30 years ago, South Carolina won its first bowl game and killed the Chicken Curse

By Jordan Kaye

Updated December 29, 2024 12:46 PM

South Carolina fans greet the Gamecocks at the airport after the team’s Carquest Bowl win over West Virginia in January 2005. The State file photo

In Columbia, futility had a name. It sounded like some disease that once upon a time ravaged half the western world, some plague that was a death sentence before medicine evolved.

It was the Chicken Curse — a hex that seemed to encapsulate all misfortune and misgivings surrounding South Carolina athletics.

This came up often 30 years ago in the winter of 1994. South Carolina was 6-5 in head coach Brad Scott’s first season and playing in the Carquest Bowl against West Virginia down in Miami. The Gamecocks were led by stud junior quarterback Steve Taneyhill. And they were headed to a bowl game for the first time in six years.

Yet, West Virginia didn’t seem to be the real opponent.

“We’re going to break the Chicken Curse,” 23-year-old South Carolina fan Jay Valter told The State the day before the game.

The jinx never seemed more believable than bowl season. At that point, South Carolina had been playing football for 102 seasons and it had never won a bowl game. The Gamecocks were 0 for 8. No other school in America was even 0 for 4.

Only the Gamecocks.

“The Chicken Curse was real growing up,” said Marty Simpson, a Columbia native who kicked for USC in the 1990s. “There’s like an entire generation of children (now) who are gonna grow up with the default stance that South Carolina football is awesome. And, like, that is just not historically accurate. ... We were the Charlie Brown of football.”

A chance to watch history

Few knew this better than Red Ozburn. A South Carolina football player in the 1940s, his playing career halted when he was called into Army service during World War II. After serving in campaigns all across the European Theater, he was discharged in 1945 as a 23-year-old with mustering-out pay ready to be spent.

And so, Ozburn and a few friends from his hometown of Andrews, South Carolina set off for Jacksonville to watch the Gamecocks play in their first-ever bowl game — a clash versus Wake Forest in the inaugural Gator Bowl.

The Gamecocks lost that game and life went on. Ozburn rejoined the USC football team. He met a girl named Jo at the Horseshoe and they got married. The couple made it part of their life to attend almost every South Carolina game — especially the bowl games.

“They were so connected to it,” their great-grandson, John Marshall Mosser, told The State for this story. “It was their thing.”

Which meant the Ozburns kept getting their hearts broken. The Gamecocks fell to West Virginia in the 1969 Peach Bowl. They lost to Miami (Ohio) in the 1975 Tangerine Bowl, then to Missouri in the 1979 Hall of Fame Classic. A year later, they had George Rogers the Heisman winner and still lost in the Gator Bowl by four touchdowns to Pitt.

Even the Black Magic team of 1984 couldn’t break the curse, falling to Oklahoma State in the Gator Bowl. The great 1987 squad had no better luck, falling to LSU in another Gator Bowl trip. A year later, Indiana whipped South Carolina by 24 in the Liberty Bowl.

Somehow, Ozburns were never deterred. They drove to Charleston and boarded a charter flight on the morning of the game — Jan. 2, 1995. And, heck, they didn’t need to pack anything because their flight returned that night.

The Miami weather didn’t seem to be as much of an allure as the chance to watch the Gamecocks make history.

“The sun will be shining brighter if we can win,” Red Ozburn told The State then before the game.

South Carolina’s Marcus Robinson and West Virginia’s Mike Logan go after a fumble in the Carquest Bowl on Jan. 2, 1995. By C.W. Griffin/Miami Herald FILE PHOTO

There was drama before joy

The Chicken Curse did not die without a fight.

Yes, the Gamecocks seemingly controlled the entire Carquest Bowl. Tight end Boomer Foster opened the game’s scoring with a short touchdown catch. Taneyhill beefed up South Carolina’s lead before halftime with a four-yard scoring run that made him look part-LaNorris Sellers and part-John Elway.

“I did pump fake,” Taneyhill, who won the game’s MVP, told The State in recounting the game 30 years later, “and then when I kind of turned, I just saw that goal line and half-dove, half-jumped. And I got in there.”

Taneyhill was magnificent that day. The junior quarterback finished the game 26 of 36 passing (72%) for 236 yards and two total touchdowns. And it should’ve been three.

