Sir Big Spur returns (seriously). USC’s rooster mascot won’t get new name after all
For the second time in a week, South Carolina’s live mascot has a new name — well, sort of.
USC on Thursday afternoon announced that the rooster it had renamed “The General” just three days earlier — following a dispute between its current and previous owners — has been allowed to continue to be referred to as “Sir Big Spur.”
“It was always preferred that we would stay with the ‘Sir Big Spur’ name,” South Carolina director of marketing Eric Nichols said in a news release. “I appreciate the passion that the owners, Mary Snelling and Ron Albertelli, and the new handlers Beth and Van Clark, have for the Gamecocks and the live mascot. We are pleased that we are starting the season with the same name as in year’s past.”
The initial issue arose from a dispute between previous owners Snelling and Albertelli — who had trademarked the name Sir Big Spur — and the Clarks, the rooster’s newest owners, over whether to trim the rooster’s comb the Post and Courier previously reported.
It’s expected that Sir Big Spur’s comb will now be trimmed, per Dave Cloninger of the Post and Courier.
The original owners had planned to keep the rights to the Sir Big Spur name, but have seemingly reached an agreement with the university to allow the name to be used. Details of that agreement are not currently known.
South Carolina had announced on Monday that the live rooster mascot would be renamed The General in honor of Revolutionary War general Thomas Sumter, whose nickname “The Fighting Gamecock” is the original namesake for USC’s athletic teams.
That decision followed a national social media movement to name the mascot “Cock Commander,” in reference to an infamous caption in the student newspaper and in the wake of The State’s unofficial fan poll asking the public to pick a favorite new name.
Popular names floated around by Gamecocks fans included “Marco Pollo,” “Darius Clucker” and “Cluck Norris,” among countless other suggestions.
“This is the best soap opera I have ever watched,” ESPN personality Ryan McGee posted to Twitter on Thursday afternoon after learning of the latest in the saga.
This story was originally published September 1, 2022 at 3:40 PM.
