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Fan favorites
Cocky, the feisty rooster mascot of the University of South Carolina, and The Tiger, Clemson University’s fierce No. 1 fan, rally tens of thousands of fans at a time, but the identities of the students who portray them is a closely guarded secret.
Photo by Mic Smith
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Gamecock family pride
On Family Weekends at USC, Cocky is joined by his mom and dad for pregame fun and festivities.
Photo by Mic Smith
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Everyone needs a sidekick
Joining The Tiger at each game is his 6-year-old nephew, Tiger Cub. Female students often play Cubby to accentuate the size difference.
Photo by Mic Smith
It’s a superhero scenario for a college student.
With a quick costume change, you transform into the most popular character on campus, and on game day, the attention amplifies exponentially.
The home team crowd adores you, allowing you to channel the energy of tens of thousands of fans in a powerful way. Yet when you slip out of the stadium’s glare and out of your alter ego, you fade into the world of an everyday student, sharing your secret with only a small trusted circle.
For students behind the state’s best-known college mascots—The Tiger at Clemson University and Cocky at University of South Carolina—that’s their reality until graduation day when they delight in a big reveal. Beloved but incredibly busy throughout the calendar year, they devote much of their college experience to this magical endeavor, while also committing to the mystery.
“They give their whole body and soul to being a mascot and doing their part to promote school spirit and community service,” says John Seketa, who put together the anthology Clemson Through the Eyes of The Tiger after he coordinated the university’s mascot program from 1986 to 2012.
“And they do it on a drop of a dime.”
Showing off USC
On a Friday afternoon in early October, Cocky swaggers through USC’s downtown Columbia campus with the last class change before Parents Weekend. Passersby on Greene Street can’t help but smile, even gush at everyone’s favorite Gamecock. The high fives are endless.
“Whaaat’s up, Cocky?” one asks as if he’s calling to a fraternity brother.
Sophomore Philicia Thompson asks Cocky to pose with a group of students headed to a service project. “It’s great for Instagram,” she explains after the snap. “Mom loves it. It’s what makes you feel like a Carolinian.”
The mascot heads toward Melton Observatory to show off the Cocky statue USC installed in September 2017. Cocky has a big presence, and his bronze statue is beyond life-sized, measuring 6 feet, 5 inches high, even as it shows the mascot sitting down on a bench. The statue includes a stack of books—a nod to Cocky’s Reading Express, the mascot’s literacy campaign—and a reminder that the bird’s backstory is one of a USC student who can’t bring himself to graduate.
Cocky uses only gestures to point out the statue. He never speaks in public, but USC’s mascot code provides leeway for Cocky to be interviewed privately by journalists while staying in character.
Later, when tucked away in a room at USC’s Visitor Center, he explains that when he isn’t busy with Gamecock sports, community appearances, college classwork and simply “being awesome,” he visits elementary school students across the state. “I really hope to inspire them to pick up a book and read.”
The pioneering creation of Cocky’s Reading Express in 2005 sparked other colleges to start their own mascot-centered charities, and Cocky has earned national respect in other ways. For two years after the character emerged in 1980, Cocky served as the mascot of the College World Series. He has since won scores of mascot titles at cheer competitions. Yet his most visible pursuit is firing up Carolina football crowds.
Working Williams-Brice Stadium
Cocky has his work cut out for him the next day with USC’s face-off against the University of Missouri, which turns out to be one of the wilder games in recent Carolina history.
Word is out that first-string quarterback Jake Bentley won’t play due to injuries, and those who care about wins have concerns. Three hours ahead of the noon start, Cocky greets a growing garnet-and-black crowd at Gamecock Park, across the street from the 80,250-seat stadium. One moment he’s leading the USC marching band on the lawn. The next, he’s at the family tailgate, where freshman Reaghan Briggs recalls another happy run-in with him: “Cocky’s the best,” she says. “He sat next to me at a volleyball game, and it’s the only reason I stayed.”
Many are tickled to see the characters of Mama and Papa Cocky join him on Family Weekend. Heidi Askew says she fell in love with Cocky as soon as she met him at Admitted Students Day with her son, who is now a freshman. “That was the first USC picture we took—of him and Cocky—and it’s on his dorm room desk.”
With the start of each home game, the stadium’s eyes fixate on Cocky as the feisty rooster emerges from a smoky magic box, a salute to USC’s storied 1984 “Black Magic” football season. After the “2001” theme song ends, a piercing “Cacaw” crows through the loudspeakers, and the Missouri game begins. Cocky bounds toward the north end zone and student section, where he spends most of his time. He will do whatever he can to galvanize Gamecock momentum, not knowing how much endurance will be required as near-90-degree temps in Columbia twist into rain, two lightning delays and game clock glitches.
