University Ambassadors tell tales of campus’s mysterious past
As students left the USC Visitor Center Tuesday night, they could hear the distant sounds of a woman screaming. Walking on the brick pathway as night fell, they followed the glowing candles of tour guides’ lanterns, listening to the haunting stories that make up USC’s mysterious history.
The ghost tours, offered and led by the University Ambassadors, saw their largest-ever student turnout. More than 300 students had taken the tours by 9 p.m., according to second-year international business student Stephano Montali, an ambassador who helped lead tours.
One of those students was Emmalee Smith, a third-year elementary education student. Smith had heard about the ghost tours since her first year at the university and decided to participate.
“I’ve wanted to do this since freshman year, and now that I live here on the Horseshoe, I decided to finally go,” Smith said. “I’m really excited.”
The ghost tours led students through the historic Horseshoe and throughout parts of campus known for their haunted past. Ambassadors were waiting at each stop, made up like ghosts, to tell those tales.
One such tale took place at the South Caroliniana Library, where ambassadors told a ghost story about the daughter of a USC president. After her father disapproved of the man she loved, the star-crossed lovers would meet at the library in secret.
However, when her love was killed in war, she was so stricken by grief that she took her own life. Legend has it that her ghost still haunts the library at night.
At another stop in front of Longstreet Theatre, Thom Bell, a third-year public relations student, took the ghost stories to another level. As students approached him, he was sprawled out on the steps with his head unnaturally cocked to the side. Slowly standing up, he began his tale, slowly saying, “Glory… honor … and death …”
After finishing his story about the history of the theater as a morgue and the legend of icy-cold air spooking female students in the basement, Bell jumped out at the crowd. Other ambassadors said the students’ screams could be heard all the way back to the Horseshoe.
“Some people definitely got scared,” said Samantha Lockwood, a second-year political science student and tour guide, “especially at the stops at Longstreet Theatre and Gibbes Green.”
Lockwood said she volunteered to give ghost tours to have fun and continue the tradition, which was a common theme among the ambassadors who volunteered.
“We really hope this becomes an annual tradition on campus,” said Suzi Kutcher, a third-year advertising student. “It’s a really great way for students to learn about the university’s history and have fun for a night.”
Editor’s note: The reporter is a University Ambassador.