Gooooooo Gamecocks!

It's not often I get to say that around here. I pull for NC against everybody BUT Clemson and South Carolina. I may end up eating dirt, but I'm hoping for a good thrashing of NC at the hands of Steve Spurrier and the Gamecocks of South Carolina Saturday. Hey, anybody that's still whining about Spurrier's Duke team running up a score deserves to get whooped.

Not that you'd care, but I grew up a Tar Heel fan. My dad graduated form North Carolina in 1950 or 51 . He was a betting man, and we watched or listened to every North Carolina game there was, no matter the sport. It is one of my great memories that my roommate and I went over to my parent's house in March 1982 to watch the famous win against Georgetown. Finally the drought (since 1957) had been broken. My dad was ecstatic! And I was happy too.

Going back in time, I was all Tar Heel in the 1960's, even growing up in Columbia, SC. then one day the South Carolina basketball team came to my basketball league banquet, in 1968 I think. I met Skip Harlika and several others, and started to pull for South Carolina more. Then came Bobby Cremins, John Roche, Tom Owens, John Ribbock, Brian Winters, John Riker, Kevin Joyce, Mike Dunleavy, and Alex English in quick succession, and I was hooked!

I was planning to attend North Carolina for college starting in the fall of 1975. I had been admitted, and expressed my intent. Then my dad sat me down at Christmas 1974 and told me we couldn't afford out of state tuition. I had not applied to any in-state school. Oops. I didn't want to go to college in my home town, so I applied in a hurry to Clemson, and that's where I went.

I loved Clemson, and consider that really to be my undergraduate college. It is really a super place to attend undergraduate school. But after five semesters I felt I had to resolve some major issues of faith, so I took a semester off and went to study at a place called L'Abri Fellowship in Greatham England. When I got back I felt disconnected from my friends at Clemson, and was behind in my program, and I sort of wanted just to finish undergraduate school ASAP. So, I took 21 hours a semester and two sessions of summer school and graduated from South Carolina in August 1979.

That's the story of how I am a Clemson fan, a South Carolina fan, and a North Carolina fan. I always pull for Clemson or SC against NC, NC against anybody else, and Clemson against SC, unless SC has more to gain by a win.

The greatest live sporting event of my life was the Clemson-South Carolina football game in November 1977 at South Carolina, which Clemson won in the waning moments. I'll write about that later.

For now, for this weekend, "Gooooooooooooo Gamecocks!"