How About Those Gamecocks

Gamecocks you say? What about all those pictures of me in Clemson sweatshirts? What’s with that?

Well, I mainly went to Clemson. Actually, my dad graduated from UNC Chapel Hill and was a bit of a fanatic Tar Heel. I grew up with tales about Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice who was a contemporary of my dad’s at Chapel Hill, and Ken Willard then with San Francisco, and the North Carolina basketball teams of the mid to late 60’s. I was a huge Charlie Scott fan.

But then I started playing basketball. One day the South Carolina team (the Skip Harlicka era) came out to visit our league for some sort of special event, and I got autographs from most of them. That was neat. The next year or so in came the great team Frank McGuire had recruited from the New York era – Bobby Cremins, John Roche, John Ribbock, Tom Owens, to be followed quickly by the likes of Kevin Joyce, Mike Dunleavy, Brian Winters, Tom Riker, and the great local talent Alex English. (who went to same high school my dad had attended).

Well, that great John Roche team caught my heart, and I even got to meet a lot of them at a Frank McGuire basketball camp. Move over Tar Heels.

Despite my newly changed affections, I actually planned to attend UNC Chapel Hill. I applied early admission, was accepted, and assumed I was going there, until my dad sat down with me over Christmas Break 1974 and told me the news: he could not afford the out of state tuition. I had not even applied to any of the State schools in SC. I really only considered Clemson. I just didn’t want to go to college in my home town.

So off to Clemson I went in the fall of 1975, and I became a Clemson Tiger forever. I was in Steve Fuller and Dwight Clark’s graduating class, and even took a course with them both on South Carolina history. I loved Clemson sports, and still do. I consider Clemson my undergraduate college.

Indeed, the greatest sporting event I ever witnessed in person was the football game in the fall of 1977 between Clemson and South Carolina, at South Carolina. I was there, with all the Clemson crazies, in the end zone. Clemson went up 24 to 0, and it seemed like a route. But then South Carolina stormed back in the fourth quarter to go up 27 to 24. With a little over a minute to go Clemson received the kickoff, and Steve Fuller proceeded to march them down the field, ending the drive on a truly unbelievable pass and catch to Jerry Butler, who was elevated several feet off the ground, completely extended, face up, catching the ball at maximum reach. It was the greatest catch I have ever seen. Fellow Clemson alum Dwight Clark may be known for “The Catch,” but his catch couldn’t hold a candle to Butler’s. Clemson won the game 31 to 27.

Well, as things would go I did not return for the Spring 1978 semester. Instead I worked for a couple of months and then went over to England to study at a place called “L’Abri Fellowship. I had to settle some personal spiritual issues before I continued college.

When I returned in the summer of 1978, I just felt out of step with my Clemson friends and program, and so I ended up taking 21 hours a semester and summer school and graduated from South Carolina in the summer of 1979.

Thus, I am actually a South Carolina alumni.

I still follow South Carolina sports though I am not as keen about the SEC as the ACC. And I am proud of South Carolina winning two NIT’s in a row. It may not be the Big Dance, but there were a lot of good teams South Carolina had to beat to win, including Cincinnati, Louisville, and Michigan. So, my hat's off to South Carolina. Go Gamecocks!

And as to Clemson and South Carolina sports, I remain, forever and a day, a man divided.