The rain also helps reverse a sluggish first half, and Carolina grabs shining moments under quarterback Michael Scarnecchia in his first career start. Fans who last into the afternoon’s fourth and fifth hours have a blast twirling their dripping white towels to the melodic thumping of the USC anthem “Sandstorm” as dancing Cocky commands.
Behind 34–35 in the last few minutes, the Gamecocks drive to the zone as Cocky alternately rallies spectators and clutches his beak with worry. A 33-yard field goal seals the win for USC with two seconds left. Once the jubilation simmers down, the mascot falls in line with the football team as they glad-hand fans, with Cocky just behind the hero quarterback.
Hanging with the Clemson family
When Clemson prepares for the University of Louisville home game a month later in November in the Upstate, the question isn’t who will win, but how high Clemson will run the score on the Cardinals.
Each time Clemson puts points up, The Tiger matches his team’s score with a corresponding number of pushups. That tradition dates back to the late 1970s, while the official push-up board The Tiger uses lists the names of past mascots dating back to the 1950s.
Those kinds of connections to the past are important to Clemson junior Jess Lloyd, whose grandfather got his diploma here in 1957.
Wearing a Death Valley T-shirt, the third-generation Clemson student grabs a selfie with The Tiger when she spots him outside the library the Friday before the game. Her family is so steeped in love for the university that a cousin’s orange-and-purple wedding included an appearance by The Tiger, and another cousin took a turn in college playing Tiger Cub, the kid-friendly sidekick introduced in 1993.
Lloyd serves on the Student Advisory Board for IPTAY, the school’s athletic fundraising arm, which stood for “I Pay Ten a Year” when created in 1934. To her, the mascot embodies Clemson’s strengths. “That spirit of determination and pride, it resonates a lot with The Tiger.”
For the student portraying The Tiger, the connection he feels to the “all-in” Clemson family makes it all worthwhile. “You get to meet the people that make the Clemson community,” he says later, once he has changed out of his costume and into street clothes.
But he admits it’s a “different take” on college social life. Many of the parties he attends are for people he doesn’t really know, and he spends much of his time at events where he can’t reveal his true self. He’s only told a dozen or so friends about his role as The Tiger, and he waited nearly two years to tell his immediate family, knowing they would have to hold themselves back from telling their friends.
He is allowed to talk to the media about his experiences as long as his name is not published while he’s a student, and when given the chance, he exuberantly explains how he loves the attention, the sports and the travel. He’s from a small South Carolina town where not everyone continues their education past high school, and he hopes he’s helping young people see the possibilities of college. His favorite interactions are with kids. “It means a lot for someone to say, ‘I’m your biggest fan, Tiger.’”
Concealed in The Tiger’s den
The conversation about sustaining the balance between stardom and anonymity strikes back up Saturday morning before the game in The Tiger’s hideout, underneath the stadium’s west end zone seats, where mascots suit up in a concrete corner made comfortable with a worn sectional couch.
Joining The Tiger at each game is his 6-year-old nephew, Tiger Cub. Female students often play Cubby to accentuate the size difference. Recent Clemson grad Alyssa Broeker embraced the role, which she played for four years, but found the secrecy to be stressful. “It’s hard to have to come up with lies and be creative with that, but the reason why we keep it a secret is to keep the identity of the character.”
Truth told, Clemson’s mascot roster has expanded in recent years to include more than one Cubby and Tiger as their duties have stretched to all sports, and demand has grown for them to attend more university and outside appearances.
Having backup on game days helps, too. The characters stay highly visible hours ahead of kickoff, walking with the team to the stadium, joining the parade down Fort Hill Street and visiting the university president’s box.
Then there are the pushups. Clemson’s total by the end of the Louisville game will reach 77 points. With each of the 11 touchdowns, The Tiger will have to match the team’s score in pushups, for a total of 462, a feat made harder by the heat in the suit. Switching out mascots during the game helps The Tiger meet the challenge and stay charged.
In the shelter of The Tiger’s den, the mascots support one another, happy to be part of a larger “fur-ternity” with alums and other mascots across the country. “No one else can relate to the things that we go through,” says Broeker.
Moments that stick with her include the rush of running down The Hill at the start of a game, and the emotion of hospital visits. “When you see a kid who’s 5 years old and has cancer and you’re able to put a smile on their face for five minutes, you cry in suit, and you get chill bumps.”