In the fourth quarter, Taneyhill scrambled out of trouble, broke out the pump fake and lofted a wide-open touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Kurt Frederick. Only, the refs said Tanyehill was over the line of scrimmage — a decision that analyst Dan Fouts openly criticized on the air.

“Some of my friends who were watching back in Atlanta were throwing their remotes,” Frederick said. “They were so pissed it got called back.”

Heading into the fourth quarter, South Carolina led 24-21. After forcing a turnover on downs late in the game, the Gamecocks took over just behind midfield with 3:52 remaining.

They converted on third-and-11. Then a gutsy fourth-and-inches. There were less than two minutes left and West Virginia was out of timeouts. The game was sealed.

“That should do it,” play-by-play announcer Verne Lundquist said.

If the Gamecocks took three delayed knees, the clock probably runs out. At worst: South Carolina could punt with just a few ticks left on the clock. Just play it safe and the first bowl win in school history was in the bag. Instead, they kept the curse on life support.

“We were just trying to run out the clock,” Taneyhill said. “By running the shovel pass, we just wanted to get the first down.”

Running back Stanley Pritchett easily got the first down — then he broke through the line and darted toward green grass. He was 15 yards from the end zone when a West Virginia defender grabbed onto his jersey and punched the ball out. The pigskin rolled around for seven seconds before getting knocked out of the end zone.

Improbably, West Virginia got the ball back with 1:14 on the clock.

“I do distinctly remember how irate I was during that moment,” Foster said. “I was like, ‘Maybe the Chicken Curse does exist.’ ”

Luckily, the curse did not impact South Carolina’s defense. The Gamecocks’ pass rush came at West Virginia quarterback Chad Johnston like heat-seeking missiles on four straight plays. The Mountaineers weren’t able to secure a single first down.

At long last, South Carolina had won a bowl game. The Chicken Curse was no more.

“After the game, it was like we won the national championship,” Foster said. “Nobody wanted to leave the field because it felt like we had done something that nobody had done before.”

What the Carquest Bowl meant for South Carolina

In the last football game he ever played, Frederick made sure to celebrate. The Georgia product had arrived at South Carolina years earlier, dealt with a coaching change, worked through being moved from quarterback to receiver. This was his greatest football moment.

When the clock hit zero, he grabbed a massive state flag from the cheerleaders. He ran around the field, then jumped into the stands, chucked his gloves and wrist bands into the crowd. With all the celebrating, he said, someone managed to steal his helmet. (If you have it, he would like it back.)

Pumping his fist, Frederick screamed to any of the 15,000 Gamecock fans who would listen.

“We’re going to party,” he said. “Screw the Curse. The Curse never existed in the first place. We just had some bad luck. We turned it around today. … “People talk about the Chicken Curse. Well, we’re not chickens. We’re Gamecocks.”

Five years earlier, Simpson sat in then-coach Sparky Woods’ office as a prized All-American kicker. Woods made a promise.

“If you come to South Carolina, I guarantee you will win the first bowl game in school history,” Simpson recalled of Woods’ speech. “And they’ll write songs about you and they’ll put you in the walls of the hall of fame forever.”

When Scott came to Columbia, he offered almost the identical pitch to Simpson — who was considering coming back for a fifth year or leaving school. Scott told Simpson the Gamecocks would win a bowl game if he came back and, because it would be the first, it was gonna be big deal.

Suddenly, all the prophecies were coming true. During his postgame speech in the locker room, Scott wanted his players to understand that their accomplishment would not soon be forgotten.

“No one else will be this team,” Scott said, according to Taneyhill. “They might win bowl games. They might win the SEC championship. But you guys and this team — you guys are the first to ever win a bowl game. That will mean something, especially as you get older.”

It was not uncommon at that time for fans to line the fence at the airport when South Carolina’s team plane landed from an away game. But that night, there were folks four-deep along the fence as the Gamecocks’ plane touched down.

“I think there were signs saying ‘Brad Scott for President. Steve Taneyhill for Vice President,’ ” Foster said. “It just meant so much to the fan base then.”

The State’s published reports estimated 5,000 folks showed up to cheer for the team, a scene that strikes the players even today. That was not the best team in school history. Not even close. They went .500 in the SEC and finished the season 7-5.

But the 1994 Gamecocks were the ones to finally break through. To break the bowl winless streak. To break the Chicken Curse.