Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Carolina News Gamecock loyalists hold weekly rallies to support team by John Bailey Staff Writer Some loyal Gamecock fans are taking extra steps this season to show their support for the USC football team. Gamecock loyalists have held rallies the past seven Thursdays, starting the week of the Missis sippi State game. Their goal is to show support for and devotion to the USC football players, coaches and staff. They wait for the team to return from the practice field to the stadium and show support as they pass, despite the team’s holding the nation’s longest losing streak. i What started with a group of five people has bloomed into a weekly event that has attracted as many as 170 people to a single rally and might be the start of a new tradition at USC. Captain Mike Gunnels, USC alumnus and operations officer for the Columbia Recruiting Battalion, started the ral lies with his wife. “We wanted to do something extra for our team, to show them our unconditional support,” Gunnels said. He said the team has shown courage in the face of adversity, injuries and a disappointing sea son. For that, he says, the school and team deserve the support of the fans. Gunnels'said he hopes for student involve ment at the rallies, and he hopes they become a tra dition for the school. “The people that show up here are only the hard core fans,” he said. “Wfe need student support to take this to the next level. They are the ones who are go ing to make this a true Carolina tradition that will last throughout the ages.” When someone at the rally notices the team on its way from the practice field, those present form two lines to greet the players, hold signs, wave flags, cheer, chant and sing. As the players come through the lines, they are given handshakes, pats on the back, even candy and baked goods. Some players pause for pictures or autographs. Others are greeted with embraces from toddler fans. Rally attendee Ron Farr, who heard about the rallies on a radio advertisement, said the coaches of ten stop and talk with the fans. “Last week, Skip [Holtz, offensive coordinator] asked if he could hang out with us while the players went to the locker rooms,” Farr said. Gunnels said the rallies provide an excellent op portunity for fans and players to socialize. He said the home-cooked food and the tailgating atmosphere are good ways to start the weekend. He hopes to have more than 500 people attend the rally before the Carolina-Clemson game. The coaches and players seem to appreciate the fans’ support and effort, Gunnels said. This shows some great fan support, especially with the way this season has turned out,” USC run ning back Ryan Brewer said. Gunnels attributes the growth of the rallies to word-of-mouth, radio and Internet communication. The 12th Man Club is re sponsible for much of the publicity for the rallies. Founder and club president Brian Shoemaker said the club is “a way to oiganize and unite the spirit of Gamecocks fans.” The club is a Web site creation and includes stu dents, alumni and fans. “The club is for the serious Gamecock fans who will always be anywhere we can get to see the Gamecocks play,” Shoemaker said. Shoemaker sent e-mails to all club members through his Web site, gamecockcentral.com, publi cizing the rallies. Rallies start around 5:45 p.m. on Thursdays and will also be held on game days. Impeachment from page 1 hearings marked the first time both sides had publicly stated their cases for and against articles of impeachment filed against Fordham Oct. 13. The articles allege that Fordham hadn’t carried out her duties as treasurer by not attending Finance Committee meetings, not attending an entire trea surer’s workshop, not keeping 10 office hours and showing “a general lack of ini tiative” in the SG finance process. “Due to the reasons stated above, we hereby demand that Elizabeth Anne Ford ham be immediately impeached and brought to trial,” Ballentine said. Fordham acted in a way “which can manifest in injury to the students of the University of South Carolina and impede the financial process of all undeigradu ate clubs and organizations,” Ballentine said. However, Fordham defended the job she had done as treasurer. “I’ve done the duty of treasurer, and I stand on that per formance,” she said. Fordham said the chaiges were noth ing more than a personal and political at tack by SG officials who wanted to re verse last year’s elections, in which Fordham beat then Sen. Timothy Clardy. “I honestly and wholeheartedly feel that these chaiges are being brought against me as a personal attack,” Fordham said. “I feel that this is a personal attack be cause I was not the candidate that some people on Student Government wanted to be the treasurer.” She said she had heard the chaiges could have been in the making for some time. “I’ve even heard that they’ve been in the works since I was elected,” Ford ham said. “And for those of you that don’t know, all that has to happen once I am impeached is the president appoints a