COLUMBIA, S.C. — A South Carolina lawmaker is proposing renaming the University of South Carolina's basketball court in honor of Dawn Staley.
Rep. Marvin Pendarvis, a Democrat from Charleston, said he introduced a resolution Wednesday that would give the school's board of trustees the ability to name the basketball court at the Colonial Life Arena in honor of Staley, the school's women's basketball head coach. She currently has a two-block stretch of road near the arena named in her honor.
The measure would only rename the court, while the arena where the team plays its home games would still remain the Colonial Life Arena. Colonial Life, an insurance company, pays for the naming rights for the venue, which also is where the men's basketball team plays and the site of concerts and other public events.
"We need to give her her flowers now," Pendarvis said of introducing the resolution.
Staley has led the women's basketball to an unprecedented level of success since taking over in 2010, highlighted by the 2017 National Championship, the first in school history. They've also won six of the last seven SEC Conference Tournament Championships, including the most recent one this past weekend. She's also recruited some of the top players in the country and has coached several All-Americans, most notably A'ja Wilson, who played on the national title team and was a unanimous national player of the year.
Wilson recently had a statue put up in her honor outside the Colonial Life Arena.
An arrangement where a playing surface is renamed in honor of a notable figure in a school's sports history is becoming increasingly common in college athletics. The University of Florida, for instance, renamed their football field in honor of Steve Spurrier, who won a Heisman Trophy for the school as a player and led them to their first national title in school history. Spurrier also coached the Gamecocks for 11 seasons.