What is the University of South Carolina’s mascot? What is a gamecock?

The South Carolina Gamecocks in NCAA Division I represent the University of South Carolina.

The choice of the gamecock as the university’s mascot can be traced back to a pivotal event in 1902. Following a football game that year, where Carolina students nearly engaged in a deadly confrontation with their in-state rivals, the feisty and combative nature of the gamecock was adopted as the symbol. In the early 1900s, cockfighting was prevalent in South Carolina, and the aggressive nature of gamecocks was widely recognized.

The men’s teams were originally known as the Fighting Gamecocks, and the women’s teams were called the Lady Gamecocks. However, this distinction was later eliminated to avoid gender bias and to dispel any misconceptions regarding the mascot’s association with bloodsport.

Additionally, one of the university’s Revolutionary War heroes, Thomas Sumter, was known as the “Gamecock.” This combination of historical references and the 1902 Carolina-Clemson riot established the two traditions associated with the university: the Gamecock mascot and the tiger burn.

The tradition of burning paper tigers before Carolina-Clemson football games was born from this history. It’s worth noting that while cockfighting has a long history dating back thousands of years and is still legal in some parts of the world, it was banned in South Carolina in 1887, 15 years before the university adopted the “Fighting Gamecocks” moniker.

All of the university’s varsity teams compete at the NCAA Division I level, with the majority participating in the Southeastern Conference (SEC).