Steve Taneyhill, Iconic South Carolina Quarterback and Beloved Gamecock Legend, Dies at 52
COLUMBIA - South Carolina football lost more than a former quarterback on Dec. 15 - it lost a legend, a lifeline, and a larger-than-life personality. Steve Taneyhill, the fiery and fearless signal-caller who helped pull the Gamecocks out of one of their darkest football chapters, has died after a years-long battle with cancer. He was 52.
The news was confirmed by Spartanburg County Coroner Rusty Clevenger and echoed by former teammates and the University of South Carolina athletic department. Taneyhill passed under hospice care, leaving behind a legacy that still echoes through Williams-Brice Stadium and beyond.
Taneyhill wasn’t just a quarterback - he was a spark. A swaggering, mullet-rocking freshman who stepped into chaos in 1992 and turned it into something hopeful, something memorable, something worth believing in again. At a time when the Gamecocks were reeling - 0-5 in their first SEC season, morale in the basement, and players openly voting for their coach to quit - it was Taneyhill who changed the energy.
He got his first start after a brutal 48-7 loss to Alabama. The Gamecocks were out of answers, and the coaches handed the keys to the young gunslinger.
What followed was nothing short of electric. Taneyhill threw for 183 yards and two touchdowns in an upset win over No.
15 Mississippi State. He followed that with two more wins and nearly knocked off Florida in Gainesville.
The season still ended with a losing record, but the tone had shifted. The Gamecocks had found their guy.
Then came the Clemson game. Nov.
21, 1992. Taneyhill threw for 296 yards and two touchdowns, but it wasn’t just the numbers - it was the attitude.
He taunted the Tigers at Memorial Stadium like a rockstar playing a rival’s stage. He pantomimed home runs.
He signed his name with his finger on the Tiger paw at midfield. And in the moment that’s still etched in the rivalry’s lore, he stood in his garnet-and-black uniform, arms stretched to the sky, defiant in the face of a roaring orange crowd.
That photo? It's still one of the most iconic in South Carolina football history.
Taneyhill wasn’t a flash in the pan either. He stayed under center through the 1995 season, capping his career with an MVP performance in the 1995 CarQuest Bowl - a 24-21 win over West Virginia that marked the first bowl victory in school history.
That win wasn’t just a milestone; it was a statement. The Gamecocks had arrived.
By the time he was done, Taneyhill had etched his name all over the USC record books. He still holds the school’s all-time marks for pass completions (753) and passing touchdowns (62).
When he left Columbia, he was the program’s most accurate passer and still ranks second in career passing yardage (8,782) and tied for third in wins as a starting quarterback (20). But the numbers only tell part of the story.
What made Taneyhill unforgettable was the way he played the game - with confidence, charisma, and a little bit of chaos. He arrived at USC with a blonde mullet, an earring, and a reputation for talking the talk.
But he backed it up every step of the way. Even when he cut the hair, the fire stayed.
In 1994, under new head coach Brad Scott, he led the Gamecocks to a 7-5 season and that historic bowl win. The school even sold ballcaps with fake blond ponytails dubbed “Taney-tails” - a nod to the cult of personality that had grown around him.
And he never stopped being Taneyhill. Years later, he’d still joke with fans: “Funny, I still tell people all the time, I’m 3-0 in Death Valley.” And he was.
After his college days, Taneyhill transitioned into coaching, starting at Cambridge Academy with eight-man football before taking over at Chesterfield, a Class A program that had won just three games in three years. True to form, he turned things around. Just like he had in Columbia.
Steve Taneyhill wasn’t perfect. He wasn’t polished. But he was exactly what South Carolina needed when it needed it most - a quarterback who believed when nobody else did, and who made the Gamecocks believe again too.
He leaves behind a legacy built not just on stats or wins, but on moments - the kind that fans still talk about decades later.