Student groups build floats, loop Horseshoe in Homecoming event
Friday afternoon, George Rogers traded his famous No. 38 jersey for No. 21 in honor of USC’s latest football star — injured tailback Marcus Lattimore.
The Gamecock football legend and Heisman Trophy winner was leading the annual Homecoming parade, riding in the back of a vintage, baby blue Buick as its grand marshal.
Reversing its usual route, the parade wrapped around the streets bordering the Horseshoe, and the promenade finished by passing Russell House on Greene Street, which was lined with a modest crowd of families, students and pets.
A variety of student organizations waved and cheered for them, trailing Rogers on foot, by car and with homemade signs and floats, all touting this year’s Homecoming theme, “Cocky for a Reason.”
Cocky himself even made an appearance, riding atop a city fire truck, followed by multiple floats bearing effigies of the mascot and a number mimicking Arkansas’s Big Red, including several that showed it roasting.
Alpha Chi Omega sorority and Chi Psi fraternity took the top prize for their float, which showed Cocky teaching Big Red in a dunce cap, and a chalkboard listing reasons why USC is “cocky”: for Lattimore, for Hootie and the Blowfish and for its student section.
Delta Tau Delta fraternity and Delta Zeta sorority’s float took second, impressing the crowd with a replica of Williams-Brice Stadium, complete with a “Beast Board” model playing the “Welcome to Williams-Brice” stadium introduction video and Cocky grilling a hog.