  The geographic South Pole provides unique opportunities to study cosmic
particles in the Southern Hemisphere. It represents an optimal location to
deploy large-scale neutrino telescopes in the deep Antarctic ice, such as
AMANDA or IceCube. In both cases, the presence of an array, constructed to
observe extensive air showers, enables hybrid measurements of cosmic rays.
While additional neutron monitors can provide information on solar cosmic rays,
large detector arrays, like SPASE or IceTop, allow for precise measurements of
cosmic rays with energies above several $100\,\rm{TeV}$. In coincidence with
the signals recorded in the deep ice, which are mostly due to the high-energy
muons produced in air showers, this hybrid detector setup provides important
information about the nature of cosmic rays.
  In this review, we will discuss the historical motivation and developments
towards measurements of cosmic rays at the geographic South Pole and highlight
recent results reported by the IceCube Collaboration. We will emphasize the
important contributions by Thomas K. Gaisser and his colleagues that ultimately
led to the rich Antarctic research program which today provides crucial
insights into cosmic-ray physics.
