This could only happen at South Carolina.
You’ve seen him, petted him, perhaps held him. Ever since Mary Snelling got the idea to start bringing a live rooster to University of South Carolina athletic events, Sir Big Spur has been a sideline staple and a photo favorite.
He’ll still be there for this football season, baseball season and future games. But he’ll have a different look, and a different name, because of a bone of contention between the original owners and the new owners.
Make that, a comb of contention.
… The comb is the bright-red crest on top of a rooster’s head. It matches the color and function of the wattle, another lump of tissue that hangs below the chicken’s beak.
They’re each part of the birds’ heat regulation systems because, in an outstanding piece of trivia, chickens cannot sweat. The comb and wattle act as a sort of “air conditioner” in the birds’ circulatory system — hence the red — and the cooler blood then passes back through the rest of the bird’s body.
Throughout Snelling and Albertelli’s ownership of the birds, they clipped the combs. They felt it made them look more like USC’s namesake, the Fightin’ Gamecock, i.e., fiercer than the average chicken.
“Fiercer than the average chicken” sounds like the perfect motto for Carolina football. But I digress.
Albertelli has had a contract with USC for the past five years, allowing USC exclusive rights to use the trademarked name “Sir Big Spur.” That contract ran out on Aug. 1 and Albertelli has no plans to renew it, or to let the Clarks use the name.
“A chicken is a chicken but a fighting gamecock is something different. This is dumbing down the Gamecocks,” Albertelli said. “Whenever a new coach goes to a school that’s been struggling, you always hear a statement similar to, ‘You’ve got to change the culture.’
“I don’t know what culture in our day and age means, but if it means making a gamecock look like a chicken, or not hurting him because it might make the chicken feel good, it’s not preserving what we’ve built. This is dumbing down our culture.”
Dumbing down the Gamecocks… is that even possible?
By the way,
Nichols and the Clarks have not come to a decision on a new name and aren’t sure how they’ll select one. They could just pick one — Snelling said she has heard “Thee Spur” as a frontrunner but Clark said no name or list of names has been approved — or perhaps have a fan vote.
Please cast your ballot in the comments.
(h/t)
I am so thankful for the Seiler family and the UGAs.
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Watched “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” again last night, UGA V stole every scene he was in.
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“Mr. Eastwood, Uga already is a celebrity.”
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Cock Fans Phenomenal might be good, but CFP may already be taken.
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Is it that difficult to just go get whatever chicken you want that’s the right color and put it on the sideline? Do you need some special pompous “chicken family” to take care of it?
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Replace the word “chicken” with the word “bulldog” in your question and read it again.
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Bite your lip, Anon.
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I’m just sayin…the lineage of a cock is important
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Dogs are man’s best friend. Chickens are man’s best sandwich. The South Carolina, obsession with America’s Tastiest Mascot is even weirder than ancient Egyptians and their veneration of cats. But do go on, Prioleau.
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All clear. Cheers
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I respect the enthusiasm S Carolina fans have always shown for football, despite little in the way of results. They’re the Cubs fans of the SEC. I still think having a chicken as your mascot is a little weird, but I bark at strangers and think nothing of it. You understand how the SEC is: if you aint us, we aint pulling for you. This runs in all directions.
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Funny, I heard the gardener saying the same thing to my wife earlier today. Anon, I may know you!!! 😃
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Fried with peas, rice & gravy is what I’d name him.
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Or marinated in white wine, garlic and lemon juice.
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Gotdam hippie.
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LeSeur peas
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Purple Hull peas boiled with okra.
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You people that fuck up perfectly good peas with slimy-assed okra just kill me!!!!!
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Okra is meant to be fried in an iron skillet, thickening a gumbo, or spicily pickled and soused in a Bloody Mary.
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Pot-Pie.
You’re welcome, SC.
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My Dawg!
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Capon
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Can I cast my ballot for time back in my life after reading that?
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It’s required reading for Sackalaka fans.
They’ll be talking about this all day and around the supper table tonight,
It’s a different world over there.
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I DGAS what they call their rooster inside that steaming hot asshole of a stadium. I do find their arguments entertaining and hope they continue for a long time.
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Seems like a good occasion to repeat an oldie that’s worth a smile:
Kinky is when you use a feather. Perverted is when you use the whole chicken.
