We’ve been rivals for years.
As long as any of us can remember, the Gamecocks and the Tigers have hated each other on the field. Every year, both teams gear up to take on the other in the hopes of bringing home the Palmetto Bowl and calling themselves the champions.
But some things transcend even the oldest and most revered of rivalries.
On Monday afternoon, a Clemson University student’s body was found in the water near the Highway 93 bridge. Second-year student Tucker Hipps was participating in a group run with fellow fraternity members when a coroner’s report said he fell off the bridge into four to five feet of water.
He went to our rival university. But that detail didn’t stop USC students from organizing a candlelight vigil to honor Hipps Tuesday evening, which was — to say the least — beautiful. Students who normally wouldn’t admit to owning anything orange lined the State House steps, decked out in Clemson gear. A mass of more than 100 students quietly honored a young man most of them had never met.
There wasn’t any booing. There was no chanting and no shouting. Clemson came to USC Tuesday night, and this time, USC welcomed them with open arms.
Tragedy is tragedy — there’s no getting around it. We didn’t know Tucker Hipps, but our hearts go out to Clemson. Our hearts go out to his family and friends. Our hearts go out to everyone who knew him, both at Clemson and USC. We commend the students who took it upon themselves to honor a student few of us knew.
And we especially commend the students who didn’t know him but took time out of their week to support those who did. The fact that so many students came out to support a rival community without a second thought shows that there’s far more to our rivalry than face paint and bragging.
In a state where the rivalry is year-round, it’s comforting to see we can leave it on the field where it belongs.