Why the Sir Big Spur rooster won’t be at South Carolina football games this season
For the first time in more than two decades, that familiar live rooster won’t be around the stadium at South Carolina’s football games.
The SEC’s ban on live mascots during this coronavirus-affected season means Sir Big Spur will not be at the Gamecocks’ football games. The school did confirm that mascot Cocky will be at the bottom of the stadium’s Section 24 along with a smaller group or dance team members and cheerleaders.
Ron Albertelli, one of the owners of Sir Big Spur with his wife, Mary Snelling, said they were told about seven weeks ago to not make plans for road trips and got the news three weeks ago about home games. It breaks a run of 21 years for the Aiken couple, according to Albertelli.
“It’s tough, but there’s not a whole lot we can do about it,” Albertelli said. “So everybody will realize that there are certain things as you look back, that the year 2020 will have a little asterisk beside it because of this crazy pandemic.”
He said they’ve been to every home and away football game, bowls and parades over those 21 years, plus home baseball games and the occasional soccer match, golf outing or softball games.
The current Sir Big Spur is 7 years old — they get retired at age 9 — and he’s the fifth since they started. They’re not typical barnyard roosters; they’re Old English black-breasted red gamecocks.
In some ways, the timing isn’t the worst as the couple is in the midst of handing off Sir Big Spur as Albertelli and Snelling get older. At some point, Van and Beth Clark will fully take over the tradition, and the current bird has already moved to their home in Edgefield along with the “assistant chickens.” The Clarks are USC graduates who recently retired.
“It’s been a long, hard struggle to finally get the university to realize it might be something of value to them and continuing on the tradition,” Albertelli said.
Albertelli and Snelling will still be able to take Sir Big Spur to games if they’d like, but in the transition the Clarks will take on more of the heavy lifting when things return to normal. Albertelli took Van Clark to the Georgia game last year to show him the ropes for a road game situation.
South Carolina will admit just short of 20,000 people into Williams-Brice Stadium this season because of the pandemic. That includes some students, a smaller band and other assorted stadium personnel. Traditions such as the pregame Gamecock Walk won’t happen.
And for now, Sir Big Spur won’t be in his usual carrier, rolling around the stadium and keeping watching on the game from the sidelines. And Albertelli and Snelling will be taking in games in a different way, one they haven’t done for a while.
“Sitting in front of the boob tube watching you like everybody else,” Albertelli said with a wave of energy in his voice.
This story was originally published September 21, 2020 at 12:11 PM.