Her boyfriend of the past two years is a previous Tiger, and she knows of other Tiger and Cubby couples, including one who got married. She’s noticed that mascots have similar personalities. “We’re all outgoing. We’re all funny. None of us take ourselves seriously. I’m not saying you have to be that way to be a mascot, but it’s kind of a common theme.”
Graduation day exposure
While their roles demand selflessness, mascots at Clemson and USC dream of graduation when they can show the world what they’ve really been up to in college.
At Clemson, their furry orange costume sleeves show under their gowns, their paws emerging with a thumbs up. At Carolina, their Cocky feet give their secret identity away.
Hunter Fowler clearly remembers his commencement at USC’s Colonial Life Arena in December 2013 as his years in the Cocky world came to a close.
He dialed the volume to deafening levels in 2010 when USC’s football team upset No. 1-ranked Alabama, and he punctuated business presentations by USC President Harris Pastides to the tune of “2001.” He danced through countless basketball halftimes and countless birthdays and wedding receptions across the state. If he was “in suit,” he gave 110 percent, knowing he was a symbol of the university.
““It can be pretty intense,” admits Fowler, now 27 and working in marketing in Spartanburg. “It was one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve ever had, that’s for sure.”
At commencement he started incognito, walking from the stands in a slow line of other soon-to-be grads. Only when he hit the arena floor did others notice the flop of his yellow feet. The whispers grew louder as he approached the stage, and when received a hug, not a handshake, from the university president, it seemed like everyone in the arena was cheering—this time not for a character, but for him.
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Mascot faceoff
The Tiger
History: When he first emerged is unclear, but the mascot anthology Clemson Through the Eyes of The Tiger points to a photo from Jan. 1, 1952, of The Tiger at the Gator Bowl. In the book, alum Roy Southerlin recalls finding the mascot suit in Clemson University’s Field House in the early 1950s and taking the role upon himself. “It was a great way to meet girls, get free meals from the training table and other freebies. Wow, what a blast!”
Complimentary character: Tiger Cub, or Cubby, debuted in 1993, popping out of the backseat of a 1963 Checker Cab at the Georgia Tech game. He was introduced as The Tiger’s 6-year-old nephew as a tie-in with IPTAY’s Tiger Cub Club for kids.
Hallmark: Fans count on The Tiger to do sideline push-ups that correspond to Clemson’s score whenever his team puts new points up, a tradition copied from Penn State in 1977.
Game day entrance: Along with football players, coaches and Clemson’s cannoneer, The Tiger and Cubby share the privilege of rubbing Howard’s Rock for luck before they run down The Hill and onto the field—a ritual since 1967 that Sports Illustrated recently ranked No. 1 in its top 25 entrances in college football.
Giving: Connected by their tiger mascots, Clemson, Auburn, Louisiana State and University of Missouri have teamed up with Tigers Always (clemson.edu/tigers-always), a campaign to save real-life tigers from extinction.
Cocky
History: Before Cocky, University of South Carolina had Big Spur, a 7-foot-tall fighting rooster that appeared in the 1970s. Big Spur’s unwieldy costume led Cocky to be hatched at the 1980 homecoming game, but football fans resisted, so Big Spur lingered during a transition period, and the newcomer covered women’s sports as “Superchick.” Ultimately, Cocky endeared himself to fans, taking over as USC’s first-string mascot by the 1982 football season, according to an account from My Carolina Alumni Association with the first Cocky, John Routh.
Complimentary characters: Cocky bears clear resemblance to his costumed mom and dad, who now join him on Parents Weekend. Cocky’s girlfriend Caroline visits for the Homecoming game. USC also welcomes a real-life gamecock, Sir Big Spur, to the sidelines.
Hallmark: “Spurs Up” has become a Gamecock fan phrase embraced by Head Football Coach Will Muschamp, and Cocky often does the corresponding hand sign, which is like a hang loose “shaka” with the thumb and pinky up.
Game day entrance: Cocky’s “Black Magic” opening serves as a focal point of what TV sports commentator Brent Musburger called “one of the grandest openings in all of college football,” with the bird busting out of a magic box to the booms of “2001: Space Odyssey” as fireworks go off and players storm the field.
Giving: Created by USC students, Cocky’s Reading Express literacy program takes the mascot to elementary schools across the state and has since handed out nearly 130,000 books in 13 years.
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Command performances
Cocky, The Tiger and Tiger Cub are available for community and private events, including weddings. Make requests online at getcocky.ad.sc.edu or clemsontigers.com/mascot-appearance-request.