One current student opens up about perks of playing USC mascot
Desperate for a Halloween costume, a current USC student bought the cheapest thing he could find in Target four years ago: a giant chicken suit.
In that chicken suit, he broke out of his shell. He spent Halloween “acting a fool” and wore the suit periodically throughout the year, messing around and entertaining his friends. Now a fourth-year student, he wears a suit of a slightly different feather.
“I’m not kidding you, it’s the funniest foreshadowing,” said the student, who is one of three students who currently play Cocky.
The identities of the students who play — or, as they say, “assist” — Cocky are closely guarded.
This student, scouted to suit up as USC’s favorite bird because of his extreme school spirit at sporting events, has only had one roommate discover his secret in all four years in the Cocky program. Some of the cheerleaders with whom Cocky performs still don’t know whom the people inside the suit are.
Almost nobody at USC will know this student’s true identity until he walks across the stage at the Colonial Life Arena this May, when he plans to accept his diploma while wearing Cocky’s feet and gloves.
The student has gone to various lengths to conceal his secret identity. He tells most friends that he’s a waterboy. Once, he told a friend he worked at bachelorette parties.
“That was a fun story to keep up,” he said. “I had her going for, like, two and a half months.”
Students who play Cocky typically spend about 10 hours each week in the suit but can go upwards of 20 during a busy week. Cocky appears at many home sporting events and Greene Street events and rides across the state on Cocky’s Reading Express. He gets booked for weddings, birthday parties and even bar mitzvahs.
“My favorite thing is to turn a kid who’s crying and wants nothing to do with you into a kid that loves you,” the student said. “That’s really powerful, especially when you see that kid again and he doesn’t want to let go of you.”
Sometimes, Cocky makes special trips to brighten the days of terminally ill children. Last February, the student got a call from Erika Goodwin, USC’s cheer coach who oversees the Cocky program. Cocky and the cheer team were going to visit a young boy who had a week to live.
“The kid’s a Pittsburgh Steelers fan and he lives in Georgia, but we made him a Gamecocks fan that day,” the student said.
The student has kept up with the boy’s family. A couple of weeks ago, he learned the boy’s brain tumor had shrunk 90 percent from its original size.
Cocky’s reach extends all over the state. He encourages schoolchildren to read while traveling on Cocky’s Reading Express and attends many campus and area philanthropic events.
But Cocky and the students in the suit also find service in the bird’s most basic function: spurring school spirit.
“I’ve been blessed to be in the suit. Everyone should learn how it feels to help someone just by being there,” the student said. “It’s easier behind the beak, but you can do it whether you’re in costume or not.”
An earlier version of this story misstated where USC holds its graduation exercises. The ceremonies are held in the Colonial Life Arena.