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"Mexican Masks of the 20th Cen tury: A Living Tradition," nov through Nov. 8, the McKissick Mu seum. For more information, cal 777-7251. turn features editor KRISTIN FREESTATE The gamecock is history at USC. He knows it, the students know it and : Woody Carlson knows it. Carlson, a sociology professor, has been investigating the history of the gamecock symbol and mascot since the beginning of the semester. If s an investigation still in progress, but Carlson uncovered enough information to give a presentation, "Poultry or Patriot: Why Are We Gamecocks?," last month as part of the Preston Seminars. Carlson is a member of the Preston community. When he had the chance to give a brief presentation on the topic of his choice, "I thought it would be a real natural topic for me," he said. His interest in the subject began when he came to USC in 1979. "I wondered why we had a chicken -f/-? ? r% mooAnt " aoir) xui a iiiaovA/i, 11c ocuu. Carlson set about finding the answer to that question by doing research in the South Caroliniana Library. He also talked to people who were "interested in the [gamecock] story," such as anthropology professor Karl Heider and USC President John Palms In doing so, he's discovered a history that's as feisty as the gamecock itself. Horseshoe Showdown The first gamecock symbol took form in 1902 beneath the pen of a math professor named Colcock. Colcock, apparently inspired by the upcoming "Big Thursday" CarolinaClemson football game, drew a poster that depicted a gamecock crowing over a tiger. The poster was displayed in the window of a tobacco store downtown. Carolina unexpectedly won the game, 12-6, and USC students paraded the poster up and down the street to celebrate. The Clemson students got mad at this display, and 300 Clemson cadets gathered in front of the State House to protest. They then drew their sabers and ofnrmorl n/?i>ncc Qumfnr Qtrnnf fn fV?n ovuimuu au uco uuiuu^i ?jwvvv w vnv Horseshoe, where 40 USC students had managed to barricade both themselves and the poster. Some of the USC students, including Rion McKissick, after whom the McKissick Museum was named, were brandishing clubs. McKissick had a gun, and at one point, a student who was hanging out of the window of a nearby dormitory shouted, "Make every shot count, McKissick!" No shots were fired, but faculty members and police officers finally had to come on the scene. mwm What it EAT T ?zsz C hAnPioaishi^H I HAVE IT." ^ ~<Z"> ' f W A 1913 cartoon of the gamecock. Du many different looks. The first offu wouldn't come until I960. I V 1 flOi g wvf ( x JR ^F. " h IB This was the I960 version of the g? art, and was later modified by R. L. They settled the affair by having the students bring the poster forward and throw it into a bonfire. A ?L J.1 i. U f rtiier mat, a iiiunuei ui piuttueb ui the gamecock began appearing around 1913-17 and in the 1920s in the form of newspaper cartoons and other drawings, but the images were all different renderings of the same bird. Creating the Bird Then, in 1960, Jack Morris, a football player who was majoring in art, drew an official version of the gamecock: a 3-d bird, wings and spurs outstretched, that seemed to rise off the page. t/ww SPECIAL TO The Gamecock ring that decade, the gamecock had rial model of the gamecock symbol Ei WTHtt imecock symbol. The model for this Rrvan. a local art firm. The eamecocli The gamecock kept that look until the late 1960s, when it began to evolve at a rate that would've stymied Darwin. In 1966, a new drawing of the gamecock, designed by local art firm R. L. Bryan, replaced Morris' 1960 version. The newer gamecock was a silhouette that seemed to point straight across the page. The next change came in 1975 when Jim Carlin, who was the football coach at the time, put the gamecock into a block "C." At about the same time, the bird took on a living form when a graduate journalism student spontaneously made a seven-foot gamecock costume and mm ~ lip ^ ' JIB 1 :* %t . Live gamecocks sometimes roam th tice that was temporarily discontim dent wrung the neck of one of thos rc. !//> ^ ? ^ B Off J ??? . ic- IHH^hk .. ^i2s| bird was first drawn by Jack Morris, i features outstretched wings and spin started showing up at football games as Big Spur. Cocky came along in 1980 as what Carlson calls "a product of the university's imagination." The university created the mascot so it'd have the mascot and symbol under its control. rm. . c. i n. .1 1 1 11 1 1 ine nrsi ^ocKy nau yeuow legs aiiu a less-than-doting audience that had a preference for the more familiar Big Spur. After a few years, though, both Cocky and the public changed. The fans grew fonder of Cocky the more they saw of him, and Cooky's costume changed subtly: he began sporting black legs. t Of Wi s s IHBTiMt I"1 1 J * e sidelines of football games, a pracjed in the '70s, when a Clemson stue gamecocks. m Wh ~h\ }fMT / Wf 1/ tr>fe ) SPECIAL TO The Gamecock a football player who majored In rs. The Missing Link It's unlikely that many would question either the gamecock or its history, but Carlson, for one, still wonders why Colcock chose a gamecock for his poster drawing. Carlson said a number of names, including the USC Jaguars, had been considered before the gamecock came along. "We don't have any clear evidence," Carlson said, "but I think [Colcock] was just picking up on something that was already being said." A U ? ~ sumeuiiiig, ui a aunicv/iic ? uj this case, Revolutionary War hero r use SA "%Hg.?~ ? k ' '?' <>%' ? >: , * 1[ jr s f > mf* i ' * >* $ "St ' v;: ' . : . " .. v&* >' . . X- ,Ay? ? 1 ^,-; rm; The current version of the Cocky n 1980, much to the chagrin of Big Spu his predecessors, has black legs. lat's your name? Who's yo' daddy? tp//www.welcomeaddition.com/namestuff/ naming.cfm ]OCKY rhomas Sumter, the oldest living Revfiutionaiy War general. Sumter had died only two generations before Colcock and was known as The Fighting Gamecock." The nickname has its roots in the North Carolina mountains. As Sumter was scouting for recruits in the late summer of 1780 in those mountains, he passed through the Gillespie farm. The Gillespies raised fighting cocks, the most famous of which was a blue one named Old Tuck. When Sumte^ came riding up to the farm in his blue coat, fire in his eyes, Gillespie said something to the effect of, "He's Old Tuck's chick." Even the British seemed to think so. "It's a unifying and identifying purpose, mostly. The symbol allows [the students] to have a focus for that feeling." Woody Carlson sociology professor During the spring of that same year, a British officer named Tarleton, who was also known as the Green Dragoon, referred to Sumter in more or less the same terms. He said he was tired of chasing the Swamp Fox (war hero Francis Marion) and was going to confront the Gamecock. Carlson doesn't know where Tarleton got that name from, but he doesn't think the officer came up with it independently. It's possible, then, that Tarleton had heard about Gillespie's remark and liked it enough to use it himself. What It Means Either way, Carlson finds it ironic that the Clemson cadets crossed Sumter Street in 1902 in order to try and recover Colcock's poster. While the gamecock might have begun as a nickname and later taken a more artistic form, some students find a deeper meaning in the symbol. "I think it stands for school pride," senior Ken Ziegler said. "The gamecock shows us how we should view our pride in our school." Carlson agrees, but he sees the significance in slightly broader terms. "It's a unifying and identifying purpose, mostly," he said. "The symbol allows [the students] to have a focus for that feeling." mem : * v X.* * : BF 31 4. ' -JX NIKKI THORPE Photo Kditor n ascot. Cocky replaced Big Spur in r's adoring fans. This Cocky, unlike