South Carolina football lost one of its most iconic figures on December 15. Legendary quarterback Steve Taneyhill passed away at age 52 after a long battle with cancer. The mullet-wearing, trash-talking quarterback who turned a 0-5 disaster into one of the program’s most memorable eras left behind a program that had given him everything. And in his final weeks, he asked for one thing in return. Just 16 days before his death, on November 29, Taneyhill sent out what would become his final message to the program he loved so deeply.

“Watching all these rivalries games on tv and every team has a lot of former stars/players on the sideline for pregame,” he tweeted. “Wonder why we don’t do anything like that? It’s a big game and the former players would love to come back. USC doesn’t do much in that category. Go Gcocks.” 

Even as cancer ravaged his body, he was still thinking about how to make South Carolina football better. He still wanted to see his brothers in garnet and black honored the way he felt they deserved.​

The irony of Taneyhill’s request is that South Carolina has built one of college football’s most celebrated gameday traditions with their “2001” pregame entry. But what Taneyhill was pointing to was something different. He wanted a culture you see at places like Clemson, where former players gather at the paw, or programs that make a spectacle of bringing back legends to stand on the sideline during big rivalry games. 

For a quarterback who pretended to sign his name on Clemson’s Tiger Paw in iconic fashion at midfield after a touchdown in 1992, and stand with his arms outstretched in Death Valley taunting 80,000 orange-clad fans, the absence of that tradition must have stung.​

What made Steve Taneyhill great wasn’t the numbers. It was what he represented. When he took over as a freshman in 1992, the Gamecocks were 0-5. Players had literally voted for coach Sparky Woods to quit. Taneyhill stepped in and immediately beat No. 15 Mississippi State, then rattled off three more wins before the season finale. 

That November day at Clemson, he threw for 296 yards and two touchdowns in a 24-13 upset.

“Funny, I still tell people all the time, I’m 3-0 in Death Valley,” Taneyhill joked just two years ago, referencing his wins at both Clemson and LSU.​

After his playing days ended in 1995 with MVP honors in the CarQuest Bowl, Steve Taneyhill poured that same swagger into coaching. He won three straight state championships at the small-town Chesterfield High School. Later, he became a Five Points institution, buying Group Therapy and two other bars, becoming a part of Columbia’s fabric. 

The blond mullet eventually got cut, the “Taney-tail” hats became collector’s items, but the attitude never changed. He lived life his way, competed at everything, and when the cancer came, he kept fighting, just like he did all those years ago on the field.

Breaking Through at South Carolina

Taneyhill’s junior year in 1994 proved to be different. The Gamecocks had made eight previous bowl appearances without ever tasting victory. But that season saw the Gamecocks burst out of the gates with four wins in its first six games, only to lose momentum and limp toward the regular season finale with an even 5-5 record.​

But, everything changed when the quarterback torched Clemson for a 33-7 victory that punched South Carolina’s ticket to the CarQuest Bowl against West Virginia in Miami. Facing the Mountaineers, Taneyhill delivered when it mattered most. He completed 26 of 36 attempts for 227 yards, added a rushing touchdown in a nail-biting 24-21 victory. His MVP performance led the team to its first-ever bowl game win in school history. 

The player’s final season in 1995 saw the team slip to 4-6-1. Taneyhill’s individual brilliance, though, only intensified. Against Louisiana Tech, he matched the school’s single-game touchdown pass record in a 68-21 blowout. He replicated the feat weeks later against Vanderbilt in a 52-14 rout. His career totals of 8,555 passing yards, 61 touchdown passes, and 753 completions cemented his status among the most productive quarterbacks in South Carolina history.​

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