Fans schedule USC “blackout” tonight

Three years ago at the USC vs. Florida football game, USC fans wanted to show the team they had their back. So it went out through the media, newspaper, radio, etc., for everyone going to the game to wear all black. They wanted to “blackout” the stadium, intimidating the visiting team. It didn’t work.

After hours of devastation, the game finally ended…54-17 Florida. After the game, Florida players actually thanked USC fans for helping them see the ball better. The Gators laughed in the face of the effort.

But, even with this history, two USC students want to bring the “blackout” back to USC, but this time to the basketball team. USC is playing #5 Mississippi State tonight in the Colonial Center in front of a sold-out home crowd.

Traditions are an obvious part of college athletics. In many cases, they’ve been around for so long that they’ve turned into superstitions. People feel “if you break the tradition, you lose.” Traditions are also ways to get the crowd excited for the upcoming game. Whether it’s a fight song or pep rally or specific attire everyone wears, these are ways people prepare and also gives them a sense of “we’re going to win.”

One of the most well known traditions comes out of Ohio State University. Before, during halftime or after home football games their band performs in its signature “script” formation or “cursive” formation. And, one lucky senior sousaphone player gallops his way to dot the “i” of “Ohio.” Coach Woody Hayes and comedian Bob Hope are among a few non-band members to dot the “i.” The crowd roars, making them proud to be at Ohio State. This “script formation” is a unifying symbol for the school, and a tradition that most college fans know.

A more recent tradition comes from Boston College. In 1997-1998, two students were upset at the level of excitement at a school’s hockey game. They complained that when they tried to get the crowd going, they were told to sit down and shut up. So, these two guys “invented” the “Superfan” t-shirts in an attempt to unify the school and actually be proud of its athletics. In 1998, these bright gold t-shirts were on sale before a home football game in the bookstore. The two “inventors” wrote an article to the school newspaper telling the students to buy these shirts to show support for the upcoming game. It worked. This began the age of the “Superfan” at Boston College. At every BC game, the student section is a sea of gold “Superfans.”

USC has many traditions of its own, but the most prominent is the USC-Clemson interstate rivalry. For more than 100 years, these two schools have battled every year. For many years, it was played on the Thursday night during the state fair. But now, it’s the very last game of the year, and to both sets of fans, the most important. Unfortunately for USC fans, Clemson is on top in this rivalry 61-36-4.

With this longstanding USC-Clemson tradition leaning towards Clemson, do USC fans really want another one that, in the only time used, was completely on the side of Florida? In fact, they do. USC fans like the idea of a sea of black swarming the opponent, regardless of what happened against Florida.

Tonight at 7:30 in the Colonial Center, USC basketball will try to change the memory of the first USC “blackout.”

Reported by:

CoreyBroman-Fulks

Corey Broman-Fulks is a senior at the University of South Carolina and is graduating with a B.A. in Journalism May 7, 2004. His father is a Presbyterian minister and mother is a kindergarten teacher. He has three brothers, a sister-in-law and an eight-month-old niece named Isabelle. Corey hopes to become a news reporter before becoming an anchor in a large market, if he doesn’t become a sports anchor. He’s worked in the news business at WACH-Fox News in Columbia as a weekend associate producer.