Wise Counsel: Remembering Ada B. Thomas

Less than a decade before the Civil War erupted, students from South Carolina College were involved in one of the largest college riots of the 19th century involving hundreds of people in downtown Columbia. 

Long before USC's women's track and field team snared the university's first NCAA championship in 2002, a USC club team won a national championship. On the 50th anniversary of the feat, the players recount their victory.

Halloween is just around the corner, so it's time to dust off the tales of mysterious apparitions and other fantastic phenomena that have, according to some, haunted the campus in yesteryear. 

When USC's School of Education moved into its new building in 1932, it also opened a high school — University High School — to give its students a convenient place to practice teaching. University High graduated about 1,300 students during its nearly 35 years of operation and generated countless fond memories along the way. 

USC has racked up some big birthdays — a centennial and a bicentennial — and this year celebrates its quasquibicentennial, a fancy word for a 225th anniversary. Co-hosts Chris Horn and Evan Faulkenbury take a look at what's happened on campus in the past quarter century. 

For more than 40 years, Ada B. Thomas counseled, cajoled, calmed and cared for thousands of USC students, many of whom still say they never would have graduated without her guidance. She was a remarkable person who always made time to help a student in need. 

Campus ghost stories, USC's first national championship* (yes, there's an asterisk beside it), the Mother Superior of the business school and a look back at USC's first dean of women — that's just some of what's in store for the fall 2026 season of Remembering the Days, which kicks off in late August. 

The start of softball as a USC varsity sport goes back more than 50 years, and it's a rich history — the very first team made it to the College World Series. Since then, USC has had a parade of great coaches and players and an enthusiastic fan base to cheer them on. 

When it was dedicated in 1955, the Russell House University Union building was an instant hit with students — a place to gather, eat and have fun in the middle of campus. Several additions and more than 70 years later, the Russell House is still that place. Remembering the Days co-host Evan Faulkenbury talked with several alumni who share their Russell House memories. 

The presidency of Donald S. Russell at the University of South Carolina was an intersection of the right person at the right time with the right resources. Russell's presidency helped to usher USC into the modern age and set the stage for the university's dynamic growth in the 1960s and beyond.