Hospitable Dreams: The Story of Thomas Dugas and the Touchdowns Marquee
- Joe Macheca
- Aug 17
- 13 min read
Take a walk down into Five Points on a weekend while school is in session. Dodge past rowdy, intoxicated college kids and walk past the fountain and the painted murals; surely it cannot be missed. Glowing in the night is the Touchdowns marquee.
On cue, catch the signature smell of chopped beef, onions, peppers, and melted cheese as it leaks from the bar. Glance up to see who is being honored or what smack is being talked on the marquee that sits above the entrance.
Inside Touchdowns, you will find Thomas Dugas. He is built, stocky, with a beard, neatly kept (depending on the day of the weekend).
He looks like the type that you would not want to tussle with… legend around Five Points quickly confirmed such theories…
A rarity in Five Points nowadays is finding the owner of the bar working alongside staff with a smile from ear to ear. But this is where you will find Dugas, 13 years sober and right in the middle of the action.
This oftentimes includes lip-syncing his lungs out to keep the energy up, which is just another day at Touchdowns. While Dugas has become synonymous with the marquee, there is so much more to the story that surrounds it.
What Dugas is kickstarting at Touchdowns goes beyond the letters on the marquee outside of his bar. He transcends the typical underdog story.
All of which, to make up ground for South Carolina in the NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) space.
Garnet Colored Dreams
Dugas was raised in Greenville, South Carolina, in a Gamecock Family. Thomas the oldest of four Dugas kids. Football ran supreme as Thomas found love for it growing up with his younger brother, Beck.
They grew up idolizing Gamecock greats like Zola Davis, the late Phil Petty, and Sidney Rice. His Garnet stuck out in the northeast part of South Carolina, which mostly bleeds orange.
When Dugas was a boy, the Gamecocks experienced some of their darkest times as a program. The football gods then shifted into arguably the highest heights this program has seen to this day.
“From an early age, one of my buddy’s dads had a Rivals login,” Dugas said. He was paying the subscription. So I had an email and password that got me behind the paywall.”
As he approached high school, Dugas was given some hope. The Steve Spurrier era began in Columbia in 2005.
As would anyone who grew up a Gamecock fan, Dugas applied to the University and got in. He pursued his garnet colored dreams to Columbia and began his studies at the University in the fall of 2011 as a freshman.
“Once I got to college, I really was on top of everything I could get access to via Twitter, via any of the recruiting websites,” Dugas said. “That's something that I followed year-round.”
There was plenty to follow. The same fall, South Carolina fans would get their first look at No.1 overall-ranked prospect Jadeveon Clowney.
The Gamecocks went 11-2 and were ranked as high as nine in 2011, giving Dugas and all those in Five Points much to celebrate.
The City of Dreams and Nightmares
After achieving his dreams of becoming a Gamecock, Dugas quickly lost sight of what he came to Columbia to do.
In Feb. of 2012, later in his freshman year, Dugas was removed from his dream school to undergo treatment for substance abuse.
His disease took him into places nobody wants to be, and most importantly, away from Colombia. He had to do something to get things back on track.
So he put in the time and the work through both inpatient and outpatient therapy while based at a sober living facility back in Greenville.
Dugas was able to stay on top of everything South Carolina football while working on himself. The thunderous voice of Todd Ellis could be heard blasting from his room as The Gamecocks opened up the 2012 season with a 17-13 win over Vanderbilt.
As he continued to progress, Dugas was able to attend games with his family in his first year in recovery. He witnessed No. 6 South Carolina’s 35-7 beatdown of No. 5 Georgia under the lights at Williams-Brice Stadium.
As he reached his first sobriety anniversary, there was one thought on his mind… returning to Columbia to finish what he started.
Dugas had so many people tell him not to move back to Columbia. Did he know how much of a bad idea it was to return to the environment that sent him away?
“I feel like he made it his mission,” Beck said. “He was going to get a degree from the University of South Carolina, no matter what it took.”
So headfirst, he dove indeed. Dugas enrolled again as a sophomore in the fall of 2013.
Expect the Unexpected
Dugas was away from the capital city for in total of 13 months in total while working on himself. Even after he returned to finish his mission with a newfound lease on life, it was not always smooth sailing.
Despite improving grades for a semester, Dugas was then removed again for academic reasons. This brought the grand total to three times he’s been admitted and re-admitted into his dream school.
Dugas took a job at what was The Bird Dog in 2013. Yes, the now former bar in Five Points. The one that was home to the chicken-finger hot dogs, cheap mimosa pitchers, and sticky floors.
It is hard to fathom what that decision-making process was like. How does one take a job at one of the largest collegiate bar scenes in the country after rehab and 13 months into recovery?
“I did find that, while I was in a not ideal environment, and there was temptation, I felt that coming to work and having something to do was a lot more comfortable for me than going to house parties and not really having anything to do,” Dugas said.
While bar employees can tend to look to take an extra edge off at work by drinking, Dugas worked on himself.
“I know it's very common for people to drink on the clock in the service industry. But you know, one of the things that my hiring manager wanted from me was to be sober for liability reasons,” Dugas said. “If you're a bouncer and you're kicking someone out it's a lot harder to argue that you weren't being excessive.”
