Whenever those inevitable "Which college football rivalry is the best?" polls and stories start making the offseason rounds, only partisans of one intrastate tussle can pull out the gruesome trump card that is a senseless killing over a minor bet:
James Walter Quick watched the South Carolina-Clemson game Saturday at his friend's house in Lexington, S.C., about 100 miles south of Charlotte. The Gamecocks came from behind and won, 31-28.
Quick celebrated.
But his friend, Clemson fan Richard Allen Johnson, said the Tigers shouldn't have lost and refused to pay, authorities said. So Quick left the house and retrieved a high-powered rifle from his Chevrolet Corsica.
"He went back in and told Richard, 'I want my money or I'm going to shoot you,' " said Lexington County Sheriff James Metts, adding that both had been drinking beer.
Metts said Johnson's wife and several friends told police that Johnson then said: "You can't shoot me, I'm invisible."
And Quick replied, "No you're not."
The horrified mother of the accused: "It's state loyalty."
The horrified neighbor: "My nephew was with him every day," she said. "He always talked about how Rick showed him how to skin 'coons and deer."
No confirmation of Johnson's reported invisibility.
Clemson-USC: Not the most storied rivalry, but the most horrific, non-sensically violent
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