Being tabbed as Cocky, South Carolina’s treasured mascot, is an honor very few receive, and that’s why student Tramont Miles thought he was being pranked when he got the call.
It didn’t help that the email announcing he had been selected for the secretive job was sent on April 1st, but it was no prank for Miles was given one of the most undercover positions at the school.
The only catch was that he could never reveal to anyone that he was Cocky.
Not to his friends, family, or even 3x NCAA Championship-winning basketball coach, Dawn Staley, whom he shared celebratory moments with during the season, including before she and her team won the title in Cleveland last month.
“I was at open practice the day before [the championship game] on the court with all of them,” Miles said in an interview on the university’s website. “Me, Dawn and the other assistant coaches were just dancing with each other and having fun during practice. That was a big core memory for me.”
Miles, or better yet, Cocky, has traveled the world representing South Carolina athletics and he’s even appeared in Nissan’s March Maness commercial.
One of the coolest moments for Miles was becoming the first to rise out of the school’s gameday Cockaboose on the field at Williams-Brice Stadium during a game.
“I’m the only one that’s ever came out of it so far. The first time I rose out, I didn’t do anything, I froze for a second,” he said. “I was like ‘Wait, I need to move. Everybody’s looking at me.’ Then I start dancing and jumping and it was wild.”
Miles has met everyone from senior administrators and professors to students and fans.
But first and foremost, he’s a student first. And a successful one at that.
A criminal justice and psychology double major from Bennettsville, South Carolina, Miles, a first-generation student, has also been a university ambassador, a presidential ambassador, and a peer leader.
This past weekend, he revealed his secret identity by donning his yellow feet one last time, not as Cocky but as Tramont Miles, and took his final walk at South Carolina at graduation. Congrats Tramont!
