Marty Dreesen climbed onto a step stool inside his Columbia bar, Bar None, tugging old receipts and napkins from a yellow metal tube that hangs above the counter. Since 1994, whenever Dreesen said something outrageous, his staff would jot it down, toss it into the tube, and wait until the bar’s Christmas party to read it aloud.
But the tube isn’t just any tube—it’s a 30 ¾-inch piece of a goal post ripped from Williams-Brice Stadium 25 years ago, marked with the score: COCKS 21, #9 DAWGS 10 // SEPT. 9, 2000.
That bent piece of metal is a relic from one of the most unforgettable weeks in South Carolina football history: back-to-back Saturdays when the nation’s longest losing streak finally died—and Gamecock fans tore down goal posts two weekends in a row.
Williams-Brice turned into chaos after wins over New Mexico State and No. 9 Georgia, and the images of fans carrying goal posts down to Five Points remain legendary.
Lou Holtz, then USC’s head coach, didn’t quite get the hysteria.
“I’ve been here two years,” Holtz said days after the Georgia upset. “We’ve won two games and we’re on our third set of goalposts. I’d like to think we have a little more confidence in our program than that.”
Still, for fans who had sat through a brutal 21-game losing streak, confidence had long been dead.
Life in the streak
Jeff Barnes, then a redshirt freshman lineman, recalled professors teasing players in class: “Y’all better be studying because you ain’t winning.”
The late ’90s were bleak. Brad Scott was fired after 1998’s collapse, Holtz came out of retirement, and 1999 ended in an infamous 0-11 season. USC fans still filled Williams-Brice, but as former mascot Garrett Humphries said, “the stadium would clear out at halftime because we were getting beat so bad.”
Yet 2000 felt different. With QB Phil Petty back, running back Derek Watson emerging, and a stronger defense, hope flickered. The opener against New Mexico State was circled as must-win. As The State’s Bob Gillespie wrote, it was “one of the most important games ever for the Gamecocks.”
Holtz even cracked before kickoff: “Am I going to commit suicide if everything doesn’t go the way I’d like it to? No. But the posse might shoot me.”
The streak ends
On Sept. 2, 2000, USC rolled to a 31-0 win. Fans stormed the field, tore down the goal posts, and dragged them through Columbia streets. Some pieces ended up at frat houses, others in apartments, and one even listed on eBay for $49.99.
A week later came Georgia. By halftime, USC led 14-10 behind Watson’s heroics. Humphries, dressed as Cocky, even warned Georgia’s mascot: “This will be the first SEC game we’ve won in quite a long time. … You will probably want to leave the field early because fans will storm the field.”
He was right. South Carolina shocked the Bulldogs 21-10, its first SEC win since 1997, and the second set of posts fell. For Barnes, it felt like “the national championship.”
Goal posts turned souvenirs
The back-to-back goal post destructions cost USC about $20,000 in repairs, but the ticket surge after the Georgia win more than covered it. Meanwhile, Five Points bars snatched up chunks of the metal. Rafters’ manager paid $500 for his piece, while Jake’s ended up with massive sections thanks to a hacksaw.
One piece still hangs at Bar None, right above the spot where Dreesen pulls out those napkin scribbles each Christmas. For 25 years, it has been a reminder of the wildest September in Gamecock football history—when hope finally returned to Columbia.
