With 12 days until South Carolina football kicks off 2025 season, a look back at No. 12, Tommy Suggs

South Carolina football will take the field for the first time in the 2025 season on August 31st when the Gamecocks take on the Virginia Tech Hokies in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. That means kickoff is just 12 days away.

The No. 12 has been a prominent number in USC history, especially at the quarterback position. Jeff Grantz is one of the greatest to ever wear garnet and black. However, it is the legendary Tommy Suggs who is the subject of today’s countdown story.

There is a real argument to make that Suggs is the most lifelong example of any Gamecock of all time. The only thing that surpasses South Carolina’s love for Tommy Suggs is Tommy Suggs’ love for South Carolina.

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Suggs was a three-year starter at quarterback for South Carolina during an era in which freshmen weren’t allowed to play. He led the Gamecock offense under head coach Paul Dietzel and didn’t have a losing record in conference play in any of those three years, something that had never happened three consecutive years in team history up to that point.

No. 12 was an All-ACC contributor and most famously led the Gamecocks to an ACC Championship as a junior in 1969. That season is South Carolina’s only undefeated conference mark since World War II. Suggs also never lost to the rival Clemson Tigers. He didn’t lose to ACC rivals North Carolina, NC State, or Wake Forest, either.

Suggs was the first player to toss five touchdown passes in a game for USC, doing so against Virginia in 1968. He was also the first to throw for 300 yards in a game; he accomplished the feat three times, including once in a win over Clemson. He was the first Carolina quarterback to throw for 2000 yards in a season, too.

Suggs finished his career with every Gamecock passing record in the book. Despite playing in a run-first era, he remains in the top 10 on South Carolina’s all-time passing touchdowns list.

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Following his playing days, Suggs remained a Gamecock. He is now entering his 53rd year working as a color commentator on South Carolina football radio broadcasts.

He is also responsible for starting the now-iconic 2001 entrance for the Gamecocks. Suggs encouraged the University to utilize Richard Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra–known by most as 2001: A Space Odyssey because of its usage in a 1968 Stanley Kubrick movie with the same name–and the rest is history. Today, the team’s entrance through the Southwest corner of Williams-Brice Stadium is named the “Tommy Suggs 2001 Gamecock Football Entrance.”

The South Carolina Football Hall of Fame honored Suggs in 1983. Following suit, the University of South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame inducted Suggs in 1989.

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