Fifth of a series.
ESPN is naming its "Mount Rushmore" for sports in each of the 50 states. We liked the idea, so we're taking a smaller slice. Today, the Mount Rushmore of South Carolina athletics.
Frank McGuire, basketball: He spent 16 seasons as the Gamecocks' men's basketball coach, defining the program and shaping it into a national power. McGuire was a three-time national coach of the year and led the Gamecocks to six consecutive seasons with at least 20 wins. McGuire (283-142 at South Carolina) is a member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
Alex English, basketball: He remains the school's second-leading scorer in basketball after a spectacular career. English, with his silky style and explosive scoring ability, is the only player in school history to start every career game, 111 of them in his case. His number 22 is retired by the school. As a pro, English was a perennial All-Star and led the NBA in scoring in 1983. He's a member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
George Rogers, football: He's the only Heisman Trophy winner from a Carolinas school and is the most honored player in South Carolina's football history. Rogers gained at least 1,000 yards in his last three seasons and with 1,781 yards as a senior. he won the Heisman Trophy, beating Pittsburgh's Hugh Green and Georgia's Herschel Walker. Rogers went to a successful NFL career in which he scored 54 touchdowns.
Dan Reeves, football: He was quarterback for the Gamecocks from 1962 through 1964 where he was a productive player. His greater fame would come later, however. Reeves played running back for the Dallas Cowboys from 1965 through 1972. When he was named head coach of the Denver Broncos in 1983, Reeves was only 31 years old. He eventually took four teams to the Super Bowl including the Atlanta Falcons.--Ron Green Jr.
-----------------
Disagree? Think we left someone out? Tell us in the comments below who you'd add, and which of our picks yours should replace.
Posts
25 comments:
Nice comment on Big George. What will you say about David Thompson and Phil Ford. George is a great spokesman for our university and a class act nowadays. Coach McGuire still casts a huge shadow. I would replace Dan Reeves with John Roche. If not for an ankle injury late in the season, and the color thing, plus a Chapel Hill boy getting the votes, Roche would have been ACC player of the year 3 times out of 3. 2-time ACC player of the year stacks up pretty well though and having your picture on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the Gamecocks being the preseason #1 pick in basketball ranks high, .though
John Roche over English.
Read the comment again. Roche over Dan Reeves. Reeves was a very good player at Carolina, but Roche was our best college basketball player on our best teams. He also had 3 years to do what English did in 4 years, but I wouldn't replace English I would replace Reeves because of what they did in college not afterwards. Roche, though, is a very accomplished attorney in Denver to this day. Both guys played for the Nuggets in the NBA.
No doubt that John Roche should be on the list and Dan Reeves is the one that he should replace. Not many people out of the USC fanbase and very knowledgable football fans know that Reeves went to USC.
Charlie Scott probably should have won the ACC Player of the Year the second season Roche won the award. Scott was elected ACC Athlete of the Year. Roche won the award his junior and senior seasons. He was not close to winning as a sophmore (1968) when UNC's Larry Miller was a first team All American leading UNC to the title game.
How about one BIG PICTURE of the entire athletic program leaving the ACC becuase they were tired of not being able to compete in basketball. Now they are a SEC step-sister.
Was Dan Reeves the Doogy Howser of football? If Reeves was only 31 when he became a head coach in 1983(therefore,born in 1952)--when he started his Dallas career in 1965--he would have been only 13 years old. He must have been something as a sub-teen prep star!
Check your history ACC-er. At the time we left the ACC because it was better to be an independent. We lost the ACC tourney and didn't make the Big Dance a couple of times, which was certainly a factor. In football, there was more money playing other independents - Penn St, Notre Dame, Miami, FSU, WVU, and others compared to a lackluster ACC.
That being said, I'm one of the few Gamecocks who would have rather re-joined the ACC than gone into the SEC, but old bad blood dies hard.
Typical ACCer who knows nothing but big four basketball. The last year we were in the ACC we won the basketball championship.
If you got an autograph from George Rogers at the Williams Brice you would know that the woman with him is from the charity that the money goes to every week. Another Clempson idiot showing his butt. Of course Clempson is the school that forced the NCAA to write a death penalty rule for a program since they committed 92 major recruiting violations from 1977-1982. The best paid national title team Danny Ford could put together.
I am always shocked (and I shouldn't be because I was born and raised here) by the ignorance of things people write. George Rogers is a class act, I am on the staff of a national non-profit founded and headquartered here in Columbia, George came out a few weeks ago and signed autographs for a group of 400 kids for about an hour; talked to every single kid, asked them about how they were doing in school and let each and every one of them hold his Heisman and wear his Super Bowl ring. The fact that some want to parade their ignorance and continue to bring up mistakes of his younger years is one more shining example of crippling stupidity!
From Wikipedia about John Roche, "John Michael Roche (born September 26, 1949 in New York City, United States) is a retired American professional basketball player in both the ABA and the NBA. The 6'3" (1.90 m), 170 lb (77 kg) guard's career spanned from 1971 to 1982.
