Shaw, Roth connect South Carolina to glory days in USC Hall of Fame enshrinement
Former South Carolina basketball player Branden Conrad smirks as he stands at the podium tucked into the underbelly of Williams-Brice Stadium.
Not long removed from a year devoid of sports, Conrad jokes he and his two sons under the age of seven spent the bulk of the COVID-19 pandemic watching reruns of old South Carolina games.
The 2010 and 2011 College World Series and the herculean effort of pitcher Michael Roth graced the screen. Replays of quarterback Connor Shaw, the 2012 Outback Bowl win over Michigan and the 2011 and 2013 Capital One Bowl victories over Nebraska and Wisconsin, respectively, also made the rounds.
“The Gamecocks were undefeated in the Conrad household,” Branden quipped.
On Thursday, Roth and Shaw were enshrined in the USC Athletics Hall of Fame. They weren’t friends necessarily in college — that came when both moved to Greenville after graduation.
Standing in the Cockaboose Club a little less than a decade from their time on campus, though, the pair brought reminders of Gamecock glory days of a not-so-distant past.
“It created a lot of buzz around here in Columbia, South Carolina,” Shaw told The State. “And I think for both programs, we proved that it can be done here. The expectation of winning from both programs exists now from our classes. We were a part of that. We helped create that.”
Shaw arrived at South Carolina slightly under-recruited and undersized. He was a high-end three-star recruit, but one who stood 6-foot-1 and 190 pounds sopping wet.
In Columbia, Shaw joined a program on the rise. The Gamecocks had been a largely productive program under Lou Holtz. Steve Spurrier took that a step further, taking South Carolina to bowl games in five of his first six seasons.
The stage had been set around Williams-Price Stadium, Shaw explained. There was an expectation in and around the building that success was eminent. Anything less than that wouldn’t be tolerated.
“We had a standard of performance that we all we all believed in,” Shaw said. “And we were going to be damned if anybody else didn’t meet that standard.”
Shaw’s biography reads like a novel. It’s as polished as it is long. He finished his time at South Carolina with three consecutive 11-win seasons — including a perfect 17-0 mark at home. The 74 touchdowns he was responsible for are the most in school history. His 6,074 passing yards are the fourth most of any Gamecocks quarterback. He also finished fifth in completions and seventh in passing attempts at USC.
There are the moments of jubilation that jump to the forefront of Shaw’s mind. The three bowl wins during his time at South Carolina are at the top of the list. That’s not to mention three consecutive top-10 finishes in The Associated Press Top 25.
In all, Shaw’s laundry list of awards and honors made him the winningest quarterback in the history of South Carolina football.
“We were highly competitive,” Shaw said of why South Carolina strung together the seasons it did. “Guys like D.J. Swearinger — no one wanted to (mess) with that guy. Melvin Ingram — you didn’t want to (mess) with that guy. Jadeveon Clowney (same thing). We competed so much during one-on-one drills in practice the coaches could barely get a word in. We were coaching ourselves.”
While Shaw torched defenses on the gridiron, it was Roth who etched his name into South Carolina lore as a key cog in the Gamecocks’ 2010 and 2011 seasons.
You know the story by now. Most everyone in the Palmetto State does. Roth headed into the postseason as a back-of-the-bullpen lefty specialist. Coach Ray Tanner turned to him in a win-or-go-home outing against Clemson in the 2010 College World Series.
By night’s end, Roth held a Tigers offense that had hit .340 in nine postseason games to just three hits on 109 pitches. With a 5-1 win, South Carolina was headed toward its first national title.
The next season, Roth guided the Gamecocks back to Omaha, to a second national championship and finished with a 2.43 ERA in 137 innings pitched.
“The expectation was was to win,” Roth told The State. “We go and win in 2010 and it’s not like we put the pressure on ourselves to win, but I would say when you came to South Carolina at that time, we knew right now, the goal is to make playoffs and you try to win the last game.”
On Thursday, Shaw stood tall among the masses. The body that took bone-crunching hits at Williams-Brice Stadium was tucked into a light blue suit and gray sneakers as he traded handshakes and war stories with boosters and administrators.
Across the room, Roth grasped a cold Kona Brewing Company Big Wave golden ale. To his right, his wife, Rachel, held their 2 1/2-month-old daughter, fittingly donning a garnet onesie.
Roth and Shaw didn’t know each other particularly well during their three years overlapping in Columbia. Almost a decade on, though, the pair stand just a few feet apart.
The memories of their combined feats on the fields not more than a football throw or brief run down Huger St. away offer a glimpse into a time and place in which South Carolina stood atop the college sports world.
USC Athletics Hall of Fame 2021 Inductees
- Connor Shaw (Football)
- Michael Roth (Baseball)
- John Abraham (Football)
- Mike Durrah (Football)
- Dr. Mike McGee (Athletic Director)
- Brantley Southers (Women’s basketball)
- Scotti Ward (Men’s basketball)
- Kim Hudson-Williams (Volleyball)
- Ron Willis (Track and field)
- Nancy Wilson (Women’s basketball)
This story was originally published October 15, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
