I first met Tom Price nearly 40 years ago. Which is not meant to imply he met me that day.
It was during my college-student days at South Carolina in the early 1970s, when Gamecocks basketball was at its zenith and full houses at Carolina Coliseum were the rule, not the exception (those of you under the age of 40 will have to trust me on that). As an aspiring young broadcast journalism major, I was assigned by the student-run radio station, WUSC-FM, to cover the Roche-Owens-Ribock powerhouse – which meant getting in and watched wide-eyed and gape-mouthed as those teams did their thing.
On a Saturday afternoon – I’m not sure what season – a fellow student, Steve (no last name in case the statute of limitations hasn’t run out) and I had “credentials” for a home game. In our case, that meant a seat in the “crow’s nest” up near the Coliseum ceiling. From there, we could see the overflow crowd and a press row that stretched three-quarters of the way around the court.
Before the game began, Steve spotted two empty seats along one baseline and, with my meek, whining self in tow, headed down to claim them. The fact each spot was marked with a tag reading “NBA scout” didn’t slow him down; he pulled them off the table and hand-wrote “WUSC-FM” on the backs.
As I sat uncomfortably waiting for the tip-off, I spotted a scowling, heavyset man and two younger, slicker types headed our way. The other two were the aforementioned scouts; the leader, I knew, was the infamous Mr. Price.
He walked up, spied our pitiful attempts at legitimacy, and – I don’t recall his words – firmly but politely suggested we return to our previous location. Being taught to respect adults, I was out of my seat in a flash; Steve, a product of the West Coast, wanted to argue the point. Fortunately, I was larger, and dragged him away and back to the crow’s nest.
“Who does that guy think he is, treating us that way?” he shouted when we finally sat down.
“He thinks he’s Tom Price,” I replied, “and he can throw your (behind) out into the street.”
“Oh,” Steve replied.
That’s a long story (one I suspect Price, or as he was better known to those of us who got inside his outer shell, T.P., would appreciate, being an expert on long stories) to make an important point: at no time did Price upbraid us (as he could have, easily) or use his clout to have us banished from the building. He was too busy doing his job, and suggesting that we go do ours.
If you’ve never been in the news-gathering business, especially in sports, you don’t know how rare that quality was, and especially is.
Over the years, I’ve worked with (and against) plenty of sports information directors, publicists and out-and-out flacks, more than a few of whom were more than happy to tell me how I should do my job – and to chide me when my perception of a story didn’t jibe with theirs, or their bosses’.
There was never any of that with T.P., not that I can recall.
The last two days, as he lay in Palmetto Richland, the victim of a stroke that ultimately took his life on Friday, I made a dozen or more calls to coaches, athletes and especially former SID assistants of his. To a man, the latter group spoke of how much they learned from Price: professionalism, diligence, working weekends, compiling (and in his case, retaining by memory) statistics and facts and athletes’ names.
Near as I can recall, not one ever said Price overtly tried to mold them into mini-T.P.’s. Which is why, probably, the best of them are just that – in their own ways.
Rob Matwick, a former graduate student under T.P., is now vice president for communications of the Detroit Tigers. Charles Bloom, a former assistant, is associate commissioner of the SEC. Kerry Tharp, who had, I believe, the longest tenure with Price (20 years) – just beating out Brian Binette, who works for a sports statistics service (19 years) – is a NASCAR director of communications in Charlotte. Mike Nemeth, who went from the then-News & Courier as a sports writer to an SID role at USC, now is a veteran in a similar job at Mississippi State.
I knew them all while they were at USC, and I know I had “run-ins” with most if not all of them. No offense, guys; it was part of your job as you saw it to campaign, and occasionally whine or plead (some of you), to get the university’s spin into the stories we media types produce. It was part of my job to ignore much of that, absorb what I deemed appropriate, and then we all moved on.
None, to my knowledge, ever held a grudge afterward. T.P. would not have approved.
As for The Man himself, Price never threatened and rarely cajoled me about a story. Oh, he let you know what he thought, especially if you screwed up (hey, it happens), but try to tell you how to do your job? Not with me.
He was an old news pro, after all, 11 years on the job with United Press International, once the rival of The Associated Press. He was more concerned with getting the news out, accurately and on time, than influencing how it might be perceived by fans. News, after all, is just that: the facts, correct and timely.
Which is not to say he wasn’t a lot of fun to be around, even for those of us outside the SID circle; T.P. also weaved tales and recounted moments in the history of his beloved Gamecocks with us, too. Sometimes the stories (like this blog) seemed to go on forever, but none of us complained. As Brian Binette told me this week, after Tom retired (and promptly went right back to doing what he did), he would walk into Binette’s office – sometimes when Brian was trying to churn out a release – and launch into stories about USC baseball (his favorite) or something else, even the ball game he saw on TV the night before.
“At first, I would think, ‘Oh no,’” Binette said. “But I finally realized, Tom’s not going to be around here to do this forever. Some of my fondest memories are of crossing my arms, sitting back and listening to his stories.”
If you’ve made it this far, you have a penchant for stories, too. So I’ll wrap this up with one of my own. About 10 years after our first “meeting” – I think I later told T.P. about my student misadventures – I was again covering the Gamecocks basketball team, this time for the now-defunct Columbia Record. USC was on the road in snowy Milwaukee to face Marquette, and I arrived with a horrible stomach virus that sent me to bed. When I finally felt decent, I walked downstairs, looking for someone to go to dinner with, but all my colleagues were gone, and believe me, there’s nothing lonelier for a 20-something young reporter than eating alone on the road.
All of a sudden, there was Tom. We chatted a couple of minutes – I still didn’t know him that well – and then he said, “You eaten?” Next thing I know, we were sitting in Karl Rausch’s, one of Milwaukee’s finest German restaurants, with T.P. rambling on about the food here and other favorite places, about the basketball team, about everything and nothing. And then he picked up the (considerable) tab, too.
That’s the Tom Price I’ll remember: a man who never tried to tell you how to do your job; instead, he tried to help you do it better, and enjoy the camaraderie of the business, because after all, what did any of us have to complain about? We were getting paid to go to games.
It’s a good life. It was better because Tom Price – T.P. – was a part of it for so long.
BOB GILLESPIE
This past Saturday was a good day to be Kevin Plank. In Lubbock, Texas, the 35-year-old president, CEO and board chairman of the sports apparel business’ rising star, Under Armour, was on the Texas Tech sideline as the Red Raiders — one of four college football teams wearing his company’s gear — shocked No. 4 Oklahoma, 34-27.
Thursday, Oct. 4, also was a fun day for Plank. That night, he was a Williams-Brice Stadium sideline guest of USC and coach Steve Spurrier — also members of the Under Armour “team” — when the Gamecocks knocked off then-No. 8 Kentucky, 38-23, on ESPN.
You get the idea Under Armour clients Auburn and coach Tommy Tuberville can’t wait for Plank’s visit on Saturday, when the Tigers face arch-rival Alabama.
But then, most days are good days for Plank. They have been since 1996 when, using $16,000 in savings and another $40,000 of credit card debt, he began the company that has become a byword for innovation in the performance clothing industry, while almost singlehandedly consigning the cotton T-shirt to big-time college football’s trash bin.
“I had an idea to make a better T-shirt,” Plank said from his Baltimore office this week. “When I played, I changed T-shirts at halftime, and not because I have a gland problem. I sweat, sure, but you had to pour water on your head to stay cool, and the shirts wound up soaked and heavy.
“I always wondered why there wasn’t a better alternative.”
Plank, who says as a teen he once hustled Grateful Dead T-shirts and bracelets, was a business major and special-teams fullback at Maryland in the mid-1990s when he bought a small shipment of stretchy women’s lingerie fabric, took it to a tailor along with “a tight white Hanes T-shirt,” and told him to make as many T-shirts as he could. Plank then took the finished product to teammates and asked for feedback.
“They told me, ‘This is great,’” he said. “We set out to build the best football undershirt we could.”
Talk about "rags" to riches: Plank today heads up a multi-million-dollar company that has changed the face of athletics wear. Think “moisture-wicking fabric,” and you’ve got the handle on Plank and Under Armour.
The Gamecocks signed with Plank’s company prior to this season, becoming one of four NCAA schools under contract (Plank’s alma mater was the first). When arch-rival Clemson comes to town this Saturday, you'll see Gamecocks fans decked out in garnet-and-black jerseys with Under Armour’s stylized “UA” logo prominently featured.
