A statue fit for a homegrown legend: A’ja Wilson hopes to inspire future generations
It was less than three years ago when then-University of South Carolina President Harris Pastides took the stage during graduation at Colonial Life Arena to announce the school would erect a statue for USC women’s basketball great A’ja Wilson, who was receiving her diploma that day.
And it’s not unusual for projects such as that to take a long time to fund, build and set up.
On Monday afternoon, Wilson, just 24 years old, got to see her bronze likeness unveiled outside the arena where she used to dominate for the Gamecocks, capping a whirlwind turnaround she wasn’t sure at first would ever truly happen.
“Even when President Pastides said it at graduation, it still didn’t seem real,” Wilson said. “I was just like, OK, whatever, this is just a joke. ... When I actually saw the mold of it and I’m like, ‘Wow.’ When I saw coach (Dawn) Staley making the donations, I’m like, ‘Oh, this is really coming to life, like this is about to be real.’ And to finally see it out there and to cut the ribbon, I still can’t believe it.”
Wilson is just the second ever Gamecock athlete to have a statue built of them on campus, joining Heisman winner George Rogers. She’s also one of a select few Black female athletes to have a statue in the entire country. For the Columbia area native, having it unveiled in her home city on Martin Luther King Jr. Day was especially meaningful.
“My grandmother couldn’t even walk on this campus. She couldn’t even get to where she needed to go on a quicker route, she had to walk around,” Wilson said. “If she was here today, to see her granddaughter has a statue where she once could not walk, it goes to show how you just plant seeds and that’s what it’s all about.”
Moving forward, Wilson said she hoped the statue will inspire those after her.
“Change doesn’t happen overnight, but you want to be a part of something that plant seeds, so later on down the road, little Black girls can come back and look at that statue and say, ‘Wow, like, she was her, but at the same time she was in her community as well,’ and I think that’s the beauty of it all,” Wilson said.
The 11-foot statue, placed in the plaza just outside the main entrance, was sculpted by Julie Rotblatt-Amrany of Highwood, Illinois — Rotblatt-Amrany said she was drawn to the project by the chance to depict a female athlete.
“I’d say 90% of the pieces that our studio does are men athletes or veterans from veterans memorials. So yes, of course that was,” Rotblatt-Amrany said. “I’m hoping to get a lot more females in the future as well, because you want to have role models.
“A lot of speeches that were given today, they were talking about A’ja as a role model, her personality, who she was outside of the court, too. So that young women and young Black women especially (have) role models for that community that they have somebody to look up to and ... I kind of call the sculpture ‘Shoot for the stars,’ you’re shooting towards your future, your aspirations are so high, you don’t know where you can go.”
In order to create the likeness of Wilson rising up on one foot for a shot in her South Carolina uniform, Rotblatt-Amrany said she consulted photos, game film and met with Wilson in person through the sculpting process. For the most part, Wilson said, she stayed out of Rotblatt-Amrany’s way, letting her handle the look of the statue. There was one area where she offered input, though.
“I love the final product and Julie did a great job and I knew she would, but it was just cool to kind of see,” Wilson said. “I did have a say in no shin guards. I could not have that in the statue, did not need little kids pointing at it and saying, ‘What’s that on her leg?’”
This story was originally published January 18, 2021 at 4:44 PM with the headline "A statue fit for a homegrown legend: A’ja Wilson hopes to inspire future generations."
