Scott Davis has followed Gamecock sports for more than 30 years and provides commentary from a fan perspective. You can reach Scott at scottdavis@gamecockcentral.com.
As the week wore on following South Carolina’s deflating loss to Texas A&M, I kept having the same conversation with Gamecock friends and family members.
We’d be talking about all the usual baggage from recent weeks – the seven losses in 2019, the strange and seemingly endless competing statements about the future from USC’s administration, the griping and groaning from Gamecock Nation – and eventually someone would ask the question.
When’s the last time we had some good news around here?
It seems like it’s been awhile, doesn’t it?
Some years are better than others, and some years are worse than others, and then there’s 2019 – not just a down year for the Gamecock football program, but a downright weird year, too. This was a team capable of occasionally playing just well enough to keep you intrigued, and therefore you felt doubly frustrated as the losses piled up.
There were other disappointments and annoyances, too. Injuries were a factor all season. So were penalties (and memorably bizarre officiating).
Mix in a general uncertainty about the future, the lack of an upcoming bowl game to salve the wounds and the ongoing success of some other college football teams in our state, and it just seemed like a uniquely painful time for passionate followers of South Carolina football.
This fan base has seen it all across the decades, and despite our unwavering faith and relentless willingness to show up for more every season, there’s also a bitter, sarcastic strain that runs just beneath the surface for many of us, a form of self-protection that shows up prominently in times like the present.
Trust me, I get it. Whoo boy, no one gets it more than me (I mean, my last two columns were this one https://southcarolina.rivals.com/news/scott-davis-you-snooze-you-lose and this one https://southcarolina.rivals.com/news/scott-davis-identity-crisis). Clearly we’ve all got some healing to do.
So before anger swallows us all alive, maybe we need to count to 10 – or 10,000 – inhale deeply and remember what we’re doing this for. Can’t remember? OK, sometimes I can’t, either. But let’s try anyway.
Fortunately for all of us, this just so happens to be the very best week of the year to reflect on the good things in our lives. Being thankful isn’t just the right thing to do, and it isn’t just seasonally appropriate. It also makes us happier and healthier. You don’t have to take my word for it – here’s a study from the Harvard Medical School that affirms it https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/giving-thanks-can-make-you-happier.
With that in mind – and with Thanksgiving Day coming up on Thursday – I’m going to spend some time reflecting on what I’m thankful for in regards to the University of South Carolina and my lifetime of supporting its sports teams. I encourage you to do it, too.
What the heck, let’s give it a whirl.
I can do this, I can do this, I can do this.
Latitude for Gratitude
I’ve written many times that we are all Gamecock fans because we want to be and need to be, and not because we are doomed to be. As such, we deserve an opportunity to contemplate the things we are grateful for in this occasionally wearisome journey. Because we wouldn’t keep doing it year after frustrating year if there weren’t some rewards along the way.
So what am I thankful for?
I’m thankful for the Black Magic team of 1984 that transformed a shy, weird 11-year-old kid from Greenville, S.C., into a weird South Carolina Gamecock fan for life. That team gave me everything I would need for a lifetime of following this program: Thrills, chills, heroes, more chills, “2001,” black jerseys and garnet helmets, an understanding of how genuinely special the most memorable victories can be, and the realization that I could still love the team and still be a living, breathing human even after the most crushing defeats.
I’m thankful I attended a Clemson home game for the first time when I was eight years old so that I could glance around at the goofy orange masses and realize, “You know what? Whatever this whole thing is just isn’t going to work for me – winning be damned.” Good to get that one out of the way early.
I’m thankful for a moment that happens each time I attend a game at Williams-Brice Stadium, a moment that does not even last an entire second, a moment that comes just as the band is swaying backwards and forwards as the team is readying to enter the arena, the moment just as the first note of “2001” vibrates through the stands, and I believe, no matter who the opponent is, that South Carolina is going to win that day.