“(USC is) a fantastic university with a great fan base,” Plank said. “It’s a program whose time has come. I’ve been a fan of Steve Spurrier all my life, and (athletics director) Eric Hyman is great people.
“Doing business in the SEC (with Auburn), I discovered USC was a program on the rise, like our business. We’re doing this together. We’re both small right now, but we both expect to be big someday.”
Already, Under Armour has come a long way. Plank began his company out of his grandmother’s townhouse, and hired Kip Fulks, a Maryland lacrosse player, as a partner because “he’d built up some credit; we could use his credit cards” to help pay the bills. Their first year, they took in revenues of $17,000 — in other words, barely breaking even.
A decade later, the Baltimore-based company has 700,000 square feet of distribution space, a staff of 1,400 employees, and saw its revenues jump 46 percent, from $285 million in 2006 to around $500 million this year. That’s still not in the league of giants like Nike, but give him time, Plank said.
“Without question, this is a competitive business,” he said. “I’ve always been on teams, and I treat this the same way. I treat my sales force like the offense, my defense is distribution.
“I loved coaching, and that’s what I do every day. It’s about wins and losses; we’re competing with Darth Vader, and kicking their butt pretty good.”
In 2005, Under Armour took its stock public, selling shares for $13, and Plank became an instant millionaire. The IPO was Wall Street’s most successful offering by an American company in five years, according to the Washington Post, and Plank wound up with $13 million in his pocket and a stake worth $360 million.
And Plank said he has no intention of slowing down now.
“The best thing about (his company’s merchandise) is, it’s not only a great product for football, but just as relevant for other sports,” he said. “We aren’t just a football brand, but a sports performance brand. Our product is made to make athletes better.”
So why did Plank decide to make South Carolina part of the Under Armour “family”? Two words: Steve Spurrier.
“He’s been a winner at every level,” Plank said, conveniently forgetting that two-year debacle with the Washington Redskins. “He won the Heisman Trophy, won at Duke and Florida. I think he’s the epitome of excellence in college athletics. It’s great to be with the Head Ball Coach.”
Spurrier also projects the image Under Armour wants, appearing in several of the company’s commercials. That’s important for an aggressive, edgy outfit that first burst on the public consciousness with its high-energy “We must protect this house” TV ads.
Even those commericals come from Plank’s Maryland roots. The central character in those first TV spots was Eric Ogbugu, a former defensive end for the Terrapins, who went on to play with the New York Jets, Cincinnati Bengals and Dallas Cowboys.
“Those (commercials) are probably what I’m most proud of,” Plank said. “Those were defining for us.”
If you’re ever in Annapolis, Md., stop by the Under Armour retail store. There, a 9-foot statue of Ogbugu, aka “Big E,” graces the store entrance.
Who knows? Maybe someday, there’ll be a statue of a certain Ball Coach there, too.
— Bob Gillespie
The past four weeks — four straight losses, most recently blowouts vs. Arkansas and Florida — have been rough on South Carolina football fans, and Kip Bouknight is no different in that regard.
Well, except for the fact the Gamecocks’ national college baseball player of the year in 2000, who was inducted into USC’s Athletic Hall of Fame earlier this year, has a perspective on winning and losing that your average tailgater doesn’t.
When he heard USC coach Steve Spurrier lament his team’s lack of leadership in its 27-24 overtime loss at Tennessee, Bouknight could feel Spurrier’s pain. When the Head Ball Coach noted that the Gamecocks’ best recruiting classes have yet to hit their stride, that USC is “not playing like champions yet,” Bouknight knew of what the coach spoke.
“I think coach Spurrier has us going the right direction,” the 28-year-old minor league pitcher said. “But what it comes down to is, it didn’t matter that they came back against Tennessee; it matters how you finish.
“That’s when you’ve got to have someone who wants the ball. Winning is a mindset. You’ve got to have a leader, and lately, no one has stepped up. That’s the bottom line.”
If that’s a harsh assessment, it’s no more so than Spurrier’s own. And if anyone besides Spurrier has the history to talk about “stepping up,” it’s Bouknight.
From 1998-2001, the Brookland-Cayce High graduate became arguably the best baseball player, and one of the best athletes, period, in South Carolina’s history. He set career records at USC in innings pitched (482), strikeouts (457), games won (45, also an SEC record) and games started.
His junior season, he won 17 games, lost just one and kept the Gamecocks near the top of the national rankings most of the season. He also won concensus All-American honors and both the Golden Spikes Award as the nation’s top amateur player and the Rotary Smith Award as outstanding college pitcher.
You wanted a tough, gritty leader? Someone who wanted the ball in big games? Bouknight was your man.
“To be honest, I think it’s something I was born with — a competitive nature,” he said. “When you’re recruiting, you want the best talent, but you also want guys who are hungry, who know how to finish.
“It starts at the top, with the head coach; (USC baseball coach) Ray Tanner is a super leader, and I believe in coach Spurrier that way, too. But (the football team is) still making stupid mistakes, and great teams don’t do that. They almost have that ‘deer in the headlights’ look.”
Bouknight also believes Spurrier’s assessment that the Gamecocks’ future is promising. That philosophy, after all, is the one Bouknight has maintained in a professional career that has been, for the most part, frustrating.
He spent most of the past season — his sixth since being drafted in the 13th round by the Colorado Rockies — with the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Class AA Altoona Curve, where he put up an 11-6 record in 22 starts and a 3.83 ERA. Bouknight had three starts (1-1, 4.50 ERA) with the AAA Indianapolis Indians after moving up in June.
When he left USC, he believed he would be pitching in the major leagues by now. Instead, as of Friday, he likely will become a free agent.
“The Pirates cleaned house, so it all depends on who stays around, if they’ve seen me and like me,” he said. “We’ll see.”
But despite a career that shouts “journeyman,” Bouknight isn’t ready to give up. Baseball runs a close second to wife Delesline (his high school sweetheart and wife of six years) as the love of his life.
“Sure, it’s human nature (to be discouraged), but I always have that hope. The thing for me is (being in the) right place at the right time. I feel I can still play, if someone gives me a chance. One day, I believe, someone will.”
Bouknight has other options. He played two seasons (2003 and 2004) in Venezuela, and three teams there invited him to return this year. “It’s always tough to turn down, because they play really well and it’s great baseball,” he said.
“If I felt I needed to go to find a good job, I would go. (But) my agent doesn’t think I need to go. And while I love Venezuela to death, it can be dangerous. The first year there, I saw two people murdered; I was sitting in my hotel, looking out the window ... it was pretty bad.”
For now, Bouknight works out regularly (with USC assistant coach Monte Lee), and offers instruction to up-and-coming ballplayers, mostly high-school kids but some as young as 8, “to make ends meet” financially, he said. He’s sent several on to the college ranks, notably Winthrop freshman Robert Lake of Mid-Carolina High and USC’s Adam Westmoreland, like Bouknight a Brookland-Cayce product.
He hears stories of others like himself. The promising tales, such as a player who retired this year at age 39, after not making it to the majors until he was 32. And stories of players who move up to the bigs, play well, and find themselves sent back down for no apparent reason.
“As soon as you think you’ve got (major league baseball) figured out, you don’t,” Bouknight said. “I used to think if I reached 28 (and hadn’t made themajors), I’d shut it down. But you don’t know until you’re involved in it how it’ll be.
“If I was getting released every year, having to find jobs, I’d shut it down. But I think I’d be cheating myself for a lifetime if I did that now. I’m a fierce competitior; that would be something I’d always regret.”
It’s that mindset that keeps Bouknight believing that success for USC’s football program is just around the corner. All it takes, he said, is the belief it can be done.
“I remember coach Tanner like it was yesterday, when top-10 Florida (baseball team) was coming in here, he said, ‘We’ll never beat them until we believe we can,’” Bouknight said. “That’s what our (football) athletes have to do. They can’t be shocked to beat Florida or Clemson.
“That’s why I love watching coach Spurrier. He’s coaching even when the team is down. He’s telling guys what they’ve done wrong, or right. He’s always coaching. That’s what he wants in his team: just play hard as if every day is the last one.”
As Bouknight could tell them, you never know when that day might be coming.
— Bob Gillespie
If that sun-tanned guy walking the sideline at Saturday night’s South Carolina-Florida game looks familiar — especially if you’re a fan of the PGA Tour — there’s a reason.
