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Megyn Kelly went after a sports columnist whom she referred to as a “national disgrace” during her SiriusXM show on Monday over the writer’s support for a women’s college basketball coach who came out in support of biological men playing in the league. Kelly singled out Nancy Armour after the columnist called South Carolina Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley a “goddamn national treasure” for supporting transgender basketball players. “If you consider yourself a woman and you want to play sports or vice versa, you should be able to play,” Staley said in a pause-filled response to a question about whether she...

DALLAS (AP) — Vic Schaefer and his Mississippi State Bulldogs didn’t get much time to celebrate what might be the greatest shocker in women’s basketball history. Not when there’s one more game to win, not when there’s a national championship on the line against SEC rival South Carolina.

This December, it's a different kind of drama. The past two SEC championship games were 3 1/2-hour commercials for the league's dominance. Powerhouses Florida and Alabama squared off in de facto national championship semifinals. Both games starred past or eventual Heisman Trophy winners, neither with a whiff of controversy, and two coaches with reputations of success exceeded only by their capacity for grimness. The 2010 version tastes a little different. South Carolina is coached by one of the conference's most despised (and successful) coaches. Auburn brings a perfect record, a shot at a national championship and a Heisman candidate, runaway...

Demetri “Dee” Paris of Silver Spring, Md., stood on the 50-yard line of Williams-Brice Stadium next to U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, “2001” blaring, fans roaring and Gamecock players flooding the field in what has been called the greatest entrance in sports. “Wow,” said the 95-year-old president of the national Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge organization, who had just tossed the coin to open the game. “I live near the University of Maryland, but it’s nothing like this. This is wild!” Battle of the Bulge veteran Leif Maseng from Columbia rode with other veterans in a procession from Uptown...

In a 63-year-old stadium, technology caught up to nostalgia Tuesday night at the College World Series. They were determined -- the CWS fans with their ultra-modern, ultra-thin, ultra-fast shutter-speed pocket cameras -- to the capture the moment. The moment when Rosenblatt Stadium saw its final CWS pitch. So they kept taking pictures, on every pitch late in South Carolina's 2-1, 11-inning victory against UCLA. Every pitch, every swing until Rosenblatt's final cheer had bled out. Coincidence cooperated when Carolina's Whit Merrifield made it a merry field for the Gamecocks. His one-out single over a drawn-in infield broke a 1-1 tie...

MAHA, Neb. – Whit Merrifield knew he had to make simple contact. The junior outfielder stood at the plate in the bottom of the 11th inning of a tie game with the biggest potential run in the history of South Carolina baseball standing on third base. And on a 2-0 pitch, Merrifield brought that run home with a sharp single to right-field, a hit that delivered a 2-1 win over UCLA and the program’s first NCAA championship Tuesday night in the final College World Series game at Rosenblatt Stadium. "It was just elation when I saw it go through. I...

NEW YORK — Maryland and South Carolina will wear uniforms with camouflage designs during their games Nov. 14 to honor military veterans and promote the Wounded Warrior Project. The black with tan camouflage uniforms, designed by Under Armour, will have a Wounded Warrior logo on them. Instead of players' names, the backs of the jerseys will have words such as courage, loyalty, integrity and service. "Ooooh," South Carolina defensive tackle Ladi Ajiboye said Tuesday after seeing the camouflage cleats the Gamecocks will wear. "I could wear these the whole season." The Wounded Warrior Project acts as an advocate for injured...

HOOVER, Ala. -- South Carolina's Steve Spurrier returned to the SEC rather quietly the past two seasons, largely avoiding the barbs and inflammatory comments that made him one of college football's most colorful coaches during a dozen years at Florida. But as Spurrier prepares to begin his third season with the Gamecocks, he seems much more confident and, yes, even cocky. "We've raised our goals this year," Spurrier said Wednesday, speaking at SEC media days here. "We're going to try to win the conference. We feel like we've really increased our talent level at South Carolina. We've added a lot...

Sheriff: Man Shot 2 on Way to Game COLUMBIA, S.C. - A man killed a 60-year-old woman and shot a store clerk to get cars on his way to see his brother, who was playing football at the University of South Carolina, authorities said Saturday. Demetrius M. Pepper, 24, was arrested outside of the stadium where the team was playing a scrimmage game, Newberry County deputies said. His brother, Nathan Pepper, is a rising junior defensive lineman for the Gamecocks. Deputies said the elder Pepper stole his first car after shooting its owner at a Greenville convenience store around 7:45...

AUBURN - On cool Tuesday morning, Auburn's football team put the finishing touches on its game plan for Thursday night's game at South Carolina. The No. 2 Tigers (4-0, 2-0) play the Gamecocks (3-1, 1-1) at 6:45 at Williams-Brice Stadium. The game will be televised nationally by ESPN. "It's been a hectic week, a short week," Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said. "These guys have done a lot of work and the coaches have done a lot of preparation. We've gotten a lot done." Tuberville said his team should go into the game healthy. Tailback Kenny Irons, linebacker Karibi Dede and...

