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Rag time: Brothers wave white flag of fun
‘Cocky cloths’ investment pays off in stadium energy
Gamecocks fans cheer during the first quarter as USC is tied with LSU 10-10 just before halftime Saturday at Williams Brice Stadium in Columbia, S.C., Oct. 18, 2008.
Gerry Melendez/gmelendez@thestat /Rich Glickstein/rglickstein@thes
Written by JOSEPH PERSON
jperson @thestate.com
Posted on 10.22.08
CommentsThe white towels being waved in the student section Saturday at Williams-Brice Stadium were hardly signs of surrender.
Described as “white rags” by South Carolina play-by-play announcer Todd Ellis during the USC-LSU broadcast, the towels were the brainchild of a pair of brothers from Barnwell looking to add some energy to the game-day atmosphere for the Gamecocks’ stretch run.
John and Chris Wilder gave away about 10,000 “Cocky cloths” to students at the LSU game and have a contract to hand out more before next month’s Tennessee and Arkansas games.
John Wilder, 34, a car salesman from Greenville, spent nearly $26,000 on the first batch of 30,000 towels, which are about the size of a hand towel and feature the words, “Cocky Cloth, A Carolina Original!” printed in garnet lettering.
Wilder, a lifelong Gamecock fan from Barnwell, paid for the souvenir towels by withdrawing $8,500 from a home equity line of credit, $2,500 from his checking account and putting the remaining $14,960 on a credit card.
While Wilder would like to recoup his investment by selling the towels at the stadium and online or through a corporate sponsor, he insists making money is not his main objective.
“It’s all about giving that stadium some kind of identity,” he said. “People just sit on their hands in there.”
After he watched the USC-Mississippi game on TV with his wife and brother, Wilder said they talked about ways to energize Williams-Brice. Jayme Wilder, a pediatric nurse who grew up in Pittsburgh, Pa., suggested they borrow the “Terrible Towel” idea from her hometown Pittsburgh Steelers.
“My brother just looked at me and we were like, ‘Oh my God, how simple,’” John Wilder said.
The Wilders said they went with white towels thinking they would show up better at night under the lights.
Liz McMillan, general manager of Gamecock Sports Properties, said USC has had pompom and rally rag giveaways in the past with mixed results. But McMillan said the Cocky cloths were well received and made several of the TV highlights shows.
“I thought the student section and the fans did a great job with them,” McMillan said. “Sometimes they’re not utilized, but I felt our students didn’t stop in that regard.”
The Wilders say there was miscommunication with USC athletics officials as far as selling the towels in the stadium after the initial giveaway.
“We were under the impression that we were going to sell them, the athletic department was going to get their share and we were going to change the (Gamecock) nation,” John Wilder said.
But after the towels arrived at Williams-Brice on Friday, John Wilder said a representative of Gamecock Sports Properties, which oversees marketing and advertising at the stadium, told the brothers the athletics department had not approved the deal.
So the brothers, whose grandfather, Joe Wilder, was a state representative from Barnwell, gathered 10 friends and family members Saturday to pass out the towels at four of the stadium gates.
“We just said, the heck with it, we’re going to do this anyway,” said Chris Wilder, 39, who works for a medical staffing firm in Hickory, N.C. “The three-game homestand, the night game, it was just perfect.”
The Web site, cockycloth.com, has had 10,000 hits since Saturday’s game, according to John Wilder. The towels are available on eBay for $4.95, and John Wilder is betting his credit score that fans will buy them.
“It just seemed like a safe risk to me. I gave away 10,000 of them. I’m not scared. I just feel like it’s so positive.”
Reach Person at (803) 771-8496.
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