Huge congrats to the UCLA Bruins for their spectacular performances in Phoenix at the NCAA Women’s Final Four basketball tournament! If our Gamecock Women couldn’t win it all, I was personally pleased that a team coached by another woman, Cori Close, who had pursued the trophy with 15 years of patience and persistence, was able to cut the net.
Our Gamecock women overcame adversity during the 2025-26 season and were thrilled to make the Final Four for the sixth season in a row. Although the team fell short by a game during March Madness, I congratulate Coach Dawn Staley and her staff for perhaps, in my humble opinion, the best coaching job of their careers. Three of our players are headed to the WNBA Draft in New York City on Monday, April 13th.
Ta’Niyah Latson Madina Okot Raven Johnson
Gosh, I will miss these young women who have exceeded my expectations with their grit and determination to win. I wish them every success as they pursue the exciting paths ahead. Forever to thee – you’ve given us great joy during your time on and off the court at The University of South Carolina. Please come home to visit when you can!
Finally, the spectacle created by UConn coach Geno Auriemma at the end of their loss in Game 1 of the Final Four showed his lack of respect for his coaching staff, his players, and the game of basketball itself. I felt the pain of basketball fans everywhere for having to endure what became a major distraction through excessive media coverage of a grown man’s poor sportsmanship.
The young women who play basketball at the collegiate level make tremendous sacrifices to entertain their fans. We feel the energy and excitement when our girls win, the disappointments when they lose. Regardless, the game should always be the winner.
“Closets are vertical coffins; all you do is suffocate to death,” says Robin Tyler who was the first of the 22 LGBTQ+ comedians featured in this hour and a half historic documentary I watched today, thanks to the recommendation of our friend Esther who is not only the woman that gives Pretty and me our monthly pedicures in her salon but also someone that administers viewing reviews as expertly as she does nail polish. When she and/or her wife Frankie like a show, we don’t need to see the previews.
Marsha Warfield, Lily Tomlin, Wanda Sykes (l to r)
This Netflix documentary is more than just entertainment; it’s a vital piece of LGBTQ+ history. By illuminating the inside forces of queer comedy across the years, it offers both a celebration of progress and a reminder of the ongoing fight for equality. (Los Angeles Blade, June 22, 2024)
From Coded Characters to Out and Proud(Los Angeles Blade, 06-22-24)
The film traces the evolution of LGBTQ+ representation in comedy:
Pre-Stonewall era: Coded characters like Paul Lynde, Charles Nelson Reilly, and Rip Taylor
1970s: Comedians like Lily Tomlin, Robin Tyler, and Pat Harrison pushing boundaries
AIDS era: Activist comedians like Sandra Bernhard, Scott Thompson, and Margaret Cho using humor to combat backlash
Modern day: A diverse generation including Eddie Izzard, Wanda Sykes, Hannah Gadsby, Bob the Drag Queen, and Joel Kim Booster
I will personally add get ready to laugh – these people are LOL funny. Their journeys are powerful reminders of the world many of us recall, the milestones we’ve experienced with them, through the hilarity of their jokes. OMG. Wanda Sykes’s segment on coming out to her parents as “Black” was one of the funniest routines I’ve ever seen anywhere. Wait for it, laugh, savor, and celebrate with Pride whoever you are on whatever continent brings Netflix to you whether you are a member of the LGBTQ+ community or the larger community of humankind.
“Comedy is that sugar that coats the medicine,” British comedian and co-creator of Bob Hearts Abishola Gina Yashere tells us. “If you’re laughing, you’re not gonna want to punch someone in the face.”
Keep laughing, and whatever you do, don’t miss Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution streaming now on Netflix.
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 teamsalute throngs of well-wishers
from South Carolina statehouse steps
National Championship MVP Kamilla Cardoso counts to threechampionships
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
Deputy Coroner Susan Moore-Cooke, huge Gamecock women’s basketball “fam,” seen waving aboard this clever float from the Richland County Coroner’s Office
(each R.I.P. headstone had a score for every post-season game including championship game with Iowa which the Gamecocks won 87-75)
Let’s go, Gamecocks!
hand in hand
we’ll march later for world peace, world hunger, equal justice, democracy —
but today we march for Coach Staleyand her Gamecocks
granddaughters Molly and Ella mesmerized by parade
Nina, ice cream! ICE CREAM!
