On a sunlit Wednesday in downtown Columbia, history stood still as the city unveiled a long-awaited tribute to a woman who has moved it forward—Coach Dawn Staley. Cast in bronze and rooted just steps from the heartbeat of South Carolina’s capital, the statue not only captures a figure in victory, but symbolizes an era of brilliance.

“It’s a testimony to all the hard work and it elevates us as a city,” Columbia mayor Daniel Rickenmann told The State before the ceremony. “So for me, at the end of the day, that’s what today is about. This is really, truly a celebration.”

In her 17 years at the helm of South Carolina’s women’s basketball program, Staley has sculpted a dynasty as carefully and precisely as the artists who crafted her likeness. Three national championships. Seven Final Fours. Nine SEC titles. A staggering 457-110 record. But ask Staley, and she’ll tell you numbers are just the surface.

Initially hesitant to accept the honor, Staley was swayed not by personal pride, but by the greater impact of her presence in stone.

“I agreed to the statue not for me, but for the girl who will walk by one day and wonder who I was,” Staley said. “Maybe she’ll look me up. She’ll see that I did some things in basketball of course, but I hope she sees much more.

“I hope she sees that I was a champion for equity and equality. That, in my own way, I pushed for change. That I stood proudly in the space God called me to inhabit, not as someone perfect or extraordinary, but as a regular girl who used her gifts to open doors so other girls wouldn’t have to knock as hard.”

Indeed, her statue stands as a symbol of resistance, resilience, and representation. Only 6 percent of statues in the United States depict women, according to UW-La Crosse art professor Sierra Rooney, and even fewer depict Black women.

Of course, no Dawn Staley moment is complete without a touch of competitive fire. In a sly nod to UConn’s Geno Auriemma, who once quipped that “one championship gets you a statue at other places,” Staley delivered a knowing rebuttal.

“Contrary to the belief of one of my coaching colleagues,” she said, “her statue wasn’t in response to a national championship. It was in response to being a winner at life.”

The “her,” of course, is A’ja Wilson—Staley’s former star-turned-WNBA champion, who received her own statue in 2021. Now, mentor stands beside mentee, both immortalized not just for what they’ve done, but for who they’ve dared to be.