Williams-Brice Stadium – stadium description

Unlike most stadiums operated by major universities, this one was funded by taxpayers back in 1934. Thus its initial name was the Columbia Municipal Stadium. Then in 1941 it was transferred to the University of South Carolina.

It had two grandstands along the sides, together holding some 17,600. This soon proved insufficient and resulted in one end being enclosed in 1950s and the other in 1960s, together increasing the capacity of single-tiered stands to 43,000.

Crucial changes came in 1971-1972. With great amount of private funding from the Williams and Brice family fortunes the west side was torn down and rebuilt in impressive double-tiered form with two towers on each side leading fans to the upper deck.

The stadium changed its name to the current one and a decade later was almost symmetric with a new upper deck added to the east stand. Lower one is still the original 1934 structure, though! Its upper extension became infamous after opening as it swayed significantly during crowd movement and had to be additionally supported in 1987 to remain safe.

Latest major addition is the south stand’s upper tier, which enabled the stadium colloquially known as The Cock Pit (from the team Gamecocks) to exceed 80,000.