Spurs Up!
Gamecock Brian and Ella having fun waiting for the next float
Sunday, April 07, 2024 – write it down in the women’s basketball history books as the undefeated University of South Carolina Gamecock women defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes with a final score of 87-75 in Cleveland, Ohio. The Gamecock team finished the season with a perfect 38-0 record and will bring team as well as individual player trophies home to Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, South Carolina, when they arrive today.
(Kirby Lee, USA Today Sports)
Coach Dawn Staley lifts the trophy for her third championship team…
(Ken Blaze, USA Today Sports)
…and cuts the net in basketball championship tradition
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Magical, monumental, memory making – all words I could use to describe the 2023-24 South Carolina women’s basketball winning season. I have held my breath and refused to write about our team until we reached the post season and finished what Raven Johnson called her Revenge Tour because of the Iowa loss she took personally at the Final Four in 2023, but now she and the rest of her Gamecock Nation can celebrate overcoming all obstacles in their way toward the perfect season this year.
Basketball has been a passion for me since I was six years old when my daddy coached the high school boys and girls teams in Richards, Texas, one of the smallest schools in the state. My grandparents took me to every home game, and my daddy let me ride the old yellow school bus to the “away” games with him and his teams. The one year he created a junior high team, he let me play with them when I was in the fifth grade. I still remember the only game we played against a much larger school that quickly disposed of us 52-19, but I scored 13 of the points which made my father very proud.
We moved to Brazoria, Texas, when I was in the eighth grade where I loved playing for Coach Lloyd Thomas and then adored Coach Lois Knipling in my three years on the varsity team at Columbia High School in West Columbia, Texas. Several teammates from those years remain important friends who share memories we never forget. Basketball has always been in my blood, but I followed teams on TV instead of going to the games until I married a woman whose family, particularly her mother, loved basketball as much as mine did. No family gathering skipped sports conversations, especially basketball.
Coach Dawn Staley came to the University of South Carolina sixteen years ago and generated a fan following long before the successful seasons she’s enjoyed in recent times. She rekindled the dormant interest of the Gamecock Nation, and I want to thank Pretty for making sure we became a part of the action at Colonial Life Arena. She signed us up for the Gamecock Club nine years ago, and we have never looked back.
It takes a village as a famous person once said, and I want to thank my personal “squad” for making sure this old woman who will be 78 in two weeks continues to be able to attend the games, cheer for the home team, and share fun times: Garner, JD, Brian, Joan, Susan, Chris, Pat, Brenda, Tony, Drew, Caroline, Ella, Molly, the women who sit at the end of Row 17 in Section 118 who make sure I don’t walk past my row, and the woman who sits behind me who makes sure I sit in the right seat on my row if Pretty is at concessions before the home games. Special thanks to my Road Warriors Brian, Garner, and Robert who take care of me on the away games when Pretty isn’t able to make the trip.
Out-of-towners who are part of my squad include Jennifer who is our point person for Gamecock basketball insider information, sisters-in-law Darlene and Dawne in the upstate, Texas sister Leora, Texas cousin GP, Seattle cousins Trevor, Morgin, Rory, Quinn, and Vaughn. They may not be present in person, but they love Gamecock women’s basketball. Locals Sheila Go, Meghan and Dick connect with Pretty and me throughout the season, too.
(Thanks to you all for the memories! I’m sure I’ve left someone out, but if it’s you, mea culpa. Remember I am old, as my granddaughter Ella reminds everyone when I falter.)
And of course every squad needs a Captain – my Captain is Pretty who handles all ticket purchases, travel arrangements to all games, and usually makes sure we eat Mexican food afterwards. If victories are super sweet and the Hot Donuts sign is lit bright red at the Krispy Kreme in West Columbia, Pretty drives through for a 3-pack special treat for us.
My life has been, and continues to be, good whether our team brings home trophies or not, but today it’s a Great Day to be a Gamecock.
Onward.
the future is bright with one of my favorite freshies
I'll Call It Like I See It 
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