of having a great center, Morgan Gilreath, who was 6-foot, 8-inches,
the tallest guy in the league. He was great at blocking shots and that
sort of thing.”
The simile linking his promising new team to Chaucer’s barnyard
allegory was obvious to the young English professor/coach. The
chanticleer was also from the same family of the animal kingdom as
the gamecock, the mascot of Coastal’s parent institution, which was
an important consideration in those days. (USC-Aiken had chosen
“The Biddies” as its first athletic moniker – it was dropped after two
seasons.) In fact, at Maddox’s suggestion, Coastal’s newspaper had
already adopted The Chanticleer as its new title, replacing the origi-
nal, The Fledgling.
(right, Oct. 23, 1964, issue of the “new” Chanticleer
newspaper)
Although he considered the chanticleer an appropriate and original
nickname for the team, Maddox wanted his players to make the final
decision. “I asked the guys what other names they might like to use.
The ‘Seahawks’ and the ‘Sharks’ were two that were considered, but
they finally chose ‘Chanticleers,’ and it stuck like glue.”
At the end of the first season, Maddox asked Singleton if he thought
a formal student-faculty poll should be conducted to decide on a
permanent nickname. “Singleton advised against it,” says Maddox.
“We had gotten a lot of ink in the press about our unusual, original
nickname. He was pleased with the coverage and the popular response
the name seemed to generate. ”Maddox says he has no strong feeling
one way or the other about keeping or discarding the nickname he
created, and he admits that, with the coming of football to Coastal in
2003, the name loses its metaphorical resonance. “A football team will
have to rely on physical strength to a substantial degree. There’s no
way around it.”
A short time after Maddox returned to the University of South
Carolina in 1965 to earn his Ph.D., a straw vote was held to check the
campus pulse regarding the mascot’s popularity. This and every subse-
quent survey have testified to Chauncey’s appeal and emphasized his
likeness to Chaucer’s triumphant original.
THE CHANTICLEER
17
