, which South Carolina throughout its history has been able to sustain only in fits and starts, never long enough for the program to build the kind of internal momentum that sustains elite teams through years and decades of on-field success. In fact, real success in football has been only a fairly recent development at South Carolina, which remained under .500 for much of its history. Things didnt truly turn around until the arrival of Lou Holtz, who pulled the Gamecocks out of their miserable 0-11 doldrums from 1999 with a pair of Outback Bowl victories over Ohio State that offered a real taste of sustained accomplishment. Over the following nineteen years, the Gamecocks finished with winning or break-even records fifteen times. By South Carolina standards, thats a major upgrade in performance, and it comes with raised expectations. Will Muschamp, hired as head coach in late 2015, knows that wellhe heard plenty of grief from fans following an ugly bowl loss to complete the 2018 season and even more during a 4-8 disappointment the following year.

So, theres a colorful, somewhat star-crossed history to the South Carolina football program, one thats familiar to anyone who wears a Gamecocks logo on their golf shirt or came up reading the works of great Palmetto State sports columnists like Ken Burger, Bob Gillespie or Dan Foster in their local newspaper. And yet theres so much that remains little known, whether its untold stories about seasons or happenings from the first half of the twentieth century or smaller, hidden facets to events that many people otherwise know very well. What really happened in the riot after the Clemson game in 1902? Why was football banned at South Carolina for one season? How did a multimillion-dollar gift to the university end up funding the expansion of Williams-Brice Stadium? How did quarterback Connor Shaw really feel in the days leading up to the Miracle at Missouri game in 2013? What really led to the hiring of Muschamp as South Carolinas head coach?

Other events, some of them majorsuch as South Carolinas handling of the aftermath of President John F. Kennedys assassination, the impact of World War II on the program or even the steroid scandal of 1988have seen their impact or their notoriety dulled by the passage of time. Those are the stories this book hopes to tell: the ones that have been forgotten or overlooked or that turned out to be small but important elements of something much bigger. Even as someone who spent two stints writing about the Gamecocks; sat though innumerable press conferences, games and player interviews; and covered a handful of firings and subsequent coaching searches, I learned so much by going deep into the archives and dusting off buried bits of South Carolina football history from the early 1900s to the modern age. Hopefully, youll enjoy the results.