‘A Treasure Hunt.’ Super fan donates Hootie & the Blowfish collection to USC
With two trucks filled with merchandise, super fan Rick Noble drove down to the Capital City from Asheville, N.C., to donate hundreds of Hootie & the Blowfish memorabilia to the University of South Carolina’s libraries.
Noble and his wife, Lynne, displayed the collection in a conference room in the Ernest F. Hollings Special Collections Library Friday morning. After Noble tearfully expressed his adoration and appreciation towards Hootie & the Blowfish and the university, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room.
“I didn’t expect to get so choked up,” Noble laughed. “Can you guys cut that out of the audio?”
His interest in the band, whose four members attended USC, began when his daughter was listening to one of the band’s albums on CD.
“I think I paid her $5 or $6 for the CD. The receipt she had from the store she bought it from is around here somewhere,” Noble said.
After that fateful moment in 1993, Noble dedicated several storage bins and a whole room of his home to Hootie & the Blowfish CDs, baseball hats, T-shirts, ticket stubs and more.
“I have some favorite [items], but I don’t want to pick favorites, you know?” Noble said. “It’s like children, I don’t want to pick any one of them.”
Hootie & the Blowfish is a rock band that formed at the University of South Carolina in 1986. The group has won two Grammy Awards and recorded six albums. Their first album, Cracked Rear View (1994), was certified platinum 21 times. Worldwide, the band has sold over 25 million records.
Lead singer Darius Rucker pursued a solo country music career in 2008, but the band continues to perform for select events.
Noble said he had offered to donate the items a few years ago, but didn’t get a response. After the Gamecock’s women basketball team was set to play in the national championship earlier this year, Noble decided he was again ready to donate his large collection to the university. He emailed Interim President Harris Pastides and got a response within 5-10 minutes.
“We knew that Harris was back as the interim, and that was the catalyst,” Noble’s wife, Lynne, said. “The fact that [Darius Rucker] was doing yet another free concert, that really spurred Rick to go, ‘well, let me try one more time.’”
After the Gamecock women’s basketball team won the national championship in April, Rucker gave a free concert for the team and USC students at the Colonial Life Arena.
The Nobles lived in Columbia for 40 years before moving to Asheville, NC. The couple splits their time between a house they own in Canada and Asheville. Their son also attended USC.
Watching her husband gleam over his collection, Lynne expressed her gratitude for the opportunity to donate to USC.
“A lot of times donations come after somebody dies and somebody else makes the donations. I’m happy he had the chance to put it all together,” Lynne said. “He could talk for hours about this.”
The collection of items will be organized and appraised over the next few months before being displayed at the Ernest F. Hollings Special Collections Library within Thomas Cooper Library on campus, according to Associate Dean for Special Collections Elizabeth Sudduth.
Noble was allowed to keep a box of his items, gesturing over to his wife with thanks. Noble’s excitement for the university to house the collection was contagious.
“The rest of the university have been just so gracious and welcoming. And I think one of the things that Harris said, from the very beginning was, ‘We will take care of this,’ Noble said, tearing up. “That — that meant something to me.”
Oh, and don’t ask Noble how much his collection cost over the years.
“There is an inventory I did up until 2001, but after that, I have no idea,” Noble said, laughing.
This story was originally published June 3, 2022 at 2:37 PM.