Any door guy needs to be of sound mind and judgment when things get serious. That is how things stay safe. So Dugas used his sobriety to his advantage.
This in tune led Dugas to fall in love with the hospitality industry, although he didn’t know it yet. He continued to work his way up from a door guy to a bar back, to a bartender in a few years while finishing his degree.
As Dugas approached graduation in 2017, he was unsure of what he wanted to do. He considered joining the military and was not considering a career in the service industry at that point.
Call it fate, call it karma, but Dugas took a leap of faith one game day in the fall of his senior year.
While waiting on his brother to get to a game day shift in Five Points, Dugas ran into Jessica Jackson. South Carolina Football’s Director of On-Campus Recruiting. He recognized her and promptly asked her for a job.
“More or less, she probably thought I was crazy. ‘Like, who is this random person talking to me? I don't know if she was used to being recognized at that point,” Dugas said with a chuckle. “She had just started her position as on-campus director, and I followed up with her via a Twitter DM because I didn't know what other course to take.”
The direct message went unanswered for a few months. But just before Dugas was set to graduate that spring, Matt Lindsay was brought in to rebuild the recruiting office in January.
“She reached out to me to ask if I was still interested in an internship or, you know, a position with the football team,” Dugas said. “It felt like fate, at the time, how I kind of got my foot in the door, because that was my last semester at South Carolina. And I never would have thought that I would have had that opportunity just kind of fall into my lap.”
He got the student internship, which turned into a part-time job after graduation. Dugas did whatever was asked in the recruiting office. It takes a certain level of hospitality to win over a recruit and their family. What Dugas learned was how to host, and it is evident in his work today.
Dugas would work for the football team in the recruiting office until January of 2020. It was then that he had reached a fork in his life. While still working shifts in Five Points, he was offered the general manager position of the Cotton Gin in the fall of 2019 and had to make a decision.
While being close to the football team was a dream of itself, Dugas realized that the business of football requires movement. He wouldn’t be able to stay at his alma mater forever.
So he waited until the end of the 2019 football season to come to a close before accepting the GM position full-time at Cotton Gin in January of 2020.
Dugas learned a lot while working for the football team. Most importantly, he realized his love for making people feel welcome.
Touchdowns
The idea for “TD’s” has been around since he started as the general manager in Five Points and transitioned into the service industry full-time.
This story officially became a full circle when he came back to buy the same bar he started at in December of 2023.
If one wants to know if someone is a good leader in the workplace, just talk to the employees. Christian Hinty, Andrew Hantzopoulos, and Daryl “DJ” Richardson are all a part of the group that has worked for Dugas since the jump.
“It was something that I know he's been working towards for a long time," Hantzopulous said. "So for him to finally get to those goals and aspirations he's been having, to get that finish line... You feel proud and joy for him."
Touchdowns opened officially for business in May of 2024. And shortly thereafter, Dugas celebrated his twelfth sober anniversary.
The hospitality Dugas learned when hosting recruits while working for the football team is evident the minute you enter Touchdowns. The feeling of being a part of the family is hard not to take from a visit to TDs.
Loyalty means the world in the bar and restaurant business if you prove your worth. So naturally, Dugas came back into the bar with the same staff he had at Cotton Gin.
The first observation of the staff at Touchdowns is the camaraderie that oozes from them. It is infectious.
The hard things seem easy for this crew as a packed bar and needy college kids beg for the bartender's attention on a Wednesday night. Jokes are cracked, smiles are had, as the rush is handled quickly and effectively.
All of this stems from the owner, who is again lip-syncing his lungs out to Whitney Houston at the corner of his bar. This, of course, is the best position to be while the well-oiled machine of Touchdowns on keeps churning.
“I think people are always surprised at his sobriety,” Hinty said. “He's honestly always been fun, and he's always been easy to talk to.”
Dugas’s sober superpowers add to his ability to lead. Most importantly, lead in his way.
“I think that the biggest difference with him not drinking is the amount of energy that man has,” Richardson said. “He is always all over the place and doing something and talking, that's just him.”
What Dugas has instilled in his employees, they will take elsewhere. Employees in the service industry like to take pride in where they work. This results in an effect similar to that of a college coaching tree.
“He's the best boss I've ever had. Like, he's one, just like, on top of everything, always there when you need him the most, works with everybody as a team, and kind of manages everybody as a one big unit,” Hantzopoulos said. “He’s someone I've always tried to look to and take from, and take pieces of how he manages people as a boss and relate that into my own job.”
Hantzopoulos has moved on to open his own restaurant in Sumter, South Carolina, called Boston Pizza and Subs. It is yet another restaurant that is owned and operated by a South Carolina Alum.
No spoilers or free ads here, but the food is worth the trip to Sumpter. Hantzopoulos is Dugas’s first employee to open up their own place. This will continue to grow the reach of Dugas and Touchdowns even further.
Marquee feeling
What started as a fun job turned into much more. Dugas took over the Cotton Gin marquee in January of 2020 and hit the ground running. The Cotton Gin marquee was lightning in a bottle and quickly won the hearts of Gamecock fans and athletes alike.
