The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers are once again the talk of the College World Series, not because they're the smallest program still alive in Omaha, but because they're arguably the hottest team in college baseball. More generally, though, they are also a topic of conversation as College World Series viewers tune in and ask themselves the simple question: What the hell is a Chanticleer?
It's a fair question. Considering that the College World Series is populated with teams that have mascots like Tigers, Beavers, Cardinals and ever Razorbacks, seeing the Chanticleers there as well does make Coastal Carolina a bit of an outlier. It's unique, it's awesome in the teal, but most fans don't really have an idea of what it actually is.
That's where we come in, because we're here to fully unpack the origins and history of the Chanticleer and how it came to pass at Coastal Carolina.
What is a Chanticleer?
Coastal Carolina officially describes the Chanticleer as "a proud and fierce rooster", though you may not have heard the term used for such an animal. While the university and the athletic department attribute the term Chanticleer to the great Geoffery Chaucer from The Canterbury Tales and "The Nun's Priest Tale" within it, that may not be its earliest origins. The tale of "The Chanticleer and the Fox" is an old fable that many have described as similar Aesop's fable, "The Fox and the Crow" in terms of thematic elements. However, there are allusions to the Chanticleer that date all the way back to the 11th century in literature and in various tales.
But in the simplest terms, the Chanticleer is a rooster. If you're thinking that's not the fiercest of mascots, you obviously haven't spent any time around an ornery rooster before in your life. That's not a fight I'm trying to pick, that's for sure.
How Coastal Carolina chose the Chanticleer
The origins of the Chanticleer mascot at Coastal Carolina can be traced back to the university's former basketball coach and, perhaps more importantly in this conversation, English professor Cal Maddox in the early 1960s. At the time, the school was serving as a branch campus for the University of South Carolina and, though Coastal was known as the "Trojans" at the time, they ultimately wanted to change their mascot. With the South Carolina affiliation, they wanted something that related to the Gamecocks.
With the Chaucer knowledge of Maddox as an English professor, he and the student body eventually landed on the Chanticleers. There was actually a call for the Chanticleer mascot to be changed in the early 1990s when Coastal Carolina became an official university and split away from the University of South Carolina, but that was quickly nipped in the bud as Coastal's identity and the Chanticleer's unique place among college mascots had already been strongly enough established.
We're thankful that's the direction that they ultimately pulled in.
Is the Chanticleer a real animal?
Technically, the Chanticleer is a real animal in that it is a rooster. However, it is not a specific type of rooster, but rather just an old term for one. As mentioned, it is accredited to Chaucer from The Canterbury Tales, but it is not a term that we hear too often. However, as far as it being the name of Coastal Carolina's mascot goes, they were simply looking for another unique term for a rooster or a chicken, and landed on this.
And if we're talking about the mascot, let us reassure you that there is not a teal-colored rooster out there walking around anywhere outside of the photos and sports fields in Conway, SC or the surrounding Myrtle Beach area.
Has Coastal Carolina baseball ever won the College World Series?
The Chanticleers, despite not being a power-conference program, have won the College World Series, doing so in 2016. At the time, many thought that Coastal Carolina was one of the biggest underdog stories in the history of college sports. As it turns out, it was simply the dawning of a new era in Conway as the Chants have become one of the legitimate powers in the sport in the decade since.