new official. And we all know who that’s going to be.” Ballentine rejected the idea of a per sonal vendetta. “I don’t think it’s a secret to anyone in this room that I did work on Elizabeth’s opponent’s campaign,” Bal lentine said. “That has nothing to do with this,” she said. “If you will go through and look at the articles of impeachment, all of these things are specifically dated, and they’re specifically dated well after this election happened. “I hope you see that Ms. Fordham is the only one making this personal. This is completely on a professional level,” she said. Ballentine said the articles were about the responsibility given to the commit tee and the treasurer. “We have power over 70-some thousand dollars,” Ballen tine said. “That’s not what I’m going to do. I’m not going to have that money on my shoulders. That is not the oath of office that I took.” Ballentine asked the court to let the entire senate decide the case. “Justice will not be done for either side if all 40 senators that represent all the students at this university do not hear both sides of this procedure,” she said. But Fordham said she had been in formed by a Cabinet member that Bal lentine had been talking to senators and knew she had 21 of 26 senate votes need ed for conviction. She also told the court that Ballentine and the Finance Com mittee had distributed a copy of a pro impeachment press release to senators. “They have been tampering with the jury before the trial has actually [begun],” Fordham said. The hearings took place despite con troversy over procedure that stopped the meeting before it had gotten under way. Both sides said they hadn’t been ade quately informed of the procedure to be followed, which allowed both sides opening and closing statements and a re buttal. The dispute arose over whether both sides had been told they needed to make a statement. Ballentine said she was pre pared to make a short statement. Ford ham said she was only prepared for ques tions. “If you want to ask questions, I’ll an swer questions,” Fordham said. “But that is all I’m prepared for.” However, according to a Nov. 1 mem orandum addressed to all involved par ties and sent to The Gamecock, both sides were asked to “be prepared to make a statement on your case and to answer questions posed to you by members of the court.” The court proceeded with the hear ings anyway, drawing a strong reaction . from Fordham. “I was told it would be an informal session,” she said. “It has been turned in to a lot more than that. It has been turned into a charade.” However, Fordham was more posi tive after the meeting. “I feel like the hearings, although they started out on an unfair basis, turned The Ffue Points Book Shop E716 Santee Avenue in Five Points 803-799-7182 QUALITY USED & OUT-OF-PRINT BOOKS BOUGHT AND SOLD drbooks@thestate.infi.net • www.abebooks.com/home/DRBOOKS 1^^^SSS5=SSSSS35SS5=^===S==s^i H INFORMATION EMPOWERS • One acre of hemp pj ■ produces as much paper as Ijjl 4.1 acres of trees. 131 H • Hemp seed oil Is Ml Ul extremely nutritional - H higher In fatty acids than any other plant. E9 • Hemp has no Illicit use, It PP tJ Is the equivalent of non- Ml Q alcoholic beer. 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Cameras Holocaust from page 1 portant that free debate on the topic take place on college campuses. “I am trying to convince the profes sors that it is better to encourage intel lectual freedom with respect to historical controversies than it is to encourage the suppression of intellectual freedom,” Smith said. “Not having much hope that the profs will do it on their own, I aim to put ‘The Revisionist’ into the hands of stu dents, who, as a class, are considerably more open-minded... than those who teach them.” So far, Smith isn’t selling subscrip tions to his publication. Rather, he’s freely distributing “The Revisionist” to college campuses in hopes that once students are pytvtcpH tn rpvicinnicf thpnrv mainrniiAC. tions will be raised about the Holocaust. Smith said that the publication has run ads in nearly 90 student newspapers, and that announcements and editorial pieces re lating to “The Revisionist” have been pub lished in about 300 student newspapers. Smith added that the first issue of “The Revisionist” was included in Long Island, N.Y.’s Hofstra University newspaper, The Chronicle, as a pre-printed insert. As a result, he said “hits on our YVfeb site jumped from about 18,000 a day to 29,000.” Smith said because of limited finan cial resources, he isn’t able to advertise in mainstream newspapers. He blames better-funded organiza tions for suppressing his view that “the Holocaust is like any other great war sto ry. Some of it happened, some of it didn’t.” “I do not have the funding to pursue ad space in metropolitan newspapers, un like those organizations, such as the An ti-Defamation League, which are dedi cated to preventing students from having Holocaust see page 5 You buy a $20 card. You get $20 worth of wireless calls. 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