Hundreds gathered in the shadow of the State House on Wednesday afternoon to celebrate the unveiling of the new Dawn Staley statue. The statue celebrates her championship legacy and now sits on Senate + Lincoln streets, next to the Pastides Alumni Center.
As folks gathered at yesterday’s ceremony, they were greeted by Coach Staley’s curated playlist and could initially only see a flower garden framing the statue, which will feature a garnet daylily, honoring Staley’s late mother. The current flowers will be replaced by these daylilies in 2026.
Coach Staley’s accomplishments
Since taking over the women’s basketball program in 2008, Coach Staley has led the Gamecocks to:
- Three NCAA National Championships
- Nine SEC Tournament titles
- Has won 475 times with a record of 475-110; ~300 of those games were won at home
- Held the No. 1 spot in the AP Poll for 86 total weeks, including 38 consecutive weeks
- Four 16-0 seasons — making USC the only SEC program to achieve this
- Coach Staley has also been named SEC Coach of the Year seven times, including a streak of three consecutive honors in 2022, 2023, and 2024.
More than just a coach
None of these very few mentioned accolades even touch on her career as a player, Hall of Fame achievements, Olympic medals, or her advocacy efforts off the court for equity + inclusivity. Statues for Equality, the artists for the statue, also advocate for gender equality and create public statues to inspire, celebrate success, and tell essential community stories.
On Wednesday, both Mayor Rickenmann and Dawn Staley touched on the limited representation of statues highlighting women, citing only “6% of statues in the US are of real women,” — a statistic written about in a 2023 article by UW-La Crosse Art Professor Sierra Rooney.
After the unveiling, Coach Staley said a few words about how she never wanted a statue, but changed her mind after imagining a little girl who would walk by one day and be curious about her. Coach said she hopes she sees more than just basketball accolades, but sees “a regular girl who used her gifts to open doors so other girls wouldn’t have to knock as hard.”
