South Carolina Football’s No. 2 Worst Coach of All-Time:
Marvin Bass
Marvin Bass (1961-1965) had been in coaching for 17 years before being hired as the head coach at the University of South Carolina. Bass coached at his alma mater William and Mary (including one season as the Indians’ head coach), was an assistant at North Carolina in different stints, spent time in the NFL with the Washington Redskins, was the defensive coordinator for Georgia Tech, and coached the offensive and defensive lines for the Gamecocks for five seasons.
When Bass was hired in 1961, he replaced Warren Giese who was fired after having only one bad season in Columbia. The Gamecocks learned from their impatience with Giese but overcorrected; Marvin Bass was allowed five full seasons to coach the South Carolina football program despite never having a winning season.
The Gamecocks were one of the worst teams in the ACC for most of Bass’ head coaching career. In fact, Bass finished with more ACC losses than he had overall wins. The 1-8-1 team in 1963 is one of the worst South Carolina football teams of all time as the Gamecocks played one of the softest schedules in football and were still horrible. Carolina was shutout by Memphis, dominated by Tulane for the Green Wave’s only victory, and lost to Wake Forest in the Demon Deacon’s only win.
In a strange bit of irony, Bass was finally let go after having his best season with the Gamecocks. A 5-5 finish in 1965 (including a 4-2 record in the ACC) was not enough to save his job as he was replaced with Paul Dietzel. Dietzel took several years to rebuild the program from Bass’ mismanagement.