North Carolina State University Athletics
Amato and Pack Hope To Turn the Tide
10/10/2000 12:00:00 AM | Football
By Tony Haynes
Losing just one game to North Carolina is an insufferable experience for most NC State fans, so imagine how Wolfpackers must feel about the current seven game losing skid to the Tar Heels. Funny thing is, many of the same people who predicted last year that they would never survive another loss to UNC are still around.
Is this a big game? Absolutely. Is it the difference between life and death? No way.
Just ask Wolfpack coach Chuck Amato, who suffered through the indignity of a mini- losing streak to the Tar Heels when he was an NC State linebacker in the 1960's. As a sophomore in 1965, Amato and the Pack captured the ACC Championship. But one of the blemishes on NC State's 6-4 record that year was a 10-7 loss to North Carolina in Raleigh.
The next year, State posted a 5-2 mark in league play. But once again, one of the defeats was to the Heels. And once again, the final score was 10-7.
Of course, 1967 would prove to be perhaps the greatest season in NC State football history. Spurred on by Amato's idea to wear white shoes, the Pack posted a 9-2 record that included a 14-7 victory over Georgia in the Liberty bowl. And that special 1967 campaign began with a 13-7 victory over Carolina.
Now, 33 years later, Chuck Amato the head coach is ready to lead his alma mater into battle against its arch rivals from Chapel Hill.
"I'd like nothing more than to beat them, but I want to win them all," Amato said. "It's like every other game that's a rival game, and the week of the game it's made out to be bigger than all the others. But the big game every week is the game you're going to play. Last week the biggest game was Clemson and we weren't even thinking about this."
Amato is leery of sending the message that one game is more important than all the others, especially since he asks his players to put out maximum effort for every game, regardless of who it's against.
"The fans, the boosters, and the administration get into it and it's bragging rights for a year," Amato explained. "I heard it during the Wolfpack Club tours in the spring: 'If you only win one game, just make sure it's against that team.' My answer to that is in five years if I'm 5-and-50 and we beat them five times, would I still have a job? Talk to me then."
More than likely, he won't have to wait five years to be reminded about how his teams have done against North Carolina.