The dialect of the marquee sounds tough, grizzled, and not afraid to back down. It truly embodies the soul of everything that surrounds and lives amongst it in Five Points.
“Once he got going with it, and he put his brain to it, with his funny little twists everything,” Hantzopoulos said, ”I think it was easy for people to relate to and catch on to it. He's got a sense of humor that most people seem to gravitate towards.”
What serves as a space shoutout to those who deserve it, the letters of the marquee became synonymous with the Gamecocks and Columbia.
As the gap between athlete and student grows, the marquee is becoming a way for the players to connect with their community. When a player is spotlighted, there is an added element of pride that comes with being lifted by your own.
“You recognize that as definitely a recruiting tool, but also, like a morale tool too because you get a lot of people who get their spotlights, but there are some players that, like, don't get that spotlight,” Hinty said. “I think, like, that's a nice little ode to the team, and for people who might not get shown or recognized as often.”
Dugas has always tapped into his roots in the recruiting office on the marquee. He is often calling for the next potential Gamecock to come home.
This has led to the marquee becoming a big feature on commitment graphics. The largest one is Dylan Stewart’s commitment, which was featured on the Cotton Gin Marquee.
After the Cotton Gin shut down in 2023, Dugas knew the marquee was going to be a staple at his new venture, Touchdowns.
Despite moving to a new place, the marquee retained the same attitude it always had.
Kayce Smith and Brandon Walker of Barstool Sports once spoke poorly of South Carolina’s football team in 2024. The Gamecocks trounced Smith’s Aggies 44-20, and Dugas made sure not a soul was sleeping on South Carolina.
The fanbase rallies behind it. The marquee serves as a billboard for how the fanbase is feeling at that given moment. In memoriam or celebration, the Touchdowns Marquee has you covered.
As of late, “Free Sul” has been a mainstay as South Carolina awaits the decision for the fate of running back Rahsul Faison’s extra year of eligibility.
Along with Faison, incoming offensive line target Darius Gray’s name has adorned the marquee a lot. This week, Gray makes his decision on where he wants to play football next season. There is zero doubt where the marquee wants him to go.
Small Business, Big Picture
This story has to be looked at through a broad lens. South Carolina belongs to the Southeastern Conference, which holds eight of the top 10 poorest states in the country. All of those states hold a household median income below $60,000 a year.
The NCAA and the US House of Representatives finally settled their landmark case. It comes in an ever-changing collegiate athletics landscape. The decision finally puts some kind of boundaries on what was the wild west of paying athletes.
South Carolina relies heavily on its collective, The Garnet Trust, and booster club, The Gamecock Club. Both of those entities require strength in numbers to achieve their goal. So far, things have required active participation from fans to keep things moving in the right direction.
Jeremy Smith is at the helm of The Garnet Trust and is working hard to help South Carolina gain ground in the ever-changing landscape.
“The house settlement put all power four schools on an even playing field with the distribution of the cap money,” Smith said. “If you want to bring in a team better than the one that you currently have, in the SEC, they are paying their football roster more than the money that will be allocated to football would be within the cap, based on the house settlement at the current moment.”
This gets tricky. As things change in the NIL space, one thing can be certain: local support is the backbone of it all. Smith says that their membership is the most important piece.
“I know that there is true donor fatigue, and having somebody put out a lot of their personal money to help sustain NIL is not going to be successful long-term,” Smith said. “But someone giving up a Starbucks coffee here or there a month to be able to support NIL is a huge opportunity, and we're going to utilize those funds to allow people to get a behind the scenes look and be able to allow members to get meet and greet with the athletes at events, autograph signings, etc.”
Touchdowns has hosted 1801 Media’s “As I Sip my Coffee,” hosted by Syvelle Newton, which featured Nyckoles Harbor. Dugas tries to host as many events that can benefit Garnet Trust as he possibly can.
"NIL Thursdays" were born at Touchdowns with the idea of giving a portion of profits to The Garnet Trust.
These efforts join a lot of restaurants and bars in Columbia that collaborate with Garnet Trust. CB-18 has also hosted several different events with local groups that promote Gamecock Athletics. All with one goal... to keep South Carolina on the leading edge of NIL.
“Having local businesses still involved is crucial to South Carolina being able to compete, not only in just our conference, but obviously in college football and athletics altogether,” Smith said.
Now the goal shifts to getting everyone on board. The all-hands-on-deck approach might be the edge South Carolina can use to jolt into the hierarchy of the Southeastern Conference.
“We really want to focus long-term on our success, which is about bringing return on investment to businesses locally and across the Palmetto State to ensure that we have something sustainable,” Smith said. “And again, even with utilizing the local businesses, if we're not bringing them a good return on their investment, they're going to stop participating in this space, just like the donors are fatigued, they'll become fatigued as well.”
Making up ground is the goal. If The Garnet Trust can continue offering ways to generate return on investment, the local support will continue to be there.
“There's strength in numbers. So, yeah, if me doing this shows other small business owners that you can have success with this and it does have a positive impact on our business,” Dugas said. “Then cumulatively, with a lot more people doing the same thing, then we will start to make up ground that way.”
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