Chris DiMarco, the man who took Tiger Woods to the sudden-death wire at the 2005 Masters, finished second to Woods at the 2006 British Open and sparked the U.S. to victory in the 2005 Presidents Cup, is eagerly anticipating the scene at Williams-Brice Stadium. That should surprise no one: not only is DiMarco a huge football fan and long-time golf pal of USC coach Steve Spurrier, but his nephew, Patrick DiMarco, is a freshman fullback for the Gamecocks.
But don’t look for him on the South Carolina sideline. DiMarco, resplendent in orange and blue, will be hanging out with Urban Meyer and his team instead.
After all, there’s family loyalty and friends loyalty — and then there’s Gators loyalty.
“Yeah, I’ll be on the Gators sideline,” DiMarco, 39, said this week from his home near Orlando. “The thing is, not only my nephew (is at USC), but coach Spurrier is a good friend who I always root for. South Carolina is WAY ahead of anyone else — as my second-favorite team.
“But my oldest brother (Mitch, Patrick’s father) has been a Gator since 1979. And I’ve been a Gator since I was 10, going on 29 years. I’ve been a Bull Gator (Florida’s top donation category for boosters) for nine years. All I have (to wear) is orange and blue.
“I couldn’t be a prouder uncle, but with a chance to win the SEC East, I’m pulling for the Gators. I hope Patrick has a great game, scores four touchdowns, but we win by a point.”
Anyone who has followed DiMarco’s golf career can’t help but know about his loyalty. At this year’s Masters, his proudest moment came when a specially-made golf bag with a Florida National Champions logo (to recognize the Gators’ back-to-back NCAA basketball titles) arrived in time for his abbreviated week in Augusta (he missed the cut). DiMarco also sports orange and blue at least once during most tournaments.
He’s had a lot to fuel his fire lately, too: a national football title in 2006 and those two hoops crowns. “I used to be a bigger football fan,” he said, “but when (coach) Billy Donovan came to Gainesville 10 years ago, he took basketball to the fore for us, too.”
DiMarco’s own star hasn’t soared quite as high as the Gators’ the past two years. He slipped from seventh on the PGA Tour money list in 2005 (when he won nearly $3.6 million) to 53rd in 2006 ($1.5 million-plus), and 107th ($950,415) in 2007. After missing the cut at the Deutsche Bank event in late August, he underwent surgery for a nagging shoulder injury; he plans to be back in shape for the start of the 2008 season in Hawaii.
“I played for the first time a couple of weeks ago, 18 holes, and again (Tuesday),” DiMarco said. “Felt pretty good, shot 5-under (-par), drove it pretty well, hit some good irons. I’m rusty, no doubt, and have to work on some things. But I should be OK.”
The down time from golf has allowed DiMarco to attend more Florida games than his typical 4-5 per season. “I went to Troy, Tennessee, Kentucky, Auburn and Georgia — I haven’t been good luck for them on the road — so this week will be my sixth,” he said. “And I’ll go to Florida State (on Nov. 24).”
He laughed. “I’ve been paying $15,000 (per year) for all of that (Bull Gators membership), so it’s about time that paid off.”
As with other PGA Tour players, such as his Ryder Cup-Presidents Cup partner Phil Mickelson, DiMarco is a serious student of football, especially the college variety. That’s made following his nephew’s fledgling career even more of a treat, he said.
“Knowing him and (Spurrier’s) scheme, when Patrick comes in the game, I know it’s either as a blocker or coming out of the backfield to catch a pass,” DiMarco said. “It’s neat to watch him, he’s such a student of the game, so football smart.
“And that’s not just a boastful uncle, because I am (a student of football), too. I know the game, understand it. I take pride in that. College football to me is the greatest sport there is. I love the NFL, too, and college basketball. To me, those three are it.”
Which leaves professional golf — where?
“Playing it is work,” DiMarco said. “If I’m not playing, and the tournament is exciting, I watch it. But I can’t say I turn on the TV at 3 p.m. if it’s not the Masters, U.S. Open.
“Hopefully, if it’s one of those, I’m on there, too.”
DiMarco’s relationship with the Head Ball Coach goes back to their mutual Florida ties, but the two didn’t begin playing together in pro-ams until Spurrier’s two-year move to the Washington Redskins. They first hooked up at the now-defunct Kemper Open in nearby Potomac, Md.
“It was fun that week, walking into (Spurrier’s) office, seeing all the Gators stuff he had from 1996,” Florida’s first national championship season. “I know he hated that Redskins helmet — it looked too much like the Seminoles. And if you look back, I never saw him wear garnet; it was always black and white.”
These days, though, he sees the garnet-and-black outfits of his favorite coach as a natural and proper evolution. Unlike some Florida fans, who wanted Spurrier to return to Gainesville in 2005 and felt spurned when he chose USC, DiMarco believes Spurrier made the correct choice.
“He made the right decision to go to a different place,” he said. “He brought Florida to a spot in the top five every year; he had nothing to prove there. And the expectations were that he’d be right back in the thick of it, which wouldn’t have been fair to him.”
DiMarco is convinced Spurrier will eventually be able to work his ball-coach magic for the Gamecocks. He knows this season’s 6-4 start, particularly last week’s 48-36 loss at Arkansas, are gnawing at Spurrier, though.
“It’s bugging him, sure,” he said. “But the normal fan doesn’t get it; he lost a starting All-SEC linebacker (Jasper Brinkley), which was a huge part of the run-stopping game. He’s a competitor; he wants to win everything, even nine holes on the putting green.
“He’s so confident in what he does, and coach Meyer is in that same realm. He reminds me of a young Steve Spurrier. They’re both confident and not afraid to show it. There’s a fine line between arrogance and confidence, and they both ride that line. (But) you can’t call a coach arrogant if he does what he says he’s going to do.”
Having seen that in action for 17 years, DiMarco knows Saturday has the potential to be another mixed-feelings weekend for him. He wants his Gators to win, of course. But he knows what the man in the visor can do.
“He’s a mastermind,” DiMarco said. “Two years ago before the (South Carolina-Florida) game, I saw him at 9:30 a.m., on the (stationary) bike, talking about the game. When I walked out, I remember thinking, ‘We’re in trouble.’ I knew he had something for us, and he beat us. He’s got a knack for that.
DiMarco laughed. "On paper, we should go there and take care of South Carolina this weekend," he said.
“But with him on the sideline ... it’s a scary thing to be a Gator.”
— Bob Gillespie
Call Danny Ford these days, and you’re likely to reach him while atop his tractor on his farm near Clemson. The former Clemson coach isn’t exactly roughing it, though: his ride is state-of-the-art, and quiet enough that Ford can carry on a cell-phone conversation and work a field at the same time.
With Tommy Bowden’s team struggling during a two-game skid earlier this season, the Tigers’ highly successful coach from 1978-89 (a 96-29-4 record and five ACC titles, the last in 1988) is used to hearing his name mentioned in reverence by Clemson fans. But this day, the subject is different: Ford’s five-year stint as head coach at Arkansas from 1993-97.
South Carolina, 6-3 and ranked 23rd by The Associated Press, travels to Fayetteville on Saturday for a game rife with implications for both teams: USC needs a win to stay alive, barelyin the SEC East title chase; Arkansas (5-3 overall, 1-3 in conference play) needs a win, period.
“I kind of keep up with what’s going on,” Ford said without apparent irony. “It’s a must game for (the Razorbacks), like it is for South Carolina. A lot on the line.”
It’s not so different in that respect from 1993, when Ford was hired to restore the faded Arkansas program. That season, the Gamecocks, ranked No. 19 after a season-opening win at Georgia, rolled in remote Fayetteville as a heavy favorite. But Ford’s team stunned Sparky Woods’ squad, winning 18-17 in the final two minutes with a scoring drive heavy on Ford’s beloved option running attack.
(USC has only visited Arkansas as a ranked team once since: in 2001, when the No. 9 Gamecocks and Lou Holtz also lost, 10-9).
If you were there in ‘93, you recall how Ford walked off the field -- dodging delirious Arkansas fans -- with his head down, as if the win meant little. Later, though, he grinned widely and allowed that it was always good to beat the Gamecocks (his record vs. USC: 7-3-1 at Clemson, 2-3 at Arkansas).
Fourteen years and a lot of miles later, though, Ford claims to remember little about that game. Those days in Fayetteville, though, remain vivid.