Roche attended high school at La Salle Academy and college at the University of South Carolina and was a three-time All-American and two-time MVP of the Atlantic Coast Conference).[citations needed] Roche played for the legendary Frank McGuire at Carolina. He was selected by the Phoenix Suns in the first round (14th pick) of the 1971 NBA Draft and also selected by the Kentucky Colonels in the 1971 ABA Draft. Roche signed with the New York Nets of the ABA, who had obtained the rights to him from the Colonels. He played with the Nets for the next three seasons, leading them to the 1974 ABA championship. Roche is one of three players in NBA history to hit 7 three-point field goals in a quarter (along with Henry James and Steve Smith).
Roche earned a law degree from the University of Denver College of Law, while playing for the Denver Nuggets. As of 2006, Roche was a Partner at the Denver office of the law firm Snell & Wilmer.
Roche was a freshman in 1968 and ineligible to play varsity basketball as were all freshmen in college basketball. David Thompson was hurt by the freshman rule, also. Roche's senior season was '70-'71, the year we won the ACC.
"Carolina" = University of North Carolina @ Chapel Hill.
I guess we know who has title to this mountain, USC's daddy.......Clemson...
USC has another "Mount Rushmore" for former athletes. Its located at the Alvin Glenn Detention Center in Columbia.
You have to admit that a guy who wears a hat around that says George Rogers Heisman Trophy Winner is a little weird. He's not a bad guy but George Rogers loves him some George Rogers.
I don't understand how you can compile a list of males associated with USC athletics without mentioning Pam Parsons.
Typical coot fans who CAN'T read. I will pay anyone $1,000 if they can show me where I said anything about him signing autographs. I was referring to the pictures he poses for on gamedays in Columbia. He sits right next to the stadium with his heisman and charges people to have their picture made. From the two times that I have witnessed this, I can promise you there was nothing chariable about it. Read the post before you comment coots. If you can't read, go find a Clemson grad and they will read it for you.
The autographs probably aren't worth anything. How much can an X be worth?
9 out of 10 for Jacklegs got Pickens County all upset today.
How do you know the name of what is it, Alvin Glenn Detention Center in Columbia? Must be where you work or frequent. Good to see the tigger fans can't stay away from anything CAROLINA. We all know Clempson fans are proud of their 2 year degrees. They can't stand that they don't have a player with a Heisman since they had the coach. Again you ignorant fool, George gives the money for pictures and autographs to charity. I guess he won't let orange peelers close enough to tell them that fact or he just was smarter than you since you know where the money goes. Go back and massage your rock some more, Dabo.
Is 9 out of 10 Clemson's basketball record against you or Clemson's football record??
Oh, baseball...a mere hiccup in our century long domination of USC in that sport, as well.......
First it was the money from the autographs that he gives to charity. Now its both autographs AND pictures. Whats next, does he chew food and feed baby blue birds? Congrats on him winning the Heisman while being heavily coked up. I'll just make myself fill better by remembering 1981. And before anyone says Clemson cheated, the NCAA would have taken the title away had they cheated(see Michigan basketball). Rogers is a druggie and a douchebag.
"I will make myself fill better".
What part of yourself will you "fill better"? Your ass? What are you going to fill it with? Dumbass Clemson grad. Actually, probably not even a grad.
For all of the Clemson fans posting here, how many actually have a degree from Clemson and how many of you just happen to work on a farm in Pickens County and have no choice to support Clemson?
Ignorance is bliss, but here is the truth, "On November 21, 1982, the football program was placed on probation for a 2-year period to include the 1983 and 1984 seasons. This sanction was enforced on the program by the NCAA Committee on Infractions due to a lengthy history of recruiting violations to gain an athletic advantage that had taken place from 1977 through the Tigers' 1981 National Championship season and into 1982, under the administration of two head coaches, Charlie Pell and Danny Ford.
Over 150 documented violations were found to have been committed under NCAA bylaws in the categories of improper recruiting inducements, extra benefits to student-athletes, ethical conduct, improper financial aid, improper campus visits, improper transportation and entertainment, improper use of funds, improper employment, improper recruiting contact, and distribution of cash to players by members of the coaching staff.[1]
As a result of these violations, Clemson was publicly reprimanded and censured by the NCAA. The football team was barred from participating in bowl games following the 1982 and 1983 seasons, and barred from appearing on live television in the 1983 and 1984 seasons. Also, the number of scholarships that the university could allocate to football players was restricted to 20 (from the normal limit of 30) for the 1983-84 and 1984-85 academic years.
Charles Alan Wright, chairman of the NCAA Committee on Infractions said at the time, "Due to the large number and serious nature of the violations in this case, the committee believed that institutional sanctions related to appearances on television and in postseason football bowl games were appropriate. In addition, because the violations indicated a pattern of improper recruiting activities, the committee determined that a two-year limitation on financial aid to new recruits should be imposed to offset any recruiting advantage that was gained improperly by the university."[2][3]
Just five years after their probation ended, Clemson once again found their football program accused of multiple recruiting violations in January 1990.[4] The NCAA accused Clemson of giving cash to players and having illegal contact with recruits over a period from 1984 to 1988. In June 1990, the Tigers found themselves on probation once again, for the second time in less than a decade.[5] This chain of events led directly to the forced resignation of popular head coach Danny Ford."
Hope you can make yourself "fill better" you stupid fool.
Rob Deboer
Post a Comment