A two-touchdown performance by back Rainey Cawthon led
the Gators to a 20-7 victory over South Carolina in Columbia
on November 23, 1929. The Seminole
This Saturday, the Gators head out on the road for the final time before the SEC Championship Game. Their opponents are the Gamecocks of the University of South Carolina. Classes began at South Carolina College in 1805, just over three years after the state legislature ordered its establishment in the capital of Columbia. The small college prospered over the next 56 years until the outbreak of the Civil War. The war completely devastated the institution. Even before combat broke out, most of the student body was enthusiastic to serve the Southern cause. By 1862, only nine students remained and the school was forced to close. The campus was converted into a hospital and, because of this, was spared from ruin after Union forces captured Columbia in 1865. After the war ended, the college was renamed the "University of South Carolina", but floundered under the conditions of Reconstruction. The state's Republican government desegregated the school, which ultimately led to a predominately black student body. After Democrats regained control of the state legislature, they forced the struggling university to close in 1877. However, the school was reorganized into the South Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts and reopened in 1880. The college simply became "South Carolina College" in 1891, after the agricultural school was transferred to the new agricultural college west of Greenville. South Carolina College, which now focused towards liberal arts and sciences, barely survived the governorship of Benjamin Tillman, as greater state funding was allocated towards Clemson Agricultural College. The election of Duncan Heyward as governor brought a reemergence of the institution. In 1906, 101 years after the establishment of its earliest predecessor, the college was re-chartered as the "University of South Carolina". The university now enrolls over 33,000 students, including almost 25,000 undergraduates. The school colors are garnet (a dark shade of red) and black.
South Carolina first began playing football in 1892 and has had moderate success since that time. The nickname "Gamecocks" was embraced after its use in a local newspaper in 1902. The Gamecocks joined the Southern Conference (SoCon) in 1922, the conference's inaugural season. In 1953, South Carolina left SoCon to become one of eight charter members of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC); the Gamecocks remained in the ACC until becoming an independent in 1971. South Carolina joined the Southeastern Conference in 1992. South Carolina won a single ACC championship in 1969 and has never won an SEC title. The Gamecocks play home games in Williams-Brice Stadium, near the university campus. Williams-Brice Stadium has a capacity of over 80,000. The record single-game attendance, however, stands at over 85,000. Despite their lack of conference and national titles, South Carolina fans regularly fill their large stadium to capacity.
Despite a list of notable successes, South Carolina has never won a national title. One Gamecock, George Rogers, was awarded the Heisman Trophy in 1980. The 1984 Gamecocks won their first nine games, defeating such powers as Georgia, Pitt, Notre Dame, and Florida State on their way to a #2 ranking by mid-November. Unfortunately for Carolina, the Cocks were upset by Navy in Annapolis, ruining their prospects for a potential national title. The '84 team would end their season with an exhilarating comeback win over Clemson and a loss in the Gator Bowl. Recently, South Carolina has ranked as high as ninth, eighth, and fourth in the final AP Poll (in 2011, 2012, and 2013, respectively). In addition, those three seasons were the first, second, and third years that South Carolina won 11 games in a single season. The head coach that brought South Carolina to such heights was Steve Spurrier, who led the Gamecocks from 2005 until resigning after the sixth game of this season. Spurrier led Carolina to their first (and only) SEC East title in 2010 before beginning the three-year run of 11-win seasons. Over his 11-year tenure at South Carolina, Spurrier accumulated an 86–49 record, making him the winningest head coach in school history (with 22 more victories than the second-winningest, Rex Enright).
Destined to one day become their greatest head coach, Steve
Spurrier was the quarterback on the 1964 Gators team that
obliterated the Gamecocks 37-0 before 43,000 at Florida Field. The Seminole
South Carolina and North Carolina have contested a border rivalry since 1903 (UNC leads the series 34-19-4), although it's only been played irregularly since South Carolina joined the SEC. Georgia and South Carolina first met in 1894, have played their border rivalry regularly since 1958, and annually since 1992 (UGA leads USC, 48-18-2). However, the most important rival by far for the Gamecocks are the Clemson Tigers. South Carolina and Clemson first did battle in 1896 and have met annually since 1909, making this series the second-longest uninterrupted annual series in FBS football (only Minnesota and Wisconsin's series, which has gone on annually since 1907, is longer). Clemson has gotten the better of Carolina more often than not, owning a 66-42-4 advantage over the Cocks.
The Florida Gators and South Carolina Gamecocks first met on the football field in 1911. However, they only began playing each other annually when South Carolina joined the SEC in 1992. The Gators and Gamecocks have played a total of 35 games; 24 have ended in Florida triumphs, eight have been won by South Carolina, while three have ended in ties. Their first meeting involved the only undefeated team in Florida history. The 1911 Gators finished the season 5-0-1, with their only draw being a 6-6 tie to South Carolina in Columbia (the Gamecocks ended the year 1-4-2). The series became more competitive after former Gator quarterback and head coach Steve Spurrier became head coach of the Gamecocks. Spurrier’s Gamecocks defeated his old team on five occasions and played one notable game against the 2006 Gator squad that would go on to a national title. Florida had to block two kicks, a PAT and a field goal, to preserve their lead and come out with a 17-16 victory over the Gamecocks in the Swamp. Spurrier would end his career with a 5-5 record against his alma mater.
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