First look: New banner goes up at Gamecocks’ Williams-Brice Stadium
A new look at Williams-Brice Stadium made its debut Saturday.
A vertical banner that includes new coach Shane Beamer’s “Welcome Home” catch phrase now graces the Bluff Road side of the University of South Carolina’s football stadium in Columbia.
Beamer has used the phrase as a hashtag to welcome football commits when they’ve pledged to USC over the past eight months since his hiring.
The brand new sign, however, already needs an update.
“The colors on our new Williams-Brice Stadium banner did not come out as intended,” the university announced via Twitter. “We will work with our signage and printing partners to make the correct change.”
The previous 35-by-80 foot banner of a player wearing No. 1 with a reflective shield over his helmet was removed Friday. It had been in place since just before then 2016 season.
The timing of a new banner makes sense. The last signage was raised for Will Muschamp’s first season with the Gamecocks.
Beamer and his first South Carolina team kick off the 2021 season Sept. 4 at Williams-Brice Stadium against Eastern Illinois. Beamer teased the sign changeover through a social media post Friday.
The stadium’s original vertical banner featured Steve Spurrier and was raised five days before the 2014 season opener. The Spurrier banner was removed in December 2015, a few months after he resigned as head coach. Before then, it was just a gray cement wall.
This story was originally published July 24, 2021 at 12:23 PM.
