When it comes to college sports, South Carolina has arguably one of the biggest and most involved fanbases in the country. Whether it be fan loyalty or high ticket sales, fans rarely disappoint when it comes to cheering on their Gamecocks.
However, one of the most unique aspects of the South Carolina fanbase is its Twitter presence, notably on popular fan accounts. Some of these fan accounts attract tens of thousands of followers and consistently garner hundreds of likes and retweets.
One of the most popular accounts on “Gamecock Twitter” is Gamecockology, owned by 2013 South Carolina graduate Ted Hyman. The account has accumulated over 12,800 followers since its creation in January 2014.
“I was just looking for jobs and decided it’d be a cool idea to start posting some of my Carolina design work online,” Hyman said. “So it just started out like a hobby kinda, mainly posting, like, design the players and concept uniforms.”
Gamecockology later reached its “jumping off point” when former Gamecock football and basketball player Bruce Ellington retweeted one of Hyman’s concepts.
Since then, Hyman said he has also received retweets from former South Carolina wide receiver Deebo Samuel and football head coach Will Muschamp and has even designed a mixtape cover for former Gamecock linebacker Melvin Ingram.
"It’s been awesome," Hyman said in a Twitter DM. "Both of my parents went to USC so I’ve been a Gamecock ever since I can remember. So it’s been a lot of fun to interact with the players and coaches. Plus it probably helped jumpstart my career to this point."
Hyman has also left a large impact on Gamecock Twitter for other popular accounts, including 2020 South Carolina graduate Noah Diveley, also known as "Gamecock Noah."
"He's probably the No. 1 Gamecock Twitter account. He's definitely the biggest benevolent account," Diveley said. "I can't think of anybody that has a problem with him."
Diveley's brother Taylor, who also has a popular account, also noted Hyman's "passion" and dedication as a fan of his alma mater.
"Just his eloquence and knowing about the sport to the passion itself," Taylor Diveley said. "Being a cool guy is one thing, but knowing how big of a fan he is, and he's dedicated so much time and effort to that; just a huge impact."
Hyman said he has enjoyed using his account as a channel to “vent or to rejoice,” especially during the South Carolina football season.
“It’s a nice place to be able to be a fan, sort of walk unfiltered, and it's fun to watch other fans and other people that are in the mentions, especially on game day,” Hyman said. “Just the excitement and, if things don’t go well, the frustrations, I like to — it's a good way to get the pulse of the Gamecock nation.”
But with the COVID-19 pandemic halting spring sports and threatening fall sports, Hyman said it has been a bit difficult gaining traction recently.
“It’s always a little harder in the offseason in general, but just not having things, the uncertainty with the [football] season,” Hyman said. “At this point, I’m making some designs or putting out koozies or something for fans to get excited about the season. It’s definitely hard to grow the account for sure.”
But despite current events, Hyman still continued to praise the Gamecock faithful, citing the fanbase’s passion in comparison to other fanbases.
“I think that South Carolina fans are sort of unique where we are very attuned with our programs and the Gamecock community, online especially, is just all over it and very passionate about pretty much everything,” Hyman said. “It’s fun to watch and see how passionate our fans are. You can definitely see that through online and Twitter.”