I’m thankful for “Louie Louie,” “Amazing Grace” and all the other standards the Mighty Sound of the Southeast has been playing for the many decades I’ve been attending South Carolina football games. I’m also thankful for “Sandstorm.” And the DJ. And for the ecstatic sound that rolls through the West stands when the Gamecocks come up with an interception at a critical moment, one that sounds like a mountain being detonated (“whuuuuuuuuuAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”)
I’m thankful for my old tailgating group that formed during the mid-‘90s and showed up for every home game for nearly 15 years no matter how many times South Carolina lost to teams like East Carolina and Marshall, how many times its football team was coached by Brad Scott or how many times one of the tailgaters hurled a chair or – on one unfortunate occasion – a television into the wall of the warehouse beside our parking spot after a disappointing game. The food was always plentiful, the drinks even more so, and the memories sustain us even now, long after we’ve forgotten the final scores or the names of the players involved.
I’m thankful for the “It’s another Carolina…FIRST DOWN” Guy. I’m thankful for the rooster crow. I’m thankful for rally towels. I’m thankful for night games. I’m thankful for the “Keep your seats, ladies and gentlemen!” announcement that precedes the Mighty Sound’s halftime shows (which almost sounds like it’s being uttered by someone who is strutting to the microphone).
I’m thankful we have fans who actually care – so much so that they care about everything, including uniform combinations, what’s being served at the concession stands and what videos run on the Jumbotron during TV timeouts.
I’m thankful for tailgating tents and air-conditioned condos near the stadium on those September afternoons when the Columbia sun feels like lava on my skin.
I’m thankful for the kiss my wife always gives me when the Gamecocks score a touchdown – even if the team is losing by 24 points.
I’m thankful for the wise texts I always get from my Dad after every game, win or lose, filled with words that make me feel better if I’m sad, or even happier if I’m celebrating. And I’m thankful my Mom texts me after reading every article I’ve written, even the ones that are (literally) not worth writing home about.
I’m thankful for the high-fives and hugs I get to share with my in-laws when we attend wins at Williams-Brice together and for our tradition of eating through our pain at Rush’s after a disappointing loss, on the understanding that no one can truly be sad when holding a cheeseburger.
I’m thankful for the hour-long calls on Monday morning from my best friend and old USC roommate after every South Carolina football game. Sometimes the calls are strangely even more enjoyable after a loss, when bitter one-liners, angry rants and R-rated tirades flow. Angry Monday morning phone calls seem to me to be what SEC football is really all about, in the end.
I’m thankful I have friends and family members truly who understand me and who know things like “We need to leave him alone for a few weeks and let him put the pieces back together” after devastating, soul-crushing losses like the 2000 Clemson game.
I’m thankful for Todd Ellis, Sterling Sharpe, Robert Brooks, Harold Greene, Rob DeBoer, Steve Taneyhill, Zola Davis, Anthony Wright, Terry Cousins, Ryan Brewer, Phil Petty, Ko Simpson, Syvelle Newton, Stephen Garcia, Sidney Rice, Cliff Matthews, Kenny McKinley, Marcus Lattimore, Connor Shaw, D.J. Swearinger, Melvin Ingram, Alshon Jeffery, Jadeveon Clowney and Bryan Edwards. And for everyone who’s worn the garnet and black in all the years I’ve been watching.
I’m thankful for the memory of Steve Spurrier press conferences (“As we all know, we’ve got a negative guy over here”) and Steve Spurrier’s prodigy-like ability to call offensive plays, and Steve Spurrier’s essential, fascinating strangeness, and the singular genius of Steve Spurrier and his willingness to think outside the box (like calling the same play 100 times in a row until someone showed the ability to stop it), and for Steve Spurrier’s Steve Spurrier-ism’s (“It is what it is,” “ballpark,” “sort of”) and just for Steve Spurrier in general. And I’m thankful for everyone who’s ever worn a headset and coached for a South Carolina Gamecock football team, even the guys I’ve made fun of relentlessly.
I’m thankful for the sound of Steve Spurrier’s voice after the Gamecocks won the Capital One Bowl in 2012 to wrap up their first 11-win season ever, when he screamed “This win is for all Gamecocks EVER!” as his voice broke (and I had to walk outside and pretend I wasn’t about to start sobbing).
I’m thankful for you and for everyone I meet at the games, and everyone who writes me after a column or newsletter. You understand. You understand. I am thankful that someone somewhere understands.
Even now, there is so much to be thankful for. Yes, even now.
Now…let me hear from you. Tell me what you’re grateful by dropping me a note at scottdavis@gamecockcentral.com. I’ll compile them in a future newsletter and share them with you.
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