COLUMBIA, S.C. — Roughly two hours before kickoff of every home game at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, like clockwork a tricked-out golf cart arrives with “Heisman Trophy Winner” displayed on its sides. George Rogers, the greatest player in University of South Carolina history, clambers out accompanied by his trademark laugh, then sits at a table in front of the towering statue that honors him.
There he’ll be until shortly before the game starts, posing with USC fans and the Heisman Trophy he won in 1980, when he led college football in rushing with 1,894 yards. A line of eager garnet-and-black-clad ticket holders of all ages forms quickly, soon stretching almost out of sight. Depending on the time, the weather and the day’s opponent, Rogers will bequeath to as many as several hundred fans a cell-phone photo opportunity – and a memory.
Seasons come and go for the Gamecocks. So far in 2026, the on-field results have been disappointing, most recently last week’s 49-18 blowout loss at No. 8 Alabama. But win or lose, Rogers is always there to greet the faithful, many of whom weren’t alive when he captured the biggest award in college football.
Rogers, now 67, is an icon of the most touchable sort. Youngsters, especially, get to sit next to him, try to hoist the massive Heisman and get a keepsake photo. These days, No. 38 – the school retired his number, one of four so honored, at his final home game in 1980 – hesitates to sign autographs; too time-consuming, slowing the line. But “if they’re 10 or 11 (years old), what would I look like telling them no? But 18 and up, not!” he says, grinning.
Fans queue up to get their pictures, most taken by an alumni association employee known to Rogers only as D.B. Nearby, wife Brenda and son Tray, who played for the Gamecocks in 2003 before a neck issue forced him to quit football, sit in the golf cart and watch.
“He enjoys this, being with the fans,” Brenda says. The couple married in 2017 but have been together long before that; their son, George Thomas, is 24, the youngest of the numerous Rogers brood. The oldest, daughter Miranda from his first marriage, is 48.
In 2015, South Carolina unveiled the Rogers statue, but long before then the outgoing star would load the Heisman into his auto, park next to the stadium and greet fans. Some back then even got to try on his Super Bowl ring from his brief career with the NFL’s Washington franchise. “Now I wear my Walter Camp ring and my wedding ring,” he says. Rogers was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1997.
Those old enough to remember that Heisman season recall how Rogers ran by, over and often through would-be tacklers, a bruising bull of a tailback. And his senior season was merely the highlight of a three-year rushing blitz; he finished his career with 5,204 career yards, nearly 2,200 more than USC’s second-place Brandon Bennett.
He ran for 100 yards or more in 27 games; four other USC backs managed 11 each. Of 13 200-yard games in school history, Rogers owns three; no one else managed more than one. And he was a workhorse: his 954 career carries were 252 more than No. 2 Harold Green.
If you never saw Rogers run, though, you still know him. Now a grandfather, he exults in meeting and greeting home-game attendees. “I like doing this,” he said, always with a laugh, “because it gives me something to do besides doing nothing.”
There’s no ego there, no posturing. “People who don’t know I got the Heisman, they’re (mostly) young,” he said. “(But) some older people, they’ll say, ‘You won the trophy?’” Most people know, though. Others count on that; outside football season, Rogers makes appearances at a multitude of school-related events, especially celebrity golf tournaments (he recently was a guest attraction for an event hosted by another USC icon, basketball legend Alex English).
How many of those does he do? “Depends how much they give” to the George Rogers Foundation, which funds scholarships for first-in-their-family college students. When Brenda or a family member can’t accompany him, Rogers is accompanied by former USC teammate and childhood friend Freddie Snow.
What does he enjoy about being in the limelight? “When we (Gamecocks) win!” he says, laughing. Even years like 2025 (4-8 finish), though, “I like being with the fans, having a good time,” he said. “They ask me, ‘You think we’re going to win?’ and I say, ‘I don’t know.’ But on Game Day, Carolina is where I want to be.”
Since Rogers’ final two seasons (1979-80, 8-4 each year), South Carolina football has known peaks – the Steve Spurrier era that included three 11-win seasons and a Southeastern Conference East Division title (2010-13) – and deep valleys, most painfully a 21-game losing streak in 1998-99. Fans live and die with the Gamecocks, and the past two seasons (4-10 to date) have been trying.
“Yeah, (USC) is struggling, and in the SEC, they will be struggling,” Rogers says. “Look at the teams they’re playing; the people we’re playing are no pushovers.” But mostly the fans still come to the games, and the one constant for many is Rogers.
Who’s his favorite USC coach, besides the late Jim Carlen, who brought him to Columbia from Duluth, Ga.? “The one we’ve got now,” Rogers said. “I like Shane Beamer. I think he works hard. But you’re only as good as your last game.”
Favorite players include two quarterbacks: 1984’s Mike Hold, “especially when he handed the ball to Fridge,” Clemson’s William Perry, at the end of that season’s 22-21 USC victory, and the late Steve Taneyhill, who from 1992-95 “could throw it and run it. He did it all.”
Rogers has had health issues in recent years, including diabetes and heart and weight problems. At one recent game, he greeted former offensive lineman Chuck Slaughter, now tall and slender to Rogers’ hefty physique, and offered that he is often heavier than some of his old blockers.
But he says he’ll keep coming to Williams-Brice, Heisman in tow, as long as fans come to get pictures taken with him. When game time approaches, though, Rogers’ routine is set. “I go back to (Gamecock Park, across Bluff Road from the stadium), get in my truck and drive home,” he said. “Soon as I’m done at the statue,” he’s headed to northeast Columbia. Before kickoff, it’s fun to mingle; at kickoff, “I want to watch the game” on TV.
Asked for parting words, he laughs yet again. “Go Gamecocks!” he says.
Forty-six years ago, South Carolina fell in love with George Rogers. The romance continues, on both sides.
Games come and go — icons don’t.
–top photo courtesy of South Carolina Athletics