South Carolina football legend honored as entrance officially gets new name

South Carolina football fans are so close to watching their Gamecocks play. By the time USC enters the field from the tunnel leading out of the locker room under Williams-Brice Stadium, the sold-out crowd on George Rogers Boulevard will be raucous.

However, according to a release from the South Carolina football program, things will be a little different for the team's entrance this year.

Also Sprach Zarathustra, better known as the 2001: A Space Odyssey Theme or just 2001 has played for the Gamecocks' entrance since the early 1980s. Some things have been added over the years to the pregame (fire columns, light shows, a Cockaboose, and Sandstorm, among other things), but 2001 has been a constant for over 40 years.

On Saturday, the Gamecocks will have something a little different walk from the tunnel to the entrance will be named the Tommy Suggs 2001 Gamecock Football Entrance.

Tommy Suggs, the South Carolina football legend who led the Gamecocks to the 1969 ACC Championship and who has been in the booth as part of the team's radio broadcasts for about 50 years, was the driving force behind the University of South Carolina adopting the song for its football team. He pushed for the song during the late 1970s and early 1980s until, during the '81 campaign, the Gamecocks' 2001 entrance was born.

When 2001 plays on Saturday (kickoff is set for 4:15 PM ET; the game will be broadcast on the SEC Network and streamed on the ESPN app), the Gamecocks will be beginning year 4 of the Shane Beamer era in Columbia. The season opener will be the first matchup ever between the South Carolina Gamecocks and Old Dominion Monarchs, and USC will run out of that tunnel with hopes of building some confidence ahead of their week 2 contest against the Kentucky Wildcats.