Why it took so long for giant gamecock statue to arrive at Williams-Brice Stadium
The giant gamecock statue now standing in front of South Carolina’s Williams-Brice Stadium was supposed to be in place by the start of Jake Bentley’s true sophomore season in 2017. By the time it was unveiled, the USC passer had played out his time in Columbia and transferred to Utah as a fifth-year senior.
So what exactly was the holdup?
Sculptor Jon Hair explained at the statue’s official unveiling in the middle of Gamecock Plaza that the 20-foot tall, $1 million bronze bird was planned with a particular sort of tight timeline. And the realities of life got in the way.
“I had this think laid out so we could do it in a year,” Hair said. “It was like the Ford assembly line. I had seven teams that started from the beginning with those 300 pieces. Work them all the way thought and we could’ve finished it in about a year. But that broke down after about four months into the project because of some different problems that I had no control over.
“So then it was just finding someone who could help me finish it.”
Other people took other work and projects, meaning instead of the assembly line vision, it was more of a linear process for him alone.
It left Gamecocks athletic director Ray Tanner facing questions about the statue’s status for years on end. At the dedication, the AD called it “a long time coming.”
“It’s a real celebration that the gamecock has arrived,” Tanner said last Friday. “Th bird has landed. We’ve been looking forward to this opportunity for a long, long time.”
Hair has more than 40 pieces, including work at Purdue, Air Force and Wake Forest.
The process involves making a smaller version, engaging it, making moldings and getting the details in clay, and then passing them on in a foundry to be casted.
Hair said the toughest part to assemble was the tail. The bronze feathers each have steel supports to prevent it from sagging (especially if say excited fans were to jump up and down on the piece, which he understands is possible, even if he doesn’t prefer it).
And yes, he said someone had already mentioned that the statue lacked the traditional “spurs” of a Gamecock, but that change could be coming at some point.
“I already heard about it,” Hair said. “I think it’s going to happen. They didn’t want it that way in the beginning.
“We can do that, I’d love to do that.”
This story was originally published October 1, 2020 at 2:15 PM.