A Richland County senator says the University of South Carolina needs to rethink its “Fighting Gamecock” mascot if the Legislature passes tougher penalties on cockfighting. If the bill passes, “how can we as lawmakers and other leaders of this state justify a major institution in our state running ads and logos on billboards with a fighting gamecock with spurs on the feet?” asked Sen. Darrell Jackson. Jackson’s question came as Attorney General Henry McMaster testified before a Senate subcommittee asking lawmakers to pass a bill raising the penalties for cockfighting, which currently is a $100 fine. The panel took no...

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- Casey Dick, a freshman quarterback who's seen no action in Razorback games this year because he's been redshirted, will start for Arkansas against South Carolina on Saturday, coach Houston Nutt said The red shirt is coming off, Nutt said Sunday, because Dick has impressed his coaches with his passing in practices and has shown the skills to move the offense. Robert Johnson started the first seven games for Arkansas this season. Nutt said he would take the blame for Johnson's struggles as signal-caller as the Razorbacks went 0-4 in the first half of their Southeastern Conference season,...

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- Dave Odom's proudest moments as a coach might have come a half-world away from South Carolina's campus. Odom joined several other coaches in ``Operation Hardwood,'' a basketball tournament in Kuwait for U.S. military members fighting in Iraq. The Gamecocks' coach and the others were told by commanders at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait there would be a moment during their stay that would thrill them and remain with them forever. For Odom it happened early as he prepped his Camp Navistar team for the tournament's opening game. The call came for the national anthem, and Odom looked...

Just when you thought this NCAA mascot flap couldn't get any sillier, those animal-rights loving folks from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) jumped right through the door opened by the NCAA's Executive Committee and asked them to extend the ban on nicknames considered "hostile and abusive" to include animals. The first salvo fired was at the nickname "Gamecocks," used by both Jacksonville State University and the University of South Carolina. PETA has written a letter to NCAA executive director Myles Brand asking that the NCAA pressure those schools to change that nickname, or else face the same...

Help Bench the “Gamecocks” -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PETA recently contacted the presidents of the University of South Carolina and Jacksonville State University and suggested that the schools consider changing the names of their sports teams, both of which are called the Gamecocks. We pointed out that the Washington Wizards team changed its name from the Bullets after deciding that it didn’t want to be associated with violence, so it can be done. The Gamecocks are named after birds used in cockfighting. These birds are pumped full of stimulants, hormones, and blood-clotting drugs. They have sharp blades attached to their legs to make...

(Columbia) Nov. 18, 2004 - The uncertainty of Coach Lou Holtz's football future has one of Columbia's top high school athletes looking more closely at his options. WIS News 10 has learned that Coach Holtz told his squad at a Thursday evening meeting that he will retire. Columbia High School's Mike Davis has been recruited by both Clemson and South Carolina, but he wants to know will Lou stay or go, "I can see myself in any uniform, but I can see myself as a Gamecock." The Columbia High School football star met Holtz last summer, "It made me look...

Steve Spurrier is on his way to South Carolina! Although Im a Clemson Fan, I still live in South Carolina so I hope he can do what no other coach as been able to do there and that is win....

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- "Pops" has gotten the green light from the NCAA to play football at South Carolina. Tim Frisby, the Gamecocks' 39-year-old walk-on receiver, was granted his eligibility by the NCAA membership services staff, the school said. Frisby is expected to be in uniform when the Gamecocks play Troy at Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday night.Frisby, nicknamed Pops by his teammates, recently retired after 20 years in the U.S. Army, where he was Ranger-qualified with the 82nd Airborne. He served in Desert Storm and the Kosovo conflict.His playing status was on hold because of eligibility concerns with the NCAA...

Monday, September 20, 2004 Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. -- South Carolina coach Lou Holtz wants to give "Pops" a chance. He's waiting on the NCAA to agree. Holtz said Monday 39-year-old walk-on receiver Tim Frisby, nicknamed "Pops," will get to play for South Carolina this season once his eligibility is approved by the NCAA Clearinghouse. South Carolina athletic spokesman Kerry Tharp said the review of Frisby's academic work is standard and the school expects no problems. Frisby recently retired from the U.S. Army, where he was a Ranger-qualified military man with the 82nd Airborne. He served in Desert Storm and...

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- South Carolina coach Lou Holtz wants to give "Pops" a chance. He's waiting on the NCAA to agree. Holtz said Monday 39-year-old walk-on receiver Tim Frisby, nicknamed "Pops," will get to play for South Carolina this season once his eligibility is approved by the NCAA Clearinghouse. South Carolina athletic spokesman Kerry Tharp said the review of Frisby's academic work is standard and the school expects no problems. Frisby recently retired from the U.S. Army, where he was a Ranger-qualified military man with the 82nd Airborne. He served in Desert Storm and during the Kosovo conflict. He joined...