Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.If the chicken curse wasn’t dead last year, it was run over and backed into Tuesday night.
South Carolina’s so-called curse is a common excuse for the school’s traditionally mediocre athletics.
But the Gamecocks beat Florida 5-2 Tuesday to win the College World Series for the second year in a row. Gamecocks fans swarmed Omaha, celebrating the breaking of a 200-year-old curse.
“I never really bought into all that,” said Jackie Boland, 60, from Columbia, S.C. “And look at us now.”
The curse is said to have started with Ben Tillman, a former South Carolina senator and an instrumental figure in the establishment of Clemson University. After the South Carolina Legislature made an effort to prevent Clemson’s establishment, Tillman supposedly slammed a pitchfork into the ground on South Carolina’s campus, declaring the university cursed.
The most famous of Carolina’s cursed moments was a football game in 1984. The Gamecocks had started the season 9-0, earning a No. 1 ranking. They traveled to Annapolis to take on the Naval Academy in a game that should have been an easy feat on the road to the national championship season. Instead, the Midshipmen scored a major upset, beating the Gamecocks 38-21.
There was no such heartbreak for Gamecocks fans in this CWS, and Lamar and Louise Oldham watched the whole thing. Their friends Peggy and Joe Lawrence came for the championship series.
Peggy is a huge Gamecocks fan from Columbia, S.C. She and her husband have been watching every baseball game religiously since February.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling,” Peggy said. “We’ve watched these kids, and they never give up.”
The Lawrences and Oldhams planned to greet the team and celebrate at the stadium.
“Then I’m going to go have a big drink,” Lamar said with a smile.
Jackie Boland and her 28-year-old son Travis, both from Columbia, S.C., flew in spontaneously Tuesday morning.
Maybe even too spontaneously, Travis said.
But the instant the Gamecocks snatched the win and fireworks exploded, tears welled in Jackie’s eyes. She hugged her son, then jumped up and down. Her team was No. 1. An in-the-moment decision to fly to Omaha was rewarded.
Tom Braun from Lexington, S.C., said he isn’t surprised. His Gamecocks, he said, have heart:
“See you next year,” he said.
Contact the writer:
402-444-1084, ellen.hirst@owh.com
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