The Parade was a huge success according to Columbia Mayor Daniel Rickenman with the largest crowds ever seen for any parade he could remember in the city. Estimates placed the number at more than 20,000 people who celebrated from where the Parade began on North Main Street to where it ended on the steps of the Statehouse two hours later.

The following photos were taken by Alex Hicks, Jr. for the Greenville News at the 2024 Gamecock National Championship Parade in Columbia on Sunday, April 14rh. so full credit to him for the images I wish I could have captured.

You Win Some, You Lose None

Gamecock All Tournament Team Guard Raven Johnson greets “fams”

crowds waiting for pep rally at Parade’s end

Coach Staley and her team salute throngs of well-wishers

from South Carolina statehouse steps

National Championship MVP Kamilla Cardoso counts to three championships

Coach Staley delivers heartfelt thanks, inspirational words

following 38-0 perfect season and NCAA Championship

Finally, if you are an American looking toward the November general elections with fear and trepidation, Alex Hicks, Jr. captured this sign during the parade:

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P.S. Our granddaughters were among the 20,000 at the Parade Sunday, and although they had an awesome time, a couple of disappointments couldn’t be erased.

I never saw Cocky at the parade, four-year-old Ella told me

two-year-old Molly said, I never got ice cream

(last two photos by Upstate Dawne)

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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