UofSC, don’t let the door hit you on the way out. Welcome back, USC, you never really left
The University of South Carolina has done some strange naming in recent years.
South Carolina’s flagship educational institution named retired Army Gen. Bob Caslen president even though he didn’t meet the educational requirements, only to have him go down in flames two years later after a disastrous commencement in which he plagiarized a well known speech and said students were graduating from the University of California.
The university had a group spend a year or more documenting buildings and landmarks named after holders of enslaved people, white supremacists and segregationists only to not move forward on changing a single one of them.
Then there was the live mascot naming crisis, in which Sir Big Spur, the rooster that represents the Gamecocks at sporting events, was briefly renamed The General, a name too reminiscent of the aforementioned president, who was long gone by the time of the rooster’s rechristening.
But maybe the most odd decision of all was the University of South Carolina dropping its long-held initials of USC and rebranding itself as UofSC in 2019. It was odd because it was clearly such a bad idea that it was going to be rejected.
It’s not yet Thanksgiving but here’s something we can be thankful for: UofSC is dead. And USC is back, though it never went away in the hearts of those who love the school. The State’s Alexa Jurado reported on the change.
The change is a reminder to the school that even small traditions shouldn’t be taken lightly.
From the start, the decision to rebrand as UofSC was obviously driven in large part by the school attempting to distinguish itself on social media from the University of Southern California. The question most people connected with USC asked was where’s the school’s pride. Why is Carolina conceding to another school?
USC was founded in 1801, 49 years before California was even a state. So what if it chartered “South Carolina College” at first? The initials USC have historical significance for the school. The school was rechartered as the University of South Carolina in 1866 as Reconstruction began and radical changes were being implemented in the Palmetto State. The new initials represent a monumental moment for USC and the state.
It didn’t help that USC had clashed with Southern Cal before and lost. In 2009, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office determined the an interlocking “SC” used on Gamecock sports gear couldn’t be trademarked by the school because Southern Cal had a claim to a similar logo and the initials. Carolina sued, but the courts sided with Southern California. The court decision had no hold over supporters of the more venerable USC, but it did embitter them to Southern Cal just a hair.
Then social media came around and the “of” got shoved into the middle of our beloved insignia, as if we were CofC or something like that. It felt like another blow from Southern Cal.
The university learned the hard way that tradition was not going to be sacrificed for marketing. The idea was rejected by students, Gamecock sports fans and news organizations who hated that the new name was longer and unnecessary. Faculty and staff probably didn’t really dig it even if they didn’t speak ill of the rebranding.
Graduates from before 2019 did not graduate from UofSC. They graduated from USC. Gamecock football fans do not chant “UofSC” during “Sandstorm.” They chant “USC.” It’s not “UofSC” that’s painted on the brick column that overlooks the horseshoe. It’s “USC.”
Behold the remarkable USC.
This story was originally published October 26, 2022 at 11:16 AM.