South Carolina Has Renamed Its Live Rooster Mascot And Shockingly Didn't Pick 'Cock Commander'

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South Carolina has officially renamed its live rooster mascot. 

And, clearly, the university doesn't listen to the people.

Meet ... The General, which will pay homage to Thomas Sumter, a Revolutionary War general whose nickname, the “Fighting Gamecock,” inspired the school's moniker.

Lame.

It was well documented here last week that the fans wanted Cock Commander. A local newspaper asked the fans what they wanted and nearly 80% of them went with Cock Commander - the obvious choice.

But, I guess USC doesn't care what nearly 15,000 loyal fans think!

No, the university clearly didn't care what the fictional poll said, and they were never going to use Cock Commander no matter how perfect it is. What could have been.

Sir Big Spur has a new name and it's not cock commander. (Photo by Dannie Walls/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

South Carolina names rooster The General

Anyway, The General is fine ... I guess. Frankly, I'm not a South Carolina fan so it doesn't move my needle one way or the other. Here's the obligatory "this is a great new name" quote from the school.

“We know Gamecock fans are passionate about our traditions and seeing the live mascot at games and other athletics events is something they look forward to,” deputy athletics director Eric Nichols said. “When we realized that we would have to change his name to keep that tradition alive, it seemed fitting to go back to where ‘Gamecocks’ got started."

Oh, you wanna talk history?!

How about I dig this little gem out of the archives!

They tell me that's from the USC student newspaper back in 2004 when a page designer forgot to remove the placeholder caption before hitting "send to print."

You wanna go back to your roots and honor something, I'm not sure you could do any better than that.

Anyway, what's done is done. The General has officially replaced Sir Big Sur and will make his or her debut this week against Georgia State.

As they say in Columbia, Go Cocks!

OutKick The Show: South Carolina Leadership Rejected ‘Cock Commander’ Mascot Name

Clay Travis: "A sad day in history when South Carolina leadership selected the General instead of ‘Cock Commander’ as the new mascot."

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Zach grew up in Florida, lives in Florida, and will never leave Florida ... for obvious reasons. He's a reigning fantasy football league champion, knows everything there is to know about NASCAR, and once passed out (briefly!) during a lap around Daytona. He swears they were going 200 mph even though they clearly were not.