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Five Points sunbather picks Carolina to win SEC East

By Corey Hutchins

It’s not a sandy beach or a sun-baked rock on the river but if the skies are clear then you can bet Larry Phipps is soaking it up at the Five Points fountain. Like, seriously, all the time.

It actually is– for all intents and purposes– his office.

“I sit out here, get some sun… get a little work done,” says the Saluda Ave. sunbather who is also the publisher of the SEC football magazine, Phipps.

Historically dead-on in his projections– like when he picked the Gamecocks to win “six to eight” games in 2001 at the guffaw of sport radio commentators (indeed USC ended up winning seven), Phipps says he has Carolina winning the Eastern Division this season even before the first snapped ball.

“I play the games out in my head,” he says about he makes his calls. As the publisher of a sports magazine he also has a brain full of stat data for each team. He believes it will come down to Carolina or Tennessee and, after playing that game in his head, sees Carolina winning the division title.

Phipps has used the Five Points fountain as his office long enough for area shoppers and merchants to take notice.

Martha Lynn, owner of the Greek Store & More, says she once heard the “Five Points sunbather” mentioned on Steve FM.

Another woman remarked how his sitting there, working like that out in the sun, reminded her of being in California.

Recently a TV news crew rolled up to ask him about his view on politics.

On a sunny Thursday at 4 p.m. Phipps is dressed in classic sunbathing beachwear— bright nylon shorts, sandals, no sunscreen. But replacing the sound of the rolling surf is the occasional car horn and constant screech of brakes and transmissions. A cell phone sits in his lap and several velvet Crown Royal bags surround his fold-up chair, though he gave up drinking years ago.

Another reason he chooses the fountain as his office is because of the Vitamin D he gets from the sun. Phipps is 59 but feels 21 and attributes it partly to that. It’s a vitamin he says people need more than they know. Subscribing to alternative medicine, Phipps is also a health nut who loads up on “super foods”— like lentils, tomatoes and peanut butter.

A resident of Five Points, when he’s not acting as a sidewalk solar panel he also deals in real estate and owns a janitorial company. “I’m a whore for work,” he says, saying that he’d rather be his own boss and not have to answer to anybody. And hey, his current office does have a pretty nice view.

Picking up one of the Crown Royal pouches he thumbs into it to pull out a plug of tobacco, which he jams into a wooden smoker’s pipe.

“This is my only vice,” he say as he packs in a load.

Though he sits at the fountain nearly every day for an hour or more, Phipps’ skin isn’t as dark as one might expect— especially since he doesn’t use sunscreen. The alternative health doctors are saying now that sunscreen can actually harm your skin, he says, and as long as he’s out soaking up the rays after 4 p.m. he’s only going to get what he calls “golden brown.”

“Most people think I’m in my 40s,” he says, and talks about how he has the energy of someone half his age. Maybe the alt-health doctors are onto something.

While the Five Points sunbather used to play football in his youth he’s now resigned to strictly commenting on it for his magazines– and sometimes his opinions get him in trouble. Like the letter he got from a Tennessee fan who threatened to “whoop his ass” over an editorial about certain players on his favorite team.

But Phipps remains steadfast on his belief that Carolina will win the SEC East .