“The main thing different from when we were there now is, the facilities are a lot better,” he said. And not just renovated Reynolds Razorback Stadium.
“Then, Fayetteville was hard to get to,” Ford said. “Teams flew into Missouri or Oklahoma, some of them stayed there, too. It was a long trip for them, (and) that was a big advantage for Arkansas.
“Now with the new airport, they’ll be 25 miles to the stadium. They’ll probably stay in Springdale, about 10 minutes away. It’s a nice trip for fans now -- unless they drive; it’s 18 hours if you drive.”
Ford posted a disapponting 24-30-1 record in five seasons, but there were highlights, notably an SEC West title (Arkansas’ first) in 1995 and trip to the SEC title game. As for USC, Ford was 2-0 in Fayetteville; in 1995, his 8-5 team laid a 51-21 whipping on the Gamecocks.
Typically, Ford recalls instead a 39-13 loss in 1997 (in Little Rock’s War Memorial Stadium), part of a 4-7 season that ended his tenure. But the former coach says he has no regrets about his brief time in the Ozarks.
“Lord, no,” Ford said. “They were good people, kind of like South Carolina people. They love their football. But they had been so terrible for a while, so they didn’t have much to brag about.”
Ford says he was dismayed at the condition of the program in 1993, from the facilities to the players.
“When we got there, the facilities were terrible, and the players weren’t very good,” he said. “There’s not many of them (players) out there, and they had quit recruiting east Texas, were getting nothing out of Oklahoma City. The high school football there was not very good, and they got nothing recruiting out of Little Rock, the biggest city there.
“That’s changed now, though. If a kid’s from Arkansas, 98 percent want to be Razorbacks. When we were there, they all were going to Texas schools.”
Fayetteville’s isolation also impacted the program. “I thought if you said ‘University of Arkansas,’ it would be in the middle of the state, a big ol’ campus,” he said. “(But) it was 30 miles from Oklahoma, in the hills. All the students went home on weekends. It didn’t seem like it fit in the SEC.”
Ford’s brief time there, though, helped reignite Razorback passion for football -- not to mention scratching a coaching itch for him.
“Coach (Frank) Broyles (Arkansas’ legendary coach and athletics director) gave me a chance to get back in coaching again,” Ford said. “I didn’t go with the idea of staying there” -- Ford says he hoped the job would lead to another closer to his Alabama and/or South Carolina roots -- “and it didn’t end up the way I would have liked; I would’ve liked to have done a better job.
“But with what we had, we left them better.”
Arkansas in general is better, too, thanks in part to the worldwide success of Wal-Mart and other home-grown industries. Ford, who retains friends in Arkansas, says a new “four-lane” highway and the new airport make Fayetteville easier to get to.
“Everything is so much better now,” he said. “It’s a top-notch college town now.”
Ford demurs on questions about embattled coach Houston Nutt -- perhaps that’s too close to home for a former coach -- but praises USC’s Steve Spurrier for “doing a really good job, in a hard job. I think he’s doing as good a job as he can; he’s picked up the talent, making headways with the high school coaches.
“That’s more competition for Clemson; it’s maybe close to 50-50 now, and it hadn’t been in a long time.”
Ford also marvels at the race for the SEC titles in both divisions, particular the topsy-turvey East. And he can’t resist taking a friendly shot at his old protagonists in the media.
“(ESPN and Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter) Tony Barnhart called me, wanted to talk about what (Georgia coach Mark) Richt did” in sending his players onto the field to intentionally draw a celebration penalty in the Bulldogs’ win over Florida last week, Ford said. “He said he’s trying to figure out if this is the craziest year evern in the SEC.
“I said, ‘You mean you’re finally admitting you don’t know who’s gonna win before they play?’” Ford added, laughing. “He said, ‘Yeah, that’s what I’m trying to say.’”
Ford doesn’t have to worry about those questions these days. If he needs entertainment, the farm and the tractor are always waiting. Not that he doesn’t pay attention to college football.
“At least until I fall asleep,” he said.
-- Bob Gillespie
Graham Spurrier was en route from his home in Johnson City, Tenn., to visit his son in Nashville recently when he saw the dreaded flashing light of a state trooper in his rearview mirror.
“It was a work zone and I was going a little fast, but no faster than the cars around me,” he said by phone this week. “But I was the one who got ‘selected’ to be pulled over.”
He has no proof of this, of course, but Spurrier couldn’t help but wonder if his Tennessee license tag – “USC COCKS” – and other pro-South Carolina decorations might’ve had something to do with the trooper’s choice for a speeding ticket.
“That’s part of it, I guess,” he said, laughing. It was about the same in the 1990s, when his car carried a “GATOR MAN” tag, he said.
The older brother of South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier knows all too well about being a football “stranger in a strange land.” Ever since his famous sibling began ruling the college football world – and occasionally rubbing foes’ noses in that fact – it’s been easy to know who his friends are, and who are not.
This week, that’s especially the case. The Gamecocks, 6-2 after an upset loss to that other school in the Volunteer State, face Tennessee and its Big Orange fans in Knoxville in a Saturday night special (7:45 p.m.). Graham, who’ll be walking the USC sideline at Neyland Stadium, knows there’s probably no other SEC coach that Vols fans fear and dislike more than his younger brother – with good reason.
In 12 seasons at Florida (1990-2001), Steve Spurrier won eight times against UT, and took great delight in deflating the Vols. His famous one-liner about Tennessee’s runner-up SEC status – “you can’t spell ‘Citrus (Bowl)’ without UT” – still rankles fans.
Phillip Fulmer, Tennessee’s coach since 1993 (plus three games in 1992, including a 31-14 win over Florida) lost five straight, and seven of nine, to Spurrier’s Gators from 1993-2001. In 1995, Tennessee’s only loss in an 11-1 season was to the Gators – by an embarrassing 62-37.
As if that weren’t bad enough, Spurrier’s first USC team beat the Vols 16-15, the Gamecocks’ only victory in Knoxville.
“Any time you beat a team a whole lot, they’re not going to care for you,” Graham said.
No, most Tennessee fans don’t care for the Head Ball Coach. But the HBC’s brother says that doesn’t impact much on his daily life.
“Have I enjoyed Steve’s success? Absolutely,” Graham said. “There really aren’t any detriments. Sometimes I catch some flak over here, because a lot of them don’t understand why Steve didn’t play or coach at Tennessee.”
The reasons why, Graham said, are logical: UT ran a single-wing offense when Spurrier finished Science Hill High in Johnson City, which “no way he was going to play that.” As for coaching, “they had a couple of opportunities to call him (to coach), but he never got that call.”
Still, in Johnson City, where Steve is still revered, Graham Spurrier doesn’t catch much grief even from UT fans. “We’re in the heart of Big Orange Country, but most folks understand where my loyalties are,” he said. “Of course, going out, I get some not-so-good looks.”
Regardless, Graham, 65 and retired from a long-time job with the Johnson City parks and recreation department (he oversees, and lives at, an apartment complex owned by Steve), enjoys this time of year. He has traveled to Columbia for all of USC’s home games, and has only missed the LSU road game; he says he’ll skip the trip to Arkansas as well.
A Graham Spurrier road trip usually involves packing up the car with his buddy, Steve Grills, and hitting the highway. “He drives, and I get him on the sideline,” Graham said. The two especially enjoyed USC’s 16-12 win at Georgia. “Jamie (Speronis, USC’s director of football operations) got us an excellent parking space, right next to the dressing room. We walked 30 yards and were on the field.”
For this week’s game and the others, too, Graham will dress out much like the USC coaches: garnet cap, black coach’s shirt and windbreaker, khaki slacks. “No blue jeans,” he said. If you’re looking for him, he’s the one with the graying beard.
He enjoys the perspective from the sideline, he said. “It’s a place few people get to go,” he said. “I wouldn’t know how to act in the stands. We’re right where the action is.”
That doesn’t mean, though, that Graham fashions himself a sort of unofficial “coach.” He rarely if ever goes in the team locker room, either at halftime or after a game.
“I never thought that was my place,” he said. “They don’t need me in there for any reason. We watch halftime, watch the game, and skeedaddle as soon as the final whistle blows.”
This week, with the late kickoff, Graham and Grills will leave Johnson City around 2 p.m. Saturday. Before that, he’ll join a group of friends on Wednesday night to sit around and talk college football – specifically, the upcoming big game.
