Prominent Gamecock, Steve Spurrier business partner, to close iconic shop
Chip Prezioso is as Gamecock as it gets.
His father was a three-sport letterman for the University of South Carolina in the 1950s and his mother was a cheerleader. He played golf for USC in the 1970s while his brother captained the football team.
In the 1980s, Prezioso founded Palmetto Promotions and The South Carolina Shop to hawk Gamecock and other South Carolina-themed gear wholesale. And in 1993 he designed and trademarked the palmetto tree logo that adorns much of the Gamecock apparel and swag used by USC — including the large palmetto tree on the football field at Williams-Brice Stadium..
“There were a lot of ugly looking palmettos,” Prezioso said. “Some look like chicken feet, upside down dust mops or broccoli.”
And while his logo-driven wholesale business will continue, Prezioso is closing his iconic showroom on Rosewood Drive — the one with the tall blue smokestack by the railroad trestle.
The building had flooding issues from the time he bought it in 2000, he said. And it really got hammered during the 1,000-year flood in 2015, when a newly-built section of USC’s track and field complex across the street gave way, filling the building with mud.
“We just never really recovered,” he said.
And because the shop was mostly a showroom for his wholesale business, Prezioso is winding it down and moving to Pawley’s Island.
But in the Steve Spurrier era of Gamecock football, the shop was a gathering place for the Head Ball Coach and some of his staff and friends.
“Yeah, we would have four or five guys hang out, have a beverage,” Spurrier said Tuesday from his office in Gainesville, Fla., where he now serves as an ambassador and consultant for the University of Florida Athletics Department.
Spurrier won the Heisman Trophy as a quarterback for the Gators and later led them to a national championship as the head coach. He was the Gamecock head coach from 2002 to 2015.
Spurrier became familiar with the shop and wandered in one day to buy some apparel — a vest and a belt. When Prezioso found out Spurrier had actually paid for his stuff (unusual for a big time coach), he gave him his money back.
“I told him he didn’t need to pay me to wear my logo,” Prezioso said.
Prezioso and Spurrier became fast friends and business partners. Prezioso’s company designed and marketed the coach’s signature clothing line, including the famous and oft-abused visors.
“Under Armour (the Gamecock’s corporate apparel sponsor) didn’t have a visor, so I had to sew one of their logos on the side. He wouldn’t wear anything without their logo,” Prezioso said.
Spurrier even took a stab at designing his own hat — a “bucket” hat without a top they called “Spur’s Lid.”
“A visor doesn’t cover your ears,” Spurrier said. “So I came up with the idea of a floppy hat. Chip had them made up. They didn’t sell very well. Chip sent me a box of them the other day. So tell everybody if they want one . . .”
During their partnership, the two became golfing buddies at a very high level — playing at Augusta National (then-Augusta National chairman Hootie Johnson was the college roommate of Prezioso’s father) and pro-am tournaments with the likes of John Daly.
Prezioso even witnessed Spurrier make a hole-in-one on the par three course at Augusta National.
“Hootie picked up the ball and said ‘I’m going to get that framed up,’” Spurrier recalled.
The coach wanted to keep playing with the lucky ball, but Johnson insisted on framing it.
“I hit the next ball in the water, so I would have lost it,” Spurrier said.
Spurrier and Prezioso continue to be friends.
“He’s a good friend,” the Head Ball Coach said. “And I hate to see the store close.”
Prezioso said the store would slowly wind down by the end of the year.
This story was originally published October 24, 2019 at 9:37 AM.