The South Carolina Gamecocks are the athletic teams of the University of South Carolina in Columbia. The university’s primary athletic mark is the “Block C” logo, which features a gamecock bird atop a block serif letter C in garnet and black. The athletics department has used this mark in some form since 1975, and it remains the department’s long-time logo even as the university has updated its academic branding.
Design and History
The Gamecocks nickname traces to 1902, when Carolina students celebrated an upset football victory over Clemson by carrying a drawing of a gamecock crowing over a beaten tiger. Clemson cadets marched on campus to seize the drawing, and the confrontation nearly turned violent. After the incident, newspapers began referring to the team as the Gamecocks, and the name stuck. The nickname also connects to Revolutionary War hero Thomas Sumter, whose nickname was the Gamecock. [1]
The Block C logo first appeared on football helmets in 1975, when head coach Jim Carlen arrived from Texas Tech and brought his signature helmet design with him. Carlen replaced Texas Tech’s scarlet “TT” with Carolina’s Block C, and the logo has adorned Gamecocks helmets in some form since then. [2] The logo was stamped on garnet, black and white helmets from 1975 to 2005. [3]
In 2008, the university changed the shade of garnet used in its athletic marks. [4] The current Block C and Gamecock mark is essentially the Carlen-era version with minor tweaks, described as a bit more stylized and streamlined. [5]
In August 2018, for the first time since 1974, the Gamecocks wore football helmets without the Block C or gamecock logo, switching to a script “Carolina” mark on garnet helmets. The change was temporary, used only on garnet helmets, while white and black helmets continued to feature the Block C. [3]
In January 2019, the university unveiled a new family of academic logos as part of a rebrand to “UofSC,” but the athletics department continued using its long-time Block C containing the Gamecock logo. [6] In October 2022, the university announced it was simplifying its branding marks to focus on its iconic tree-and-gates academic logo and introduced a new block-letter USC spirit mark that includes 1801, the year of the university’s founding. Athletic logos were not impacted by that change. [7]
Meaning and Symbolism
The gamecock is a fighting rooster, and South Carolinians in the early 1900s would have been very familiar with the aggressiveness of the birds, as cockfighting was still widespread at the time. The university’s mascot also connects to Thomas Sumter, a Revolutionary War hero nicknamed the Gamecock. [1]
Garnet and black became the university’s colors in the 1890s. Students first wore striped garnet and black caps to a football game in December 1892, and a professor presented a banner in these colors to the football team in 1895. The university yearbook, first published in 1899, was called the Garnet and Black. In 1900, garnet and black became the de facto official colors when students voted down a proposal to change them. [8]
Typography and Design
The Block C logo consists of a gamecock atop a block serif letter C shown in garnet and black. [4] Garnet, black and white are the official colors of the University of South Carolina, with garnet specified as PMS 202. [9] The university owns federally registered trademarks for the Gamecock logo and the Block C with Gamecock logo. [10]
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