“There’s not much animosity with people who know who I am,” Graham said. “Some of them still pull for Steve – except this week. I understand that. It’s a good-natured rivalry.”
Well – up to a point. Graham, older and slightly shorter than his famous brother, has some things in common with Steve. Both work out “religiously” and are in good physical shape; Graham says he wouldn’t be surprised to see Steve keep coaching until 70. And both have the same attitude about losing.
“That was bred into us by our dad (John Graham Spurrier Jr.; there’s also Graham’s son and grandson, all with the same name),” he said. “He never did like to lose. He taught us to be good sports about it, but he also taught us: winning is a lot more fun.”
Even if letting the world know about it – especially on the back of your car – can get a bit expensive.
Bob Gillespie
As the lead guitarist for Columbia-based band Hootie and The Blowfish, Mark Bryan is used to the sounds of cheering, screaming fans. So the scene last Saturday in Glendale, Ariz., where the band performed at Jobing.com Arena, wasn’t out of the ordinary.
Unless, that is, you consider that the ones doing the screaming and cheering this time were Bryan and bandmates Darius Rucker, Jim “Soni” Sonefeld and Dean Felber.
“Yeah, we were watching on TV in our dressing rooms, then high-fiving and yelling in the hallways,” Bryan said with a laugh. “You won’t find four more hard-core guys on a tour bus (than the band members).”
Hard-core about USC football, that is.
Hootie and The Blowfish just concluded a lengthy tour last weekend that began in early August, and included six weeks of make-up dates after Rucker, the band’s lead singer, had to undergo three surgeries on an infected knee. But that wasn’t the hard part, Bryan said; not being on hand for the No. 6 Gamecocks’ 6-1 start -- that really hurt.
“We haven’t missed a game on TV, though,” Bryan said.
The former USC students who began making music during their college days are perhaps the most sports-crazy musicians around. Golf is a common theme: the band plays host to its annual Monday After The Masters charity tournament in Myrtle Beach each April, raising money for South Carolina junior golf, and also sponsors a college tournament, Hootie at Bulls Bay, near Bryan’s Mount Pleasant home.
Their hit song, “Only Wanta Be With You,” became a summer anthem at minor league baseball parks, and the video -- with appearances by PGA Tour players Fred Couples, Jay Haas, former Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino and ESPN personalities Dan Patrick, Chris Berman and others -- was for a time a staple on the World-Wide Leader In Sports.
They band also appeared with NBA stars Muggsy Bogues, Charles Smith, Walt Williams, Alonzo Mourning and, of course, ex-Gamecock Alex English. The four were among the most prominent fans during USC’s SEC basketball championship season (1996-97), joining the crowd that stormed the Carolina Coliseum court when the Gamecocks beat Kentucky.
But as with most good Southerners, football season is a special time -- especially now that Steve Spurrier is the head ball coach.
Bryan and Spurrier met when the band played before kickoff and during halftime of USC’s spring game. Rucker and Felber had already become friendly with the coach when they attended the Liberty Bowl, where the Gamecocks defeated Houston.
“That’s when Coach asked if we’d do the spring game,” Bryan said. “And Darius and Coach played golf together in a coach-alumnus charity tournament at Lake Oconee in Georgia.”
Bryan, who earlier had met Steve Spurrier Jr. through the band Sister Hazel when its members attended Florida, quickly became enamored of the elder Spurrier.
“What a wonderful guy; he couldn’t be cooler,” Bryan said. “I got a nice signed photo from him at the spring game. No one (at USC) was a fan of his when he was at Florida, but now that he’s at Carolina, he’s great.”
Even before Spurrier’s arrival, though, Bryan and his buddies were USC football fanatics. Bryan graduated in 1989, near thel end of the Joe Morrison era when USC enjoyed its highest-ever ranking, No. 2, during the 1984 season.
“This is definitely the best time for the Gamecocks since then, no question,” Bryan said.
Are these Gamecocks, rated as high as No. 3 in computer polls, for real? Bryan, laughing, says he’s not sure yet -- but he’s willing to be convinced.
“The coach has them believing they are,” he said. “He has them thinking they can win every game; heck, they ‘won’ the second half of the LSU game.
“I’m not a judge of (football) talent, but they have a drive to win that’s unmistakeable. I’d call that for real.”
He laughed again. “Darius is talking national championship; I won’t go that far yet, but it’s nice to know we have a shot this year.”
While Felber and Sonefeld own a share in a Williams-Brice Stadium luxury suite, Bryan, a lifelong Washington Redskins fan, has season tickets for his NFL team. And Rucker?
“Darius has his whole setup at the house, five Tvs, every game that’s on,” Bryan said. “He’d rather watch there than spend the whole game signing autographs.”
Hootie’s Western tour is done -- the band’s next gig will be Nov. 30 in Bethesda, Md. -- but Bryan won’t have time to become a Williams-Brice regular. He plans to sit in with the group Cowboy Mouth for four dates in late November-early December in Dallas, San Diego, Los Angeles and Reno, Nev.
This weekend’s Vanderbilt game? Alas, Bryan has a private concert in Dallas that night. “But I’ll be watching at my buddy’s house,” he said. “If he can’t get the game, we’ll go to the nearest sports bar.”
In fact, there’s only one way Bryan figures he would enjoy himself more this time of year. He even brought the idea up when he met Spurrier the first time.
“I told Coach, I’ve got four years eligibility left,” he said.
Hmm. Was that Spurrier screaming?
-- Bob Gillespie
At age 47, Gordon Beckham knows well how rare a thing perfection is -- in life, and in football.
But 26 years ago in Chapel Hill, N.C., on a dark, overcast October afternoon, the former South Carolina quarterback came as close to a perfect performance as any USC football player ever has.
In 1981, Beckham was the primary architect of one of the Gamecocks’ greatest victories: a 31-13 thumping of a North Carolina team that was unbeaten and ranked No. 3 in the nation. His numbers -- 16 of 17 passes completed for 195 yards and a touchdown -- are a school record for accuracy that might never be broken.
“Yeah, I can say that’s the closest I ever was to perfection,” Beckham said this week from his home in Atlanta, where he is CEO of McCamishSystems, which outsources data processing for financial services companies. “There’s always more you can do, in football and business, always something you could’ve done better.
“How often have I done that since? Never,” he added, laughing.
How close was he that day? Beckham’s lone “incompletion” actually was a catch by receiver Horace Smith that was negated due to an offensive pass interference penalty on Smith.
That close.
“Throughout the whole game, I felt like a different player,” said Beckham, who admitted to seeming to be “in a trance” afterward. “I really wasn’t going to make a mistake that day. I wish I could’ve recreated that feeling again. It was the most gratifying moment of my entire career.”
The current edition of the Gamecocks, 5-1 and ranked No. 7, hope to at least come close Saturday when they meet the 2-4 Tar Heels in Kenan Stadium.
Beckham follows his former team mostly on TV these days (though he attended USC’s win at Georgia -- more on that later) and is, as expected of a former quarterback, a huge Steve Spurrier fan.
“I think he’s obviously the best college coach in the country,” Beckham said. “I’m amazed what he’s done in a short period of time. And his quarterbacks always play well. He gets the most out of them.”
But nothing, so far at least, like Beckham’s day.
His performance was, to say the least, unexpected. In his first year as a starter (a situation he had shared with Terry Bishop), Beckham, then a junior, had been inconsistent that season, a fact reflected in USC’s 4-3 record. North Carolina, on the other hand, had routed six straight opponents, and would lose only one other game that season, a 10-8 decision vs. Clemson.
Jim Carlen, USC’s coach, no longer had the luxury of having his quarterbacks hand off to George Rogers, who had won the Heisman Trophy the previous season. Beckham had three quarterbacks coaches in three seasons; in 1981, former NFL assistant Ken Shipp was in charge, and the Gamecocks’ gameplans were almost quaint by comparison to current ones, Beckham said.
“Did the shotgun (formation) even exist when I played?” he said, laughing. “I would’ve loved to have played in the spread formation, rolling out. I think the game is much more precise and sophisticated now, with the multiple option approach.”
But that day, USC’s use of “about five plays” was too much for the shocked Tar Heels.
Beckham said the Gamecocks’ confidence, and his, skyrocketed on their first possession. On a third-and-five, UNC defenders seemingly had him trapped for a sack, but he slipped past the rush and scrambled for a first down. Seven plays later, USC led, 7-0, on Kent Hagood’s seven-yard touchdown run.
