Fighting racist campus legacies uniting rivals South Carolina and Clemson

South Carolina football alumni are echoing recent progress made at rival Clemson.

There are few intrastate feuds as heated as the one that Clemson and South Carolina have waged since 1896. The Palmetto Series has only grown hotter now that Dabo Swinney’s Tigers are perennial championship contenders, but a new and positive trend may present the rarest of rare opportunities for these two proud programs to unite.

On the heels of Clemson alums Deshaun Watson and Deandre Hopkins joining a successful campaign to remove pro-slavery politician John C. Calhoun’s name from the school’s honors program, a group of former South Carolina football greats have taken up a similar struggle in Columbia.

The fight for rename building dedicated to racist figures may be the ideal way for the rival fan bases at Clemson and South Carolina to find common ground.

Alshon Jeffery, Mike Davis and Marcus Lattimore are among the former South Carolina standouts calling to rename a campus fitness and wellness center dedicated in honor of late U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond, an infamous proponent of segregation and institutionalized racial discrimination.

A man whose career was built on fierce opposition to civil rights for Black Americans is not worthy of such honors, especially at the flagship public university in the state. The fact that the school slapped his name on a center dedicated to wellness only makes things worse.

Despite the decades of bad blood between these two schools, it’s hard not to imagine that Jeffery and Co. weren’t inspired by the anti-Calhoun campaign at Clemson — or that Watson and Hopkins aren’t cheering them on.

This follows Clemson and South Carolina players teaming up with a sign that went viral at a peaceful protest. South Carolina quarterback Jay Urich’s “matter is the minimum” sign was shipped to Clemson running back Darien Rencher for their “March for Change” rally on the Clemson campus last Saturday.

The national wounds that America’s ongoing protests have revealed in the wake of George Floyd’s killing are merely the latest reminder that football is downright quaint in comparison to the struggle for social justice. Fortunately, some of the Palmetto State’s finest football heroes are using their platforms to support causes that stand to benefit their college communities for time immemorial.

With this in mind, it’s safe to say they’ve really been playing for the same team all along.

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