Sunday, April 14th. the city of Columbia welcomed thousands of University of South Carolina Gamecock women’s basketball fans to downtown Main Street for a two-hour parade that began at 2:00 o’clock under a bright blue sky and blazing sunshine with 90-degree temperatures to celebrate the third NCAA Championship under head coach Dawn Staley (2017, 2022, 2024). Coach Staley calls her Gamecock fans “Fams” because she has steadily built a culture of loyal followers in the community who have become family to her, her staff and the women’s basketball team during her historic sixteen-year career at South Carolina.

Our little band of “fams” had great seats in the shade thanks to positions staked out by the upstate duo of Pretty’s sister Darlene and Dawne who got up before daybreak Sunday morning to drive two hours, check into their room at the Sheraton and set up chairs on Main Street by 10 a.m. Pretty and I weren’t nearly so punctual but by the time we arrived downtown an hour later after a 15-minute drive from our home in West Columbia, parking places were scarce which added another twenty minutes of walking to meet them.

thanks to Darlene and Dawne (seated) for great spot on Main St

granddaughters Molly (2) and Ella (4) were shy when they arrived at 12:30…

…but soon got into the spirit of the day by playing on Main Street in front of us

Molly and Ella brought their parents Drew and Caroline along

to celebrate perfect 38-0 season on the road to the NCAA Championship

(Drew still recovering from ACL surgery, but wild crutches couldn’t keep him away)

Did this parade have actual floats, marching bands, marching Girl Scouts, Gamecock women’s basketball players current and alumni, sporty convertibles carrying occupants from politicians to princesses, pretend coffins from the coroner’s office, fire trucks, EMS vehicles, police cars, a Championship Trophy carried by Gamecock star player Kamilla Cardoso who was drafted third in the WNBA draft in New York City the next night, and even the great Coach Dawn Staley herself who stole the show as she always does? You betcha!

To be continued. Please stay tuned.

Published by Sheila Morris

Sheila Morris is a personal historian, essayist with humorist tendencies, lesbian activist, truth seeker and speaker in the tradition of other female Texas storytellers including her paternal grandmother. In December, 2017, the University of South Carolina Press published her collection of first-person accounts of a few of the people primarily responsible for the development of LGBTQ+ organizations in South Carolina. Southern Perspectives on the Queer Movement: Committed to Home will resonate with everyone interested in LGBTQ+ history in the South during the tumultuous times from the AIDS pandemic to marriage equality. She has published five nonfiction books including two memoirs, an essay compilation and two collections of her favorite blogs from I'll Call It Like I See It. Her first book, Deep in the Heart: A Memoir of Love and Longing received a Golden Crown Literary Society Award. Her writings have been included in various anthologies including Out Loud: the best of Rainbow Radio, Saints and Sinners New Fiction from the 2017 Festival, Mothers and Other Creatures; Cowboys, Cops, Killers, and Ghosts (Texas Folklore Society LXIX). She is a displaced Texan living in South Carolina with her wife Teresa Williams and their dogs Spike, Charly and Carl. She is also Naynay to her two granddaughters Ella and Molly James who light up her life for real. Born in rural Grimes County, Texas in 1946 her Texas roots still run wide and deep.

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