Band’s campus landmark reported stolen Friday afternoon
For a while there, Hootie and the Lost Bricks was more like it.
A pair of bricks bearing ‘90s rock band Hootie and the Blowfish’s name were stolen some time last week, said Capt. Eric Grabski, a spokesman for the USC Division of Law Enforcement and Safety. Police aren’t quite sure when; they’ve only narrowed it to a range of a few days, he said.
Four other bricks with the names of the band’s members, who met as students at USC, were untouched.
The two that read “Hootie &” and “The Blowfish,” respectively, are something of a landmark on the Horseshoe’s zigzagging brick pathways. Finding them is No. 96 on USC’s bucket list for students.
The MyCarolina Alumni Association, which keeps up with the bricks and sells space on them, reported them stolen Friday afternoon after receiving inquiries from The Daily Gamecock.
But before they were reported missing, the hole on the Horseshoe was filling in with pollen and shrouded in mystery.
USC police had no reports, Facilities had no work orders for the bricks and the Alumni Association hadn’t heard anything about them. The board of trustees office, which coordinates commencement, said they didn’t have anything to do with Darius Rucker’s address at this year’s ceremony. They even inspired a parody Twitter account, @HootieBricks.
The bricks will be replaced soon, according to university spokesman Wes Hickman — likely in “the next week or so.”