Clemson’s Boyd denies gambling rumor
Clemson quarterback Tajh Boyd has denied an Internet report that he has a gambling problem, The State reported.
Coach Dabo Swinney said he believed Boyd over Incarcerated Bob’s Sports Wrap, a sports betting tip site. The site posted a story about Boyd’s alleged gambling problem shortly before Clemson’s Saturday kickoff against Florida State.
Clemson Athletics Director Dan Radakovich said Monday the claims were baseless after his compliance office was instructed to investigate the allegations.
Boyd said he didn’t know where the story came from and that it was “shocking.”
While the story was posted before Saturday’s game, Boyd did not find out about it until Sunday morning.
Swinney said he talked to Boyd about the allegations that morning and had “no reason not to believe” him.
The Tigers slipped from No. 3 in the AP poll to No. 9 in the season’s first BCS ranking after a 51-14 loss to the Seminoles.
Hunter kills state’s largest black bear
An Easley hunter bagged the state’s largest black bear on record Monday evening, the Spartanburg Herald Journal reported.
Heath Smith, an avid hunter, saw the 609-pound bear from about 170 yards away, but he had no idea how big it actually was.
“It looked to us like a 400- or 500-pound bear,” Smith told the newspaper. “I just thought, ‘Holy cow, this thing is huge.’”
The bear broke the previous record of 594 pounds. It was the first bear Smith shot in his nearly lifelong hunting career. Smith goes hunting two or three times each week.
An average black bear weighs only 350 pounds. Tammy Wactor of the Department of Natural Resources told the paper that bears can become much larger when they eat from deer feeders and trash cans.
More than 50 bears have been killed in South Carolina by hunters this season. Bear season has one week remaining.
High schools ban camouflage due to gang
Dreher and Lower Richland high schools have banned camouflage from their campuses after police warned that a local gang had adopted the pattern, The State reported.
Principals at the two Richland School District 1 high schools used a district dress code rule allowing them to create a campus-specific ban on camouflage clothing, accessories and book bags.
Students at other Richland 1 schools may wear camouflage, and there is currently no district-wide policy prohibiting the pattern.
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott would not name the gang, but said they’re using the pattern as other gangs have used red, blue and black in the past.
A voice memo was sent to Dreher High School parents Wednesday reminding them of the ban.
Nearby A.C. Flora High School will not allow anyone wearing camouflage into this week’s football game, but it has not banned camo from its campus. They play Lower Richland on Friday.