“It was unexpected; I think (UNC All-American linebacker) Lawrence Taylor was hurt that day,” Beckham said. “It was surreal in many respects. Walking on the field, something felt different, like the stars were all lined up for us.
“(UNC) was playing Horace tight, and I was able to get him on the deep flag routes and fades. I was surprised they chose to play us that way.”
What really set the tone for the day, Beckham said, was a Harry Skipper fumble recovery that set up a 45-yard USC scoring drive in the second quarter. UNC scored to cut the halftime margin to 14-7, but a Beckham touchdown pass to DeWayne Chivers -- set up by Beckham’s 53-yard bomb to Smith to the UNC five -- sparked a 17-point USC third quarter that put the game away.
“By far, that was my best performance,” he said. “I can’t put a finger on it, but we had tremendous confidence. We got the early success and built on it. They pressed our receivers, and we checked off a lot on what they gave us.
“I remember one play early, their cornerback was two yards off Horace to the wide side, and I did something unconverntional for us: I checked off, called the face, and it led to a touchdown.”
After the game, Carlen described the win as one of his biggest, but also predicted the future. “I’d like to tell you we’ll play like this the rest of the year, (but) I can’t. I don’t know.”
The Gamecocks won a week later at home vs. N.C. State to move to 6-3, but lost their final three games to finish 6-6. Carlen was fired after the season.
As for that day’s one “imperfection,” Beckham said, with a laugh, that he never chastised Smith for ruining his percentage.
“He had a lot to come back one me, like not throwing it to him earlier in the season,” Beckham said. “It wasn’t my nature to rip anyone. Actually, I don’t remember when I knew what my stats were; probably when (media) asked in the locker room.”
These days, Beckham and his wife, the former Sully Howell, an ex-USC cheerleader, are more interested in the exploits of son Gordon Jr., a baseball player at Georgia (a daughter, Gwendolyn, also attends Georgia, while Grace is a high school freshman). That made for an interesting experience at the USC-Georgia football game in September.
"I have never pulled against Carolina," Sully Beckham said. "When we stood for the alma mater after the (Georgia) game, my daughter got all over me. But once it's in your blood, you're always a Gamecock."
As for that 1981 UNC game, Gordon Beckham says it only comes up when “we go to a Carolina game, or we’re with Carolina folks. Then it surfaces that I used to play, and people remember that game and bring it up.”
His own memory of that day remains vivid, Beckham said. After all, how often do you flirt with perfection?
-- Bob Gillespie
If anyone is qualified to speak on the subjects of South Carolina, Kentucky and ESPN – all of which converge on Thursday night at Williams-Brice Stadium – it’s former UK coach and current ESPN analyst Bill Curry.
Everyone knows that, right?
After all, Curry – who also coached at Georgia Tech and Alabama, after a stellar NFL career – was 2-0 in games in Columbia while coaching Kentucky from 1990-96. One, a wild 21-19 win in 1993, was played on a Thursday night and carried by the self-proclaimed World Wide Leader in Sports.
Too, Curry has been an ESPN analyst and on-line contributor for years. Earlier this season, he got a first-hand look at unbeaten and eighth-ranked Kentucky when he covered the Wildcats’ upset of then-top 10 Louisville.
As for USC coach Steve Spurrier – well, everyone knows about that, too, right? About how in 1980 Curry became head coach at Georgia Tech, and as his first act fired the Yellow Jackets’ assistant coach, Steve Spurrier, right?
Well, no. Wrong.
Wikipedia, the famously comprehensive (and occasionally misinformed) Web site, states that “fact” in its profile of Curry. But as with other stories involving the two coaches, that report is untrue, Curry insisted this week.
“I never fired Steve,” he said. “(Georgia Tech) fired the (Pepper Rodgers) staff before I got there. Then while I was deliberating who from that staff to retain, Steve took the Duke (assistant’s) job,” which launched his college coaching career.
When told about the Wikipedia entry, you can practically hear Curry wince on the phone line from his office in Chattanooga, where he works as executive director of Baylor Leadership at the prestigious Baylor School.
“It’s too bad that got on there,” he said. “If (Spurrier) has a grudge, being the kind of guy he is, he would’ve told me. He never indicated that.”
Curry has enough experience with all parties involved in Thursday night’s game without that bogus element.
Though his best record at Kentucky was 6-6 in 1993, Curry was able to do what no one in Lexington has done since: post a winning record (3-2) against the Gamecocks. Kentucky is 2-8 since his departure, 0-7 since 2000, and those two wins came during the Gamecocks’ 21-game losing streak in 1998-99.
His “secret,” Curry says, was simple. “What do I remember (about those games)? I remember Moe Williams, and so does South Carolina,” he said.
Williams, who rushed for 3,333 yards in three seasons from 1993-95 (No. 2 in school history), saved his best for the Gamecocks. In 1995, on a wet Williams-Brice field, he rushed 40 times for 299 yards, still the Wildcats’ single-game best, in a 35-30 shootout.
“We had a great player, and guys who complemented him,” Curry said. “We weren’t an outstanding team, but we played well those nights.”
Curry also remembers the USC fans. He also saw them while covering South Carolina games vs. Clemson and Georgia for ESPN.
“That atmosphere, it’s great for football, and everyone knows that,” he said. “Now South Carolina is beginning to capitalize on that in a way that hasn’t been done in a long time, with what they’re doing with Steve.”
Curry professes to be a Spurrier fan, both as a coach and a person. “I have great respect for him, and he and his wife (Jerri) are a nice couple, we enjoy being with them,” he said.
At least from outside evidence, though, Spurrier took great delight in whaling on Curry’s Kentucky teams, which suggests where the “fired Spurrier” story came from. Florida was 7-0 vs. Curry at UK, including a 47-15 rout in the first meeting in 1990, 65-0 in the Gators’ 1996 national championship season and a 73-17 stomping in 1994.
But Curry doesn’t subscribe to Spurrier’s reputation for piling on at Florida. “If you get beat badly, it’s not the other guy’s fault,” he said. “Besides, some of those games, he handed the ball off late, ran his third string.”
That won’t be the case on Thursday, Curry said. Kentucky is 0-14 vs. Spurrier, but Curry says this is the Wildcats’ best chance to end that run.
“They’re getting over (their poor history), one barrier after another,” he said. “I don’t know if they’re good enough to beat South Carolina, but if (the Gamecocks) turn it over, well, Arkansas found out what can happen.
“(The Wildcats) hadn’t beaten Louisville in forever, hadn’t won on the road in the SEC. Now they’ve made progress psychologically. I think it’ll be a good game.”
Curry, who plans to watch the game on TV from his mountain home near Murphy, N.C., hasn’t been in Columbia for a while, but these days, he enjoys the renewal of another Midlands connection. His boss at Baylor School is former Hammond School headmaster Herb Barks.
“Herb is the reason I’ve spoken to the Hammond seniors 16 years in a row,” Curry said. “We’ve always been close, for a quarter-century.”
When Barks proposed the Baylor position, Curry leaped at the opportunity. He heads up a “comprehensive program emphasizing character-based leadership in a country that desperately needs it. High school is where to start that.
“I do a lot of lecturing and teaching to businesses, schools, anyone who’ll listen. It’s been a passion all my life.”
His other passion, college football, will be fed Thursday. Curry appreciates what Spurrier has done, and not just the obvious 12-year run at Florida and at USC.
“The best thing he ever did was win an ACC title at Duke,” Curry said, laughing. “If you can do that, you can coach.
“He’s a Hall of Fame coach. That’s the great thing about football: it all boils down to your record.”
Curry’s all for that – so long as the “record” is correct.
If Sparky Woods could see Steve Taneyhill now, he’d probably chuckle at what time can do to some people.
Taneyhill, a coach’s dream (and occasional nightmare) when he starred at quarterback for South Carolina from 1992-95, now is the coach at 4-1 Chesterfield High. He has a budding star, he says, in quarterback Seth Truesdale, a 6-foot-1, 180-pound freshman who sort of reminds Taneyhill of himself as a USC freshman — if Truesdale had long hair, wore an earring and had a penchant for outrageous comments, that is.
But unlike Taneyhill the player, who as a rookie in 1992 led USC to a 21-6 upset of No. 15 Mississippi State, Taneyhill the coach is keeping his young protege under wraps for now.
