The official mascot of the University of South Carolina is Cocky, a fighting gamecock. The mascot comes from the nickname “Fighting Gamecocks.” In the 1890s the football team was informally referred to as Game Cocks. In 1903 the student newspaper shortened the word to Gamecock and that has been the nickname ever since. Gamecocks are the birds used in cock fights. A famed guerrilla fighter in the Revolutionary War, General Thomas Sumter, was affectionately known as the Fighting Gamecock.