My sister Danielle will be leaving the midwest soon to pursue a new adventure going to grad school in the south. She is brilliant and talented beyond belief, and probably the coolest person on the planet. As you can imagine, I couldn't be prouder of her (although honestly the only credit I can take for her success is being a good case study because I have poor form exercising. Also, I chased her around the house in my youth so she is quick and strong. And has good reflexes).
She had several choices, but in the end decided on the University of South Carolina. I think this is great because SC = beach vacation, they have good teams, and her residence there will provide a reason for her accent, which can be half attributed to Louisiana, half to Michigan.
We were recently discussing her plans to move out there this summer, when Danielle said, "yeah, I'm going to be a Gamecock." Thinking I had: a) misunderstood her, b) had missed out on her latest slang (after her integration of the verb "to booze" I figured anything was possible), c) misunderstood her, I asked, "Wait, what are you going to be?"
As it turns out, people, the mascot of South Carolina is a Gamecock. And by Gamecock, they mean what I thought to be a fighting male chicken. Yes, seriously.
You would think that the state university would have picked, oh, a muskrat, copperhead, or its state animal, the whitetail deer. Even a manatee would have made more sense. My sister is going to be an illegally fighting, scrappy rooster. It got me thinking-- would the basketball players wear white tank tops and rolled up jeans like they did in the 20s at cockfights? What would the cheer be-- "cock-a-doodle-do" or more of a Peter Pan "RRRRRrrrRRRR RRRRRR!"? Before entering the field, would football players scratch at the ground like chickens do? So many questions left unanswered.
I thought about this rooster thing all week, and the fact that students there wear baseball caps with "COCK" across the front, and arrived at home a few days ago to tell my roommate, "Did you know that Danielle is going to be a Gamecock?" Allison, who is very smart and has a lot of common sense, replied "Yeah, they're like pheasants." I was quite certain that no, a gamecock is a rooster -- as in game = cockfight and cock = man-chicken, but Allison persisted: "No, they're like cornish hens. People hunt them-- like game hunting. They're all over the place there."
Unfortunately that made sense. So I did what any sensible person would do; call my father after he's gone to sleep to ask him, "Is a gamecock a male chicken or is it a pheasant?!" Dad: "Yeah, it's poultry... You couldn't Google this?"
End result: everyone's right but me. Roosters and gamebirds aside, I'm proud of Danielle and excited for her next adventure. She has earned it, and she is sure to be the star of the program. And now we can all look forward to South Carolina accessories that may or may not offend people on the street. Go Gamecocks!
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