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Fiercer than the average chicken … hahahahahahahahahaha!
Gamecocks are only fierce when they fight each other. Otherwise, they are pretty much at the bottom of the food chain – sort of like yellow jackets.
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Lil’ Cock.
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Possessive or descriptive in that statement is everything.
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Sign an NIL with Chicken Salad Chick (trademark).
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I like CSC for a scoop of Classic Carol or Dixie Chick to go with a spicy pimento cheese BLT.
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Can’t make Chicken Salad out of Chicken $hit!
(Not a dig at CSC,of course!)
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Sir Cheap Bourbon!!
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Frier Cluck.
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They should just go all in and name the thing “Cocky”.
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gotta admit i don’t think i ever noticed that it was clipped and honestly it looks more badass with it than without
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“Mr. Unclipped Cock”….Sir All-natural Cock…? I dunno. I got nothing.
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The Cocks’ Cock.
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Wut???
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LOL.. I hate this mascot and that stupid chicken call they play during games.
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Que the GIF of the dude in the cowboy hat and flip flops acting like a chicken. I can’t find it…
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Sir Uncut
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Sorry Frozendawg, I have to…
“Rumpled Foreskin”
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Fits like a glove 🧐Uncle Got
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A game day “tradition” since 2006. Is the writer trying to make fun of usc?
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Maybe they also hire Pruitt and his hijab, as they embrace the look of more foreskin on the sideline
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Little Jerry
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Cockmaster
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Flame broiled, just like it feels sitting in the portal to hell that is Williams-Brice Stadium.
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Chickenshit
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Winner winner chicken dinner!
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The chickens have such long standing “traditions”. Here are a few:
Their fight song is a Broadway tune from 1967.
The music the team enters the stadium to was lifted from a movie released in 1968.
Their current signature in game music is a techno song from 1999.
Their live mascot has been around since 2006.
The greatest, longest tenured, tradition of South Carolina football is 130 uninterrupted years of on field mediocrity.
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I feel like an unclipped cock might confuse people because of that image of Jeremy Pruitt wearing that buff around his bald head.
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Spurgeon General
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I am reminded of a tshirt I saw at a Jacksonville State (also Gamecocks)/Troy U football game in the 80s- “There is no Trojan that can hold our Cocks”
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Sir Cumcision
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That might be the name of a medieval porno, let me check the archives…friggin copyrights
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Clucky McCockface?
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LOL! Drop mic.
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This whole story is….fowl.
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Captain Capon?
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I learned something about Chickens today.
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Flacid
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The Paltry Poultry
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Yardbird…Chicken-shit…frog legs
That’s all I got…
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Just name him “Looser” like the rest of the team
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Loser, like the football team not looser like the female fans.
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La poule mouillée
John Coctostan jr
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“Well, we are ready to hand off management of this honor but also time and money consuming project to our hand picked successors whom we trust to carry on the tradition so we can finally rest!”
“We are so honored to take on this duty and care for our beloved mascot!”
“Wait you’re doing it wrong so I’m going to have a hissy!”
“OK. Cool. Go Cocks.”
Once you give it away, it’s not yours anymore.
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These are merely for consideration: Peckerhead, Dickface, Dumpling, Cock Breath, Michael Adams, Any-Cock-Will-Doo, Sailor, Sir Peckerwrecker, Renaldo
You can’t go wrong, USC, because no one GAS about this but you fowl mouth-breathers
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Robot Chicken (2005-#) – Season 1-5 Intro – YouTube
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I’m slow on the uptake here, but this is an ill-advised story. How long before PETA jumps their cocks for mutilating the bird by cutting off part of its natural cooling system and taking it into that hot as hell stadium for four hours?
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Peanut oil at 375 degrees, for about 20-25 minutes should do that chicken a world of good…
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Chicken Little
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Foghorn Leghorn
(Read the wikipedia reference on Foghorn Leghorn to enjoy how perfect this name could truly be–including his rivalry with Barnyard Dawg.)
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I have no idea what is happening here
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Urban Meyer?
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Sandspur.
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Sir Cocks a Lot
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DAWGS to play cocks with Dicks out…
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Spurrier. That’s a no brainer.
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