South Carolina honored Joe Rice with a moment of silence before Saturday’s home opener against Kent State, and by the time the Gamecocks finished their 57-0 win, Shane Beamer had already put into words what Rice meant to the program.
“We lost a great Gamecock on Thursday in Joe Rice, and what a devastating loss to the state of South Carolina, to our university, to our athletic department,” Beamer said. “He was a great friend to so many. Really have enjoyed getting to know him over the years.”
Rice died Thursday at 72. At Gamecock Park, where he spent most fall Saturdays tailgating, there were only pictures and flowers on display Saturday. The scene was a quiet contrast to the usual setup, when Rice could be found with a Miller Lite and a cigar while a crowd gathered around him like it was a family reunion.
He was one of South Carolina’s most important supporters, both as a donor and as a presence around the program. Rice helped jump-start major gifts to the athletic department, including funding the Rice Athletics Center, and continued giving over the years.
“He is sort of like the owner of a team,” former head football coach Steve Spurrier told the New York Times in 2024 about Rice. “They put the money up. The good thing about it, they don’t tell us what to do.”
That was the reputation Rice carried: a major backer who never tried to run the show. Former AD Ray Tanner told The State last year, “There might have been a conversation periodically,” but “he was not going to be influential.
He was not going to be the person who said, ‘Well, I’ll tell you what we should do. I’ll tell you what needs to be done.’
He’s never been that guy.”
After tailgating, Rice would head to suite 9 at Williams-Brice Stadium and sit in the front row. He was rarely loud, even with family and friends reacting around him. He wore large over-the-ear headphones with antennas and listened to Todd Ellis and Tommy Suggs on the radio broadcast.
Rice graduated from South Carolina in 1976 and earned his law degree in 1979. In 2023, he and his family pledged $30 million to the law school, which was renamed the USC Joseph F.
Rice School of Law. Most of that money will go to scholarships.
His path through law school was not straightforward. He did not have the grades to get in after his undergraduate years, but South Carolina offered him a spot in a summer program with 40 or 50 others, and the top performers would earn admission. Rice made it through that route.
From there, he became a major figure in the legal world, helping negotiate the $246 billion Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. His firm, Motley Rice, later worked on major cases tied to the Sept. 11 tragedies, the BP oil spill, Volkswagen emissions fraud, opioids, asbestos and more.
Beamer said the loss hits close to home for Rice’s family as well.
“My heart hurts for Lisa, his wife, and Annie, his daughter, and the rest of their family,” Beamer said. “I talked to Lisa yesterday and I said, “Is there anything we can do?’
And she said, 'You better win because Joe’s going to be watching.’ You talk about pressure.
That was pressure. Going to miss him.”
In Other News...
South Carolinas Opener Already Has Lineup Twists Fans Will Notice
South Carolinas 2026 season opener against Kent State at Williams-Brice Stadium arrived with the usual September buzz, but the Gamecocks also brought a few lineup choices that stood out right away. Shane Beamer is entering his sixth season on the sideline, and the program opened in garnet jerseys with white helmets and pants for the noon-adjacent kickoff, a look fans immediately noticed as the first game got underway.
The action itself gave the home crowd something early to track, with Matthew Fuller putting South Carolina on the board on a 7-yard run after a longer burst helped move the drive along. Even in a game that was supposed to feel straightforward, the Gamecocks had enough in their starting setup to make the opener feel like more than just a tune-up, especially up front and along the defensive line where the depth chart carried a few surprises. [Read more 🡒]
South Carolina Showed Shane Beamer Something Bigger Than The Final Score
South Carolinas season opener against Kent State came with more than the usual August nerves, because the heat in Columbia was brutal from the start. The Gamecocks still handled business on the scoreboard, rolling to a 57-0 win, but the setting mattered almost as much as the result. The athletic department spent the day working to keep players and fans hydrated, and Shane Beamer had every reason to like what he saw from a team that had to manage a difficult environment before it could even settle into the game.
What stood out most was how cleanly South Carolina got through it. Extreme heat can turn an opener into a survival test, especially for a roster still trying to establish its early-season rhythm, but the Gamecocks came out with a dominant performance and no visible fallout from the conditions. For a coach preaching toughness and resilience, it was the kind of first step that goes beyond the final score, because it showed how the team responded when the weather was almost as much of an opponent as Kent State. [Read more 🡒]
South Carolina Fans Finally Get Their First Look At The New Offense
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Kent State will come to Columbia on Sept. 5, with the game set for a national audience on SEC Network and the broadcast crew of Taylor Zarzour and Matt Stinchcomb on the call. It is the kind of season opener that gives South Carolina an immediate measuring stick, and with more dates and TV details already in place across the schedule, attention is only going to build once that first snap arrives. [Read more 🡒]