Remembering the Days: A USC Podcast

Ph. D. graduate Jill Found wrote a dissertation on the history of enslaved people at South Carolina College, which helped tell the story of some of the university's overshadowed people from the past. 

More than 25 years ago, Harry Lesesne was a doctoral history student at USC, tasked with writing a new history about the university that would cover the years 1940 to 2000. He recounts how he took on the assignment to narrate the six decades that transformed Carolina into a modern research university.

Remembering the Days will launch its spring 2025 season with a new co-host — university historian Evan Faulkenbury. Join us Jan. 21 for a new season of the podcast featuring short conversations with those who uncover stories about USC history and those who have been a part of it. 

Almost from the beginning in the early 19th century, the Carolina campus has had its share of natural and manmade disasters, including earthquakes, windstorms, fires and floods. Those threats persist in the 21st century, but the modern campus has a facilities team that works around the clock to prevent or at least mitigate the effects of those threats.

Imagine if all of the clues in the popular TV gameshow Jeopardy! were related to the University of South Carolina. USC archivist Elizabeth West's new book, The University of South Carolina Trivia Book, provides plenty of material — more than 500 questions and answers — for a "Gamecock" Jeopardy version of the show. Tune in to see who wins!

The USC Rugby Club has been on the field for more than 50 years, and the squad's success in its early years included a dramatic match and rematch with British naval personnel in 1973. 

Jonathan Maxcy was Carolina's first and longest-serving president and the only former president to have his own monument on campus. His leadership helped lay the foundation for South Carolina's flagship university. 

WUSC-FM got its start in 1947, providing a training ground for generations of DJs, radio engineers and station managers. Students are still eager to be WUSC DJs, but the motivation today is more focused on sharing a personal passion for music. 

In the early 1970s, USC's historic Horseshoe buildings had fallen into disrepair while new buildings sprouted across the campus. The university began a long renovation and restoration project that systematically rejuvenated each 19th century building, and the vigilant maintenance process continues to this day. 

The University of South Carolina has been around a long time — long enough to celebrate its 100th and 200th birthdays with the 250th less than 30 years away.

It began as a music department with only two professors and grew into one of the region's premier music schools. USC's School of Music is celebrating its 100th anniversary of making beautiful music in 2024. 

When Frank McGuire arrived at USC in 1964, Gamecock fans knew they had a winning basketball coach. But early in McGuire's second season, the team had three starters who had never played against a conference opponent. Their first such matchup on Dec. 6, 1965 — the No. 3-ranked Blue Devils of Duke University.   

Everyone knows the Horseshoe is the oldest part of the University of South Carolina campus. But there are two things — the university motto and seal — that are even older than USC's historic district. 

USC's modern desegregation took place in 1963 when three African American students enrolled at the historically white university — but they actually weren't the first black students in the university's history. For a brief window in the 1870s, USC became the only state-supported public university in the South to open its doors to white and black students alike.

A century ago, USC built its first dormitory for women, whose presence on campus had not been warmly welcomed when the first females arrived in the 1890s. While women's dorms have come and gone on campus, the Women's Quad retains its status as the original location for and the only present location of women's-only residence halls at the university. 

From training fighter pilots in World War II to offering the state's only aerospace engineering degree, USC's ties to aviation are sky high. One of the early players in the story was a Wisconsin farmboy who flew a plane solo at the age of 12. 

USC's first basketball season tipped off in 1908 and since then the men's and women's teams have competed on seven different courts across campus. Today's fans are used to watching the Gamecocks play at Colonial Life Arena, but hundreds of games were played in a now-demolished fieldhouse that once occupied a spot in the middle of campus. 

As a blind student, John Eldred Swearingen had to make a case for admission to Carolina in 1895. The university went on to become a pioneer in accommodating students with major physical disabilities and continues to provide opportunities for students with disabilities both visible and invisible. 

The two decades between USC's departure from the Atlantic Coast Conference and entry into the Southeastern Conference were a challenging time for Gamecock sports. But USC sports enthusiast Alan Piercy's new book about that era reminds us that a lot of cool things —  including a Heisman Trophy winner and a new iteration of USC's mascot — came about in the midst of those wilderness years. 

For nearly 80 years, the University of South Carolina Press has been publishing books — more than 1,000 and counting — on topics ranging from the history of the Palmetto State to literary figures, cuisine and much more. Pull up a reading chair and learn more about the Press came to be. 

Visit any urban campus in America and the No. 1 complaint on everyone's lips will be the parking situation. Parking at USC became an issue in the 1960s, and the university dealt with it by building parking garages and adding a campus shuttle system. And to enforce the parking rules, there was a regiment of parking officers that, for nearly half a century, included Miss Pat.

As World War II was nearing its end, the University of South Carolina was making plans to welcome thousands of returning soldiers. And at the urging of one of its trustees, the university was also planning what we would now consider the unthinkable — abandoning the historic downtown campus and building a new campus several miles away. 

Registering for classes at Carolina used to be an ordeal of computer punch cards and long lines at the Carolina Coliseum. But the advance of technology — and a January ice storm — eventually drained the drama from the process. 

Housed in the oldest building on campus, the Rutledge Chapel has been in continuous use since 1805 and has a rich history of its own. But that history is still being written as, every year, alumni say their wedding vows inside the venerable chapel's walls.

Since its founding in 1801, the University of South Carolina, its students and alumni have been profoundly affected by wars, most notably the Civil War, WWI, WWII and the Vietnam War. As Memorial Day draws near, it is a fitting time to remember.