A bunch of overachievers: More reflections on 1984 (and 1969)

Starting offensive linemen for the 1984 Black Magic squad -- a bunch of overachievers.

The Chief raised his arms to a sparse pregame crowd, ran away from the circle of his fellow teammates, and shouted.

Wildly pumping his left arm, punching it twice as if he was celebrating another many bone-crushing tackle, he yelled to the crowd, “Get UP.” Some did.

But it’s a new Carolina, one different from the days when a wild man, a butt-kicker named Kevin “The Chief” Hendrix prowled the field at Williams-Brice Stadium and made opposing offenses pay.

He was in black, wearing his old No. 98. Even though the hair was gray, he’s a still a giant. How much bigger would he be if he suited up in full pads and helmet?

He was one of about 40 members of the 1984 Black Magic squad, the team with the best-ever record in USC history, to take the field before kickoff on the 25^th anniversary of the epochal season.

His on the field antics Saturday night begged the question: Is the defensive end with a reputation for hitting hard might still a wild man?

“No,” he said. “I’ve got a ballcap that says, ‘Ex Wildman,’ on it.”

But he obviously thought somebody needed to be shown a thing or two.

He wasn’t the only one.

Members of the 1969 championship Gamecocks, including quarterback Tommy Suggs (12) and Tommy Simmons (34).

Tommy Simmons stood on the sidelines in a plain garnet jersey, with only No. 34 written on it. He was watching Spencer Lanning, bedecked in all-garnet uniform, with a fancy, striped  jersey that said “Carolina” on the front, “Lanning” on the back, also wearing No. 34

Lanning was practicing punts.

“Don’t be giving this number a bad name,” he shouted.

Simmons, of Buffalo, S.C., was a fullback on the 1969 Gamecock squad. The team went 7-4 that year, but was a perfect 6-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. It remains to this day the only conference title in the football team’s history.

Not quite the wildman that Hendrix was, Simmons went and stood by the kid who now bore his number, smiling widely.

There have been many changes at Williams-Brice Stadium since Simmons was in the backfield.

Two upper decks have been added to the east and west stands. There are significant changes even since when Hendrix played. The South “Zone” has been added, upping the capacity. But the pregame crowd in the stands was probably the smallest crowd he’d ever seen at Williams-Brice.

It was probably the biggest crowd the 1969 crowd ever saw in the stadium too.

They were supposed to move to their seats after the ceremony, but most stayed around. The 1984 guys wanted to see it again. The 1969 guys prepared to see, and hear, something they never had back then.

2001.

Ken Wheat stood by old friend Dickie Harris, still in the USC record books as one of the most prolific return men to field a punt or a kickoff.

The listened, looked up, and at the appropriate place, threw their arms up.

“Unbelievable,” said Harris. “If you can’t get fired up by that, than nothing will. It’s something to behold.”

Former USC defensive back Dickie Harris listens as 2001 is played over the Williams-Brice Stadium loudspeakers and phones it on his cell to family. He is still a record-holder for returns at USC.

The guy who brought 2001 to the USC loudspeakers and made it the most exciting 2:31 minutes of  “awesome,”  n college football, the 1984 head coach, Joe Morrison, wasn’t there.

He died in 1989 of a heart attack. But he was represented.

His daughter Lisa was among those joining the players. She was flocked by the 1984 offensive line on the field.

“Your Dad loved us best,” one said.

They still have camaraderie, as if they see each other and drill each week.

“You’re always freaking late,” one said to another as they lined up for a picture at Gate 12 before taking the field.

USC shifted the guards and tackles a bit back when coach Frank Sadler was running the veer here.

“Is it a left formation or a right formation?” one asked.

“It’s a wide formation,” another joked.

Del Wilkes (62), Bill Barnhill (67), Jim Walsh (77), Carl Womble (57) and Tommy Garner (55) surrounded Lisa as if she was a quarterback calling a play.

Walsh, now a football coach in Hinesville, Ga. says he wouldn’t trade his experience at USC for anything.

“This was a great place to play football,” he said.

There were no stars on the 1984 he said.

“Just a bunch of over-achievers,” he said.  They tend to avoid taking much individual credit. They played like a team throughout the year.

Actually, just a few days earlier, one of the quarterbacks he and his linemates had protected, gave guys like him credit for the season.

Most of them were seniors, and they gave leadership to the team, former USC quarterback Mike Hold said.

Walsh got to see some great things. His career ended with 1984, but he played under not just Morrison, but Coach Jim Carlen.  He got to help George Rogers win the Heisman Trophy in 1980.

“It was a great time, a great period,” he said.

When asked for his personal best achievement in 1984, he couldn’t even do that.

He laid a trap block, but it was part of a double team effort to contain Clemson’s star defensive end, William “The Fridge” Perry. The effort helped the Gamecocks cut Clemson’s lead and eventually win the season ender to go 10-1 in the regular season.

Frank Sadler, the wizard of the veer, offensive coordinator in 1984.

They players were special, said Frank Sadler, the offensive coordinator in 1984. He’s still known as the wizard of the veer. He had a visit from Georgia Tech Head Coach Paul Johnson at Sadler’s Troy, Ala., home, where they shared offensive philosophy.

Johnson is running it more as a three-back set, “where we ran a two-back set,” but it’s that same veer.

“We lost just that one game,” Sadler said. “I wish we hadn’t, because we would have played for the national championship. But sometimes, it isn’t in the cards.”

The players said they appreciated the ceremony and the efforts of the Athletics Department to remember the teams.

One of the reasons the university hasn’t excelled over the years, they said, was the lack of tradition.

Even they mistake USC’s history on the field. There isn’t much history of winning, but there is also not a complete lack of such traditions.

Ira Hillary, who wore the No. 1 jersey for USC for years, a star receiver for both USC and later in the pros for the Cincinnati Bengals, who has a nephew on the USC squad right now, said USC honored the 1984 squad five years ago, and that was special. But this was different. This was better.

This time, they brought both winning teams together at the same time. Putting both squads on the field at the same time was significant.

“It was great to see those champions,” Hillary said.

In the center, in garnet sport coat, Paul Dietzel, head coach of the 1969 ACC champion Gamecock squad.

Almost a hundred men who wore the garnet and black took the field together, the only ones in the football programs who can make a claim. They were the first. They did something special, something no one else had ever done before.

The ones in garnet won a conference title.

They got ACC championship rings as well as a Peach Bowl ring, though few wore them Saturday.

“Most of us have a hard time getting into the rings any more, “ said Dave Lucas, a defensive end on the ’69 squad. “The jerseys too.”

The ones in black won the most games ever won by Gamecocks. They were the best winners ever on field.

There’s not much tradition at USC — no one can deny that. But a lack of tradition?

These guys prove it. This program has its history. More than one group has done things no one else had done.

The problem is, no one has done it since.