“I’ve decided to take it slow with Seth,” he said. “I think he can be good one day, but I don’t want him to get in there, maybe do bad things and get down on himself.”
Imagine if Woods had taken that approach.
There might never have been the sight of Taneyhill, blond locks flapping from beneath his helmet, plunging into the hedges at Williams-Brice Stadium to high-five fans, teammates, even a security guard after that game — and others that followed the next three seasons.
As this year’s 16th-ranked Gamecocks prepare for Saturday’s home game against surprising 3-1 Mississippi State, Taneyhill can flash back on all sorts of good memories. His USC debut, of course, a victory over the Bulldogs that ended an 0-5 start to the 1992 season and kick-started a 5-1 finish that saved Woods’ job.
“(Woods) owes me money if I did that,” Taneyhill said, laughing.
But Mississippi State also was prominent in Taneyhill’s final season, serving as the victim of the senior’s school-record 473 yards passing in the Gamecocks’ 65-39 victory in Starkville, Miss.
Bring up either game, and you almost can hear the smile on the phone line from his office.
In 1992, the Gamecocks had been embarrassed by Alabama, 48-7, two weeks earlier. A player “revolt” seemed ready to usher Woods out unless something — or someone — turned things around.
“There were a lot of distractions, but those were easy for me to get through because I was finally getting a start,” Taneyhill said. “Honestly, I could’ve cared less what was going on, who the coach was, as long as I got to start. That’s why I had chosen USC, to play as a freshman.
“The off weekend before I flew home (to Altoona, Pa.) and coach (Rich) Bisaccia was on the same plane. He said, ‘Hey, you know you’re going to start.’ So it was a pretty neat time at home.”
Taneyhill laughs at the memory of himself at 19, “telling everyone I was going to beat Mississippi State.” Then, in front of a season-low home crowd of 55,102, he delivered.
His numbers were not spectacular: 7-of-14 for 183 yards, two touchdowns. But Taneyhill’s first scoring pass, 10 yards to Asim Penny, was USC’s first opening-quarter touchdown of the season.
His second touchdown toss told fans what to expect the rest of his career. In the third quarter, Taneyhill fired a 43-yard “jump ball” to 6-foot-6 receiver Don Chaney, who outleaped a shorter defender. USC led, 21-6, and the game was all but over.
“People don’t realize, though, that Rob (DeBoer) and Brandon (Bennett) both ran for (107 and 129 yards, respectively); I threw just enough to win,” Taneyhill said. “And our defense was good every game that year.”
Three seasons later, it was a different story.
USC’s offense was potent in 1995, with Taneyhill, backs Duce Staley and Stanley Pritchett and a host of talented receivers scoring 52 or more points in four games and at least 20 in all but two. But seven opponents scored at least 35 points (Florida, Tennesse and Arkansas went for 63, 56 and 51) against USC’s weak defense.
The Gamecocks were 2-3-1 when they arrived in Starkville. USC led, 28-17, with less than a minute remaining in the first half when Taneyhill uncorked a 59-yard bomb to Zola Davis, setting up his 10-yard scoring toss to Pritchett. South Carolina then marched 89 yards with the second-half kickoff, building an unbeatable 41-17 lead.
“That was the kind of game quarterbacks love: every time out, you had to score,” Taneyhill said. “That was one of those games where everything clicked. The line was knocking them off the line, so you could sit back and pick a team apart.” Which he did, completing 38 of 44 attempts.
Taneyhill threw for three touchdowns, but the moment he remembers best came on that opening drive of the second half when Staley ran right, then threw back left for a 2-yard score — to Taneyhill.
“Before the play they asked him, ‘Duce, can you do this?’ and I was saying, ‘Yeah, he can, why ask him?’” Taneyhill said. “I had never caught a touchdown pass before.”
On Saturday, he may relive the moment with a look at the game ball from that day. But first comes Friday, and Chesterfield’s game vs. Lewisville, a team Taneyhill hasn’t beaten — yet.
“It’s gonna be a biggie,” he said.
So were earlier wins over Cheraw, ending a 46-year losing streak, and Central. “We’ve got the best running back (Simpson Miller) in the state, I think,” Taneyhill said. “We’re pretty good up front on both sides, and the community is excited. It’s pretty neat right now.”
It could be even better in years to come if Truesdale is half the quarterback his coach was. But that’s later; for now, coach Taneyhill says, the freshman must await his time.
You know Woods would be laughing if he heard that.
-- Bob Gillespie
Thomas Ketchen and Dottie Park settled into their seats at Wings & Ale off Bush River Road about 30 minutes before Saturday's kickoff of the South Carolina-LSU game, ordered their drinks and chicken wings and prepared for the afternoon. Both wore USC garnet T-shirts and nametags that identified them as members of gogamecocks.com.
"I'm a Newberry (College) grad, but when in Rome . . ." says Park, an optometrist whose office on Hampton Street is decorated with USC wallpaper, framed photos of players and Gamecocks posters. "One of our doctors is an LSU fan . . ."
". . . . and we don't want to have to listen to his mouth," Ketchen says, finishing the thought.
Over the next four hours, the couple cheered and groaned as Steve Spurrier's then-12th ranked Gamecocks lost 28-16 to the No. 2 Tigers. Both have watched past USC games together on TV, but this day was different.
They knew they were surrounded by like-minded friends.
Some 25-30 subscribers to The State's Gamecocks-themed Web site were part of the second gogamecocks.com gathering of the 2007 season. For the USC-Georgia game, attendance at Wings & Ale was around 50.
"Being on CBS, we won't get as many today," says Daryl Gardner, aka "Superfly" (his online nickname), "but it's still going to be an emotional game."
It was that, in more ways than one might expect.
Since the launch of gogamecocks.com, site regulars say they have made fast friendships with others on-line, but this season is the first time many have met each other face-to-face.
Jokes Ketchen: "We're just a bunch of computer nerds who don't like to come out in public."
They did Saturday, though. Here's what it was like:
FIRST QUARTER
Much of the pre-game discussion is about USC's win over Georgia two weeks earlier. Park in particular is fascinated with Spurrier's explanation of fumbles by quarterback Blake Mitchell.
"He talked about their center having a wet butt," she says. "Are diapers an option? Maybe waterproof gloves for Mitchell? I can't get my brain around that."
Gardner is telling about mailing a printout of gogamecocks.com's Georgia week stories to a California fan, USCJeremy. He says he's glad to be able to attend the group's gathering in person instead of via the Internet.
"If I'd read the postings about the Georgia game get-together and not been here, I'd have been mad as (heck) to have missed it, because it sounded like so much fun," he said.
Eric Hurt, the bar's assistant manager, tells how he read postings by Mav707 (first name David) and realized he was a Wings & Ale regular.
"I talked to him over cheeseburgers and beers and we worked out the details" for the bar to become the gogamecocks.com gathering site, he says.
USC tailback Mike Davis picks up a first down inside the LSU 10. "I smell blood!" Park shouts. Davis scores from a yard out; the bar erupts in sound.
"(Being together) is better than I expected," Gardner/Superfly says. "I knew the intensity at the games; this is like being at a game."
SECOND QUARTER
Tom English, aka TE1441, a journalism graduate who has managed publications for the American Pharmaceutical Association for 10 years, says he was part of a focus group for gogamecocks.com when the site was being founded. "There were a lot of students there, so I learned the (Internet) lingo," he says. "We all share a common bond with the Gamecocks."
Few share it as boisterously as Cockymom95, Meredith Greco, a 1990 USC exercise science graduate who operates Leaps and Bounds, a pediatric therapy practice in Cayce that specializes in special-needs children. Her Web site nickname says it all, she says.
"My first daughter (of three) was born in 1995, and I went into labor during the USC-Cincinnati (basketball) game," she says. "I wouldn't let them turn off the TV to take me into the operating room; we were coming back, you know? The doctor said, 'That's a Cocky mom.'"
Greco says her father first took her to USC football games when she was 5 (she's 39 now), and she was hooked. She wears a custom-made T-shirt that reads: "Real Women Love Football - The Rest of Y'all Stay in the Kitchen."
"I read about (gogamecocks.com) a couple of weeks ago, went on the site and asked, 'Can I come?' These are my people," she says.
