Something Nice - South Carolina I missed the kickoff of the 1994 South Carolina/Arkansas game. It was my own fault. With the Gators up by 66 points over Kentucky, you'd think it was safe for me to miss the last few minutes of the UF game and get my big butt down to Williams-Brice for the Gamecocks' game. Even though I missed the kickoff, I was still in the stadium when it happened. I'd left my hotel only ten minutes earlier and was surprised how quick my cab made it to the game. Watching the Gators' massacre of the Wildcats, unfortunately prevented me from experiencing the USC tailgate experience. Regardless, I still had a damn good time and found it to be a fine place to watch a football game. When the it opened in 1934, it went by the rather generic name of Municipal Stadium (though I've also seen it referred to as Memorial, and later Carolina stadium). The first game was a 22-6 win over VMI. Attendance for the match was a disappointing 10,000, but considering it was played in a driving rainstorm, it was amazing they had that many fans in the new 17,600 seat structure. Like Arkansas' Razorback Stadium, Municipal was a WPA project. Also like the Hawgs' place, it didn't take long for expansion to begin. In 1946, Municipal added over 8,000 seats pushing capacity to 26,000. Too bad for the Cocks, but 26,000 wasn't enough for their game against Clemson that year. Columbia police had uncovered a scam that involved counterfeit tickets being sold for the game. Two New York city brothers were arrested on charges of printing and selling bogus tickets. The police thought they had managed to halt this ticket operation before many of the fakes were sold, so they failed to notify the public about the situation. Well, the cops were wrong. Many of these fake ducats were sold, and on game day over 30,000 people showed up to see the Gamecocks take on the Tigers. Stadium officials tried to close the gates once the stadium was packed, but ticket holders (both of fake and real ones) stormed the gate and entered anyway. Where do an extra 4,000 people go in this situation? On the field. On more then one occasion the game needed to be halted because fans were standing on the field of play. In his book "The Gamecocks Handbook", Kamon Simpson tells this story about how crowded it was on the field that day: "Clemson coach Frank Howard later joked that he had to ask the woman standing in front of him on the sideline, 'How's Clemson doing?' and that every time he tried to substitute, there were 50 people between him and his bench." As if this day could get any weirder, at halftime a Clemson student ran on to the field and strangled a live chicken. Police were barely able to restrain the South Carolina crowd from ringing his neck. South Carolina's 1966 hiring of former LSU coach Paul Dietzel, seemed like just the thing to bolster their sagging football program. Dietzel felt that it was imperative that USC have a larger, updated football stadium (It was at 40,000 when Dietzel was hired). His prayers were answered when in 1970, the estate of Mrs. Martha Williams Brice bequest $2.75 million earmarked towards the stadium. The money was used to bring seating up to 53,865 (by adding on to the west side stands) and to install astroturf. Mrs Brice's husband had been a Gamecock letterman in the early 1920's and her family had owned the Williams furniture company in Sumter. On September 9, 1972 the stadium was officially re-dedicated in both their names. (Imagine if her family owned the Badcock furniture company). In 1982, the east side stands were expanded, bringing capacity to over 72,000 (The east side lower stands are the only part of the original Municipal Stadium that still remains). Three years later, the university had the good sense to rip up the astroturf and replace it with natural grass. The last major expansion was following the 1995 season. The west side added executive boxes, club seats and a new press box, while the south end added 8,000 more seats. Today It can hold 80,250. Some of the more memorable games in Williams-Brice Stadium history include: USC vs. Clemson 10/24/41 -From 1896 until 1959, the South Carolina/Clemson game was played on Thursdays and gameday was known as "Big Thursday". The 1941 edition of Big Thursday was the Gamecocks first win over the Tigers since 1933. USC President J. Rion McKissick was so overjoyed with the victory that he cancelled all classes scheduled for the next day (Let's hear it for Big Friday!). USC vs USC 10/1/83 -In 1983, USC met USC (some refer to it as the day "The Trojans met the Cocks"). Scoreboards in the stadium read USC East and USC West. Fortunately for the Cocks, the East had 38 points, while the West only had 14. USC vs FSU 11/10/84 -The Florida State Seminoles came to Columbia with visions of knocking off unbeaten South Carolina. The Noles were 6-1-1 and ranked 11th. Though FSU scored first, when halftime rolled around, they were down 17-7. Any chance of a Seminole comeback was ended when Raynard Brown took the second half kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown. The Gamecocks went on to trounce FSU 38- 26. The win propelled USC to the number two ranking in the country (which they promptly vacated the next week after Navy thumped them). As for FSU? Later that year they lost to Florida for the fourth straight time. USC vs Tennessee 10/31/92 -After starting the 1992 season 0-5, the Cocks managed to beat Mississippi State and Vanderbilt to up their record to 2-5. Next though was the SEC East leading Tennessee Volunteers. The Gamecocks hadn't beaten the Vols in 89 years, yet when Steve Tanneyhill hit Toby Cates with a three yard scoring pass in the 4th quarter, it looked like the streak might end. But with 1:28 to go, UT's Heath Shuler found Moses Phillips for a 39 yard TD pass to bring the Vols to within a point. Shuler wasn't so lucky on the two point conversion as his pass to James "Little Man" Stewart gained only a yard. The Cocks held on for a 24-23 win (and coupled with a Gator win over Georgia later that day, pushed UF in to first place of the SEC East). USC vs. Clemson 11/11/61 -1961's game is remembered more for what happened prior to the game than what actually happened during it. Members of South Carolina's Sigma Nu fraternity had realized that local Orangeburg High School had nearly identical uniforms as Clemson. Somehow they managed to get a hold of a bunch of them. In "The Gamecock Handbook", Kamon Simpson describes what the Sigma Nu's did with the uniforms. "In the 'borrowed' uniforms, Sigma Nu's pledges took the field for pregame workouts. When the orange-shirted squad started trotting through the south end of the field, Clemson's cannon was fired and the school band started playing, 'Hold That Tiger'." "It didn't take Clemson fans long to realize something was wrong. As soon as their team started goofing its way through the pregame warmups, doing the bunny hop, falling over comically during the line drills, some of the players even blowing kisses to the stands, the Tiger faithful became incensed." The police arrived soon, not so much to arrest the pledges for trespassing, but to save them from getting killed by angry Clemson fans. The Gators haven't lost a game at Williams-Brice in nearly 60 years (of course they've only played three games during this period, but it still sounds impressive). Overall UF is 5-3-1 in games in Columbia. The '93 UF/USC game nearly gave me a heart attack. The Gators held a half game lead over Tennessee in the SEC East race and couldn't afford to lose if they entertained thoughts of going to the SEC Championship game. I don't know what they were entertaining because South Carolina raced to a 17-0 lead. The Gators managed to fight back and actually held a second quarter lead, but by the half UF was down 23-20. Nearing the end of the third quarter the Gators still trailed by three and were backed up on their own two yard line. From his own endzone Danny Wuerffel managed to toss a pass to Jack Jackson who caught the ball on the goal line. He got hit just as he caught the ball and for a moment it looked like he might be tackled for a safety. But somehow he broke free and wasn't caught until he had gone 75 yards down the field. A few plays later and the Gators were in the endzone and on their way to a 37-26 win. The 1995 game was much more easier on my heart as the Gators racked up a 63-7 win over the Gamecocks. The 63 points ties the record for most points USC has ever allowed an opponent at Williams-Brice/Municipal/Memorial/Carolina stadium. The one downside to Williams-Brice is, it's the only off-campus stadium in the SEC. Not only is it off-campus, but it's located smack dab in the middle of a huge parking lot. I like for the stadium to be on-campus. I like to tailgate were there are trees around (and more importantly, open buildings were you can use the bathrooms). But you know? Who cares. I had a good time when I attended a game there. It was large, it was noisy and it was packed with loyal fans. And isn't that what you're looking for in a stadium? That and the Coke man.