Happy Kevin Joyce Day - Gamecocks..... March 13, 1971

Man ... I remember that like yesterday. It's one of those things where you remember exactly where you were when it happened. Won a dollar bet with my Dad ... oh man people went crazy. It was unbelievable.

Lee Deadmon (sp) ... can't remember exactly how his name was spelled, he caught a lot of flack from his fans for that and we almost felt sorry for him, but if you watch it in slow motion Joyce clearly just out jumped him. Deadmon (sp) has regretted that his whole life.

What a game that was ... edge of your seat the entire game. Bad calls against us and we just kept overcoming everything and fighting back.

The ACC had absolutely turned against us by that time and hated us ... so we told them to frick off and left after that. "Get Out of the ACC" bumper stickers were everywhere. Signs in people's yards and billboards ... it was over with the ACC for all practical purposes after that game.

But what a jump that was by Joyce. Just an incredible memory.

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Ironic because leaving the ACC killed our basketball program.

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Staying would have killed our entire sports program.

The ACC fricked us on enrollment requirements ... football and basketball. The bottom line was that it came down to a football recruit (Freddy Solomon) and a basketball recruit who's name escapes me at the moment ... both of them were denied entrance in SC when, and this is a known fact, UNC, Duke and Wake Forest were enrolling players in both sports using fuzzy math.

Also, we would have never made it into the SEC had we not bailed. Paul Dietzel, who was our FB coach AND AD at the time always let it be known that if we got out of the ACC, expanded our stadium and suffered through a few years of Independence we would end-up, eventually, in the SEC and he lobbied for that to happen until it happened.

He led the stadium expansion efforts and the Williams-Brice renaming ... that was ALL Coach Dietzel. He butted heads a few times with Coach McGuire but he always recognized that football was where our bread would be buttered in terms of money ... and he was right.

We were doomed in the ACC because of the Tobacco Road crowd AND our sworn enemies, Clemson.

It was a blessing that we got out of the ACC when we did.

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Freddy Solomon

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Probably the best athlete to ever play high school athletics in Sumter, SC.

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Freddy Solomon

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Actually had to look this guy up.

Recruited by us and then went on to the University of Tampa???

I know this was the 70s but that seems like a huge step down.