A trio of LSU fans celebrates as the Tigers tie the game, then take a 21-7 halftime lead. Gardner looks at one in particularly. "That guy's 6-foot-8," he says. "I told him, 'The No. 2 team had to come from behind; you've got a lot to celebrate.'" He doesn't push the point, though.
HALFTIME
Hurt, the assistant manager, has worked at Wings & Ale for 14 years, "since I was a 17-year-old dishwasher," he says. He says he's been a "diehard Gamecocks since 1980," when he was 4. And he knows that a group turnout for the Gamecocks' TV games is good for business.
"It's the pride of knowing this is the home for these folks," he says. "You start from the ground and work your way up. I hope as Carolina gets better, gogamecocks.com will get bigger."
Daniel Schwartz, aka DM Sports, is part of Hurt's target audience. A junior in hotel and restaurant management at USC, he saw a TV commercial for the Web site and joined.
"I think it was better that I met people on the Internet," Schwartz says. "If I saw a group of people in their 40s and 50s, I probably wouldn't talk to them. But we've become good friends talking sports."
THIRD QUARTER
Mav707, or Mav, turned 54 on the Sunday after the USC-Georgia game. "That was my birthday present," he says.
He and Gardner have been driving forces in the gogamecocks.com get-togethers. Both are admitted computer/Internet "geeks" who feed their love of USC football via message boards and chat rooms.
"There's a lot of information on the site - and a lot of B.S.," Mav says. "But people will call you on it if you don't know what you're talking about."
As LSU builds a 28-7 lead, Mav bemoans his own "fault" in the Gamecocks' mediocre play.
"I wore my Gamecocks watch for the first three games," he says, "but the battery quit. I meant to get another one, but I didn't." He chuckles wryly. "You better believe I will before the next game."
FOURTH QUARTER
USC kicks a field goal to pull within 28-10. Cockymom almost misses it; she's attaching nametags to the back of the shirt worn by an unsuspecting Clemson fan. One reads "Never finished high school" while the other says "Still live with mom."
The 6-foot-8 LSU fans shouts, "I don't hear nothing over there." No one responds; he is, after all, still 6-foot-8.
Finally, the Gamecocks cut the deficit to 28-16 on Kenny McKinley's touchdown reception. Only 1:41 remains, but the crowd cheers as if USC has just re-taken the lead, though the missed two-point conversion restores a sense of reality to the room.
As the game ends, a tall, mustachioed fan in garnet T-shirt beams. His 8-year-old grandson, Jonah, has won $100 in the group's game pool by picking the final total score. "Don't put his last name in there or he might get arrested," the grandfather says.
Also in the crowd is Donnie Ballentine, who drove from Greenville to visit family members who are part of the gogamecocks.com group. "I just happened to be here," he says, "but I'm going to join when I get home."
Mav and Superfly are headed for the door. So does Cockymom, who has one final story about her devotion to USC.
"My dad was a half-scholarship donor," she says. "When I started going to the games, I told him, 'If you want to put my inheritance toward buying tickets, that's OK with me."
The others nod in agreement. These are her people, after all.
Paul Dietzel served as both athletics director and head football coach at LSU and South Carolina. Now 83 and living in retirement in Baton Rouge, he talked about Saturday’s game featuring his former teams.
Have you seen the Gamecocks this season?
I watched the South Carolina-Georgia game on television from beginning to end. It’s tough to win in Athens, between the hedges. I have been there. I remember the year (1970) that Dickie Harris made those returns (96-yard kickoff, 94-yard interception) for touchdowns and Georgia still won (52-34). Dickie was really something. I told our guys not to try to block, just get out of his way. Anyway, (the 16-12 USC victory) was as good a game as I have seen this season, and winning was terrific for the Gamecocks. I was impressed with the USC team. Coach Steve Spurrier had them well prepared.
What can the Gamecocks expect at Tiger Stadium?
Opposing quarterbacks receive a real examination against LSU. (The Tigers) use so many blitzes, and they have excellent personnel. Two of the ( opponents' ) starting quarterbacks did not last the game. I’m not sure you can run consistently well against LSU and win. You’re going to have to have a balanced offense and play very well.
What are your impressions of Steve Spurrier?
He is obviously a very fine football coach. On offense and especially in the passing game, he knows what he is doing better than most other coaches.
Talk about LSU coach Les Miles.
He has been good for LSU. He came in (the off-season) before Katrina, and no one could have handled that situation better than he did. His team is well coached. He was very underrated his first two seasons at LSU. After Michigan lost to Appalachian, the talk around here was that he would leave for Michigan (to replace Lloyd Carr). I don’t know that; he hasn’t said anything. I told people the best thing for LSU would be for Michigan to win some games. Michigan’s beating Notre Dame was good for both Michigan and LSU.
How good is this LSU team?
Really strong. I could not understand why they were not ranked No. 1 until I turned on the television the other night and watched Southern Cal against Nebraska. One of the commentators said the only way Southern Cal could lose a game this year would be to get over-confident and I can believe that. They put in their ninth tailback and he bulled his way into the end zone.
- Bob Spear
Even if you’ve known Sam Goodwin, pastor of Columbia’s Steadfast Christian Center, only since he founded the Ashley Street church in 1984, you might suspect he once had something to do with football.
At 64, he maintains the type of muscular physique and vibrant energy that once earned him the nickname “Hercules” -- “Herc” for short.
Some in Columbia might recall his four-year stint as football coach at Eau Claire High (2001-05), and know Goodwin, elder daughter Dianne and the youngest of his three granddaughters can be found at Shamrocks games on fall Friday nights. But that doesn’t explain his excitement about Saturday’s historic first football meeting between South Carolina and S.C. State at Williams-Brice Stadium.
Some church members wonder: Was Goodwin once a player at one of the schools? A coach at one school, or the other?
Answer: yes -- to all the above.
“I go back a long way,” Goodwin said this week from his church office. “When I came up in high school, an African-American could not go to South Carolina.
“To come from that to now, South Carolina State competing against USC on the football field -- it’s awesome. It’s a big thing for me, knowing where my alma mater has come from as a (historically black college or university). It’s an honor. It’s history.”
A history in which Goodwin has played several roles.
In the mid-1970s, when Willie Jeffries was turning S.C. State into a power in black college football and sending a long list of players to the NFL (Donnie Shell, Harry Carson, Barney Chavous et al), Goodwin coached the Bulldogs’ linebackers, the position he played from 1961-64. He later followed his boss to Wichita State, where Jeffries became the first black head coach at an NCAA Division I school.
And in 1982, Goodwin spent a season on the staff of USC coach Richard Bell -- a move he literally attributes to divine intervention.
“It was a move of God that got me there,” he said.
After three seasons in Wichita -- including a trip to Columbia in 1980, when the Shockers suffered an epic 73-0 loss to USC -- Goodwin was contacted by Bell, who was hiring a staff after succeeding the fired Jim Carlen. In July, after not hearing anything beyond the initial contact, Goodwin took a family vacation that included a stop at wife Fannie’s mother’s home near Shop Road.
“No one knew we were in Columbia,” he said. “Then one day a (USC) assistant coach came to the house and asked, ‘Is Herc here?’ I came to the door, and he said, ‘Coach Bell wants to see you.’ I said, ‘What?’
“Richard later told me the Lord told him I’d be in Columbia. That’s when I knew I was supposed to be here -- I thought, to coach.”
Bell’s tenure lasted just that one season, and though Goodwin was interviewed by new coach Joe Morrison, he said the thrill of college football had waned.
“My family became more important to me,” he said. “I couldn’t put in the time with them and still coach college ball. Coach Bell once gave me the opportunity on a Friday night to see one of my sons play (high school football); I only got to see my other two (sons) play five games total.”
Still not sure it was time to change careers, Goodwin went to an American Coaches Association convention in Los Angeles. There, he began writing down ideas about what he wanted to do with his life. A long-time Fellowship of Christian Athletes member, he came across the phrase “steadfast Christian” in 1 Corinthians.
When he came home, he said, Fannie had written down the same two words.
“I went to Gulf Coast Seminary for a year, and when I came back, we sat down with other folks and started the ministry,” he said. “The rest is history.”
Other than his time at Eau Claire, which he now calls “a mistake” (the principal who hired him quit for another job soon after), Goodwin’s past 23 years have been spent leading a congregation that grew from 15 to nearly 700; today, the church has 300 members. Goodwin said he also mentors two Eau Claire students each year, “trying to get them ready for college and life.”
