When the Gamecocks and the Hokies Last Met

“I thought we really came into a buzzsaw,” sighed Coach Frank Beamer, the last time the Virginia Tech Hokies met the South Carolina Gamecocks.

The Gamecocks will meet the Hokies on August 31 in Atlanta—a game our fans haven’t stopped looking forward to since the end of last season. It will be a historic matchup, notably for Coach Shane Beamer taking on his father’s old team.

There is a lot of history wrapped up in this soon-to-be-here matchup, and it’s worth taking a closer look at the last time these two teams met—September 21, 1991, at Williams-Brice Stadium.

These two universities go back a long way. The first time they met was back in 1905, when football was still a young sport. Since then, the Gamecocks and Hokies have met 20 more times with Carolina boasting a winning record of 11-7-2. Even before football, these schools shared some history. John M. McBryde, who was a professor and president of the college here during the 1880s and early 1890s, left sunny Columbia for the mountains of Blacksburg to become their president in 1891. Both campuses still have buildings named for the same McBryde around today.

In 1991, the Gamecocks hadn’t yet joined the SEC. We were still independent, capping a two-decade run as a conference-less program after leaving the ACC. For more on this history, see Alan Piercy’s recent book A Gamecock Odyssey.

We had gone 6-5 during the 1990 season, and hopes were high for Coach Sparky Woods in his third year and the return of starting quarterback Bobby Fuller. Our first game of the 1991 season ended in a tie with the Duke Blue Devils 24-24 in Columbia. We lost our second game 16-21 in a heartbreaker at the West Virginia Mountaineers the following week. So, as September 21 approached and the Hokies came to town, a powerful feeling of anticipation bordering on desperation was creeping into the football team and its legions of fans.

68,200 fans packed into Williams-Brice Stadium for the Saturday night game. And they would stay until the very end.

The Hokies scored first on their opening drive. Running back Tony Kennedy ripped apart the Gamecocks defense for runs of 18 and 19 yards, finishing the drive on a 7-yard touchdown run.

But then the Gamecocks caught fire and scored 21 straight points. Eddie Miller caught a 55-yard pass from Bobby Fuller to set up the first score. Brandon Bennet pounded it in from two yards away to score the second, and Leroy Jeter took a two-yard pass into the end zone to go up 21-7 in the second quarter.

But then Virginia Tech scored twice tying the game at 21-21 in the third quarter. The Hokies were driving again, but Robert Gibson intercepted a pass thrown by Tech’s quarterback Will Furrer to return possession to the Gamecocks. After Bobby Fuller found David Pitchko for a 26-yard gain, Terry Willburn ran it in for a six-yard touchdown.

We were up 28-21 with 2:24 still to go in the third quarter. But that would end up being the final score, yet not without a lot more angst to come for the packed Williams-Brice Stadium. “Pass the Pepto-Bismol,” Bob Gillespie wrote in his column for the next day’s editorial in The State.

Once again, the Hokies threatened as time ticked down. With only 22 seconds left, the Hokies scored a 33-yard touchdown, but officials called it back after an illegal formation call. As stomachs twisted on the field and in the stands, Virginia Tech aired it out again for the end zone, but this time, Jerry Inman made a spectacular interception. “It was an easy play to make because it was the least I could do,” a humble Inman told The State. The defensive front was putting great pressure on the quarterback.”

The Gamecocks had won, upping their record to a rare 1-1-1.

“USC’s 28-21 survival of Virginia Tech had more twists and turns than an Agatha Christie murder mystery,” Gillespie wrote. “How could anyone depart until they knew who done it: the butler, the chambermaid, Bobby Fuller, Will Furrer?”

“It seemed like every play was a big play,” recalled Bobby Fuller after the game. “It was a crazy game like that, one thing after another.”

It might have been a wild game, but it was far from boring.

And there’s a good chance that’s how the upcoming game will play out on August 31 as Shane Beamer’s Gamecocks meet Brent Pry’s Hokies in Atlanta to launch the 2025 football season. A lot has changed since 1991, but the need for Pepto-Bismol on hand while watching the Gamecocks has not. Let’s hope we can raise our pink glasses in celebration just like they did 34 years ago when these teams last met.