The story behind Gamecock QB Jay Urich’s sign and its message that went viral

It was a collaborative effort. And South Carolina quarterback Jay Urich didn’t know how far the message would carry.

It went across the internet, seen by thousands, maybe millions. It resonated so much that the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. shared the image of Urich holding the sign.

Last Thursday night, as the Gamecocks junior was preparing to march with his team for social justice the next day, he got help from Haley Darnell and Scotty Gavlin, two friends from church who also planned to be part of the peaceful protest.

“We were all together making signs,” Urich said. “Scotty, one of my best friends, mentioned ‘matter is the minimum.’ ... He got it from a comedian awhile back — like, why are we saying just, you know, ‘matters’? There’s so much more. So Scotty sort of came up with the verbiage, and then I was like, ‘Hey man, can I use that tomorrow?”

The sign read “Matter is the minimum” in large letters, with three smaller notes underneath:

“Black lives are worthy

Black lives are beloved

Black lives are needed.”

It borrows from the phrase black lives matter, but aims to take it farther.

“The bottom of sign, whenever it talks about black lives are worthy, black lives are beloved and black lives are needed, that sort of came from me where that’s my heart,” Urich said. “We sort of came together with it.”

He credited Darnell for actually writing the sign, delivering crisp penmanship that should not be overlooked.

“Scotty and I were joking about it,” Urich said. “We were like, ‘It probably would have went viral anyways, but it definitely helps that it looked nice and it wasn’t horrible handwriting.’ So Haley definitely played a good part into it.”

The mindset behind it was love, he said, how it can overcome evil in the world.

And the image, also captured by The State reporter Greg Hadley, caught attention.

Urich wasn’t aware of the buzz being generated until he got home from the protest and saw the image being shared widely on Twitter. He woke up Sunday to find messages from social media pages he’d not heard of saying his picture was posted by profiles with 18 million followers.

He’s still getting messages from strangers letting him know how the message affected them.

Gamecock great Marcus Lattimore was the one who called and told him Dr. Bernice King had posted the image on Twitter.

“He was just like, ‘Wow, this is really catching steam,’ just telling me how proud he was of me,” Urich said.

Urich has been part of the Gamecocks for three full seasons. He came in as a quarterback and has helped at wide receiver and on special teams, completely willing to do different things when asked.

“The fortunate thing here at South Carolina, we’ve got a lot of guys like Jay,” Muschamp said. “They care about each other. They see the injustice that’s going on in our country, want to stand up for each other. When you want to stand up for your teammate, it’s a brotherhood. I’m proud of Jay, but I’m also proud of our entire team.”

The march itself was a coming together of sorts for the team. After more than three months of Zoom video calls because of the coronavirus pandemic, this was the first time all the players were back together again.

Urich called it an amazing moment when Muschamp said he and his wife would march and the players could come with them. Coaches sometimes shy from topics with elements that could be considered controversial or political. Muschamp also arranged to have speakers address the team on the issues and recommended players register to vote before joining the Friday protest.

And as Urich looks back on it, back to that warm Columbia afternoon before the sign resonated, the Upstate product felt something unifying as he and his teammates joined so many others for a cause.

“I think it was very special because you know we lock up and play for each other on Saturdays, but now it was really cool to have this experience where we’re all together fighting for equality, standing arm in arm,” Urich said. “I think it’s gonna make a difference in everybody who has their lives, in how you raise your children and how you live your life. Honoring people, loving people regardless of the skin color they have.”