 Under current head coach Dawn Staley, the Gamecocks have been one of the top programs in the country, winning the NCAA Championship in 2017.The program claims a mythical national championship in 2020 before the season ended because of the COVID-19 pandemic, finishing first in the two major polls (which is the traditional standard in football).The Gamecocks first competed at an intercollegiate level in women's basketball in 1923, when they were called the Pullets (a young domestic hen, a play off "Gamecocks," which is a rooster).