North Carolina State University Athletics
Veteran Sportswriter Joins Gopack Team
11/15/2004 12:00:00 AM | Pack Athletics
Nov. 15, 2004
BY TIM PEELER
Someone was in deep trouble. I knew from spending enough time around my volatile high school football coach/biology teacher that when the crimson spread to the upper tips of his ears, that the geyser was about to blow. He was charging like a mad bull, head down, steam trailing. Someone was going to get the cussing of a lifetime.
Then he stopped in front of me.
It was at that point I first feared for my life: a 165-pound high school sophomore looking directly into the mouth of Hell. Standing there was Dennis Byrd, one of the most decorated and fearsome defensive linemen in N.C. State football history. The former All-America player and NFL first-round pick - he was a teammate of Chuck Amato on the famed White Shoes defense - wasn't there to talk about his accolades.
One of our clumsy quarterbacks had dropped the football during a goal-line scrimmage during practice one day and I apparently didn't go after it with the enthusiasm that Coach Byrd wanted. It's not like I knew that the ball was lying on the ground three yards behind me, though I didn't have a chance to mention that during our conversation. I was too worried about my chinstrap coming undone.
That's because Coach Byrd - whose honored jersey hangs from the upper deck at Carter-Finley Stadium - had grabbed me by the facemask, lifted me one-handed off the ground and was holding me as close to his nose as the plastic cage of my helmet would allow. My feet dangled about 18 inches off the ground, scraping precariously at his kneecaps. He liked to lift players by their helmets because a buckled chinstrap prevented any movement of the jaw, and therefore, no possibility of back-talk. That may have been the moment I first began to understand the passion of sports.
For the past 20 years, I have chased that passion around the country as a sportswriter, covering events from coast to coast and border to border, telling stories of accomplishment and failure. I've chased some of the biggest names in sports, and found great stories in obscure places, from the national Tug-of-War championships to the empty bleachers of a silenced stadium. I've spent time working for four daily newspapers in North Carolina, after getting my start as a student at N.C. State in the mid-1980s when I wrote for Technician, the student newspaper. I've collected a lot of memories -- and a few writing and reporting awards -- since then, but now I have returned to the back doorstep of the school where I got my start. Back then, it was pulling all-nighters on the third floor of the old Student Center or rushing across campus to get to Tompkins Hall. Now, technology has changed so that I can write stories from the third floor of my house in Cary, and easily reach N.C. State fans and supporters around the world eager to read about their alma mater via the Internet.
Not long after I left the newspaper business a few months back, athletics director Lee Fowler approached me about writing stories and providing other content for the athletics department website, www.gopack.com. This column marks the beginning of that venture, in which I will find stories of players, coaches and administrators that just don't get into the newspaper anymore. Those stories are worth telling even more, though, because of the things that do frequently get into the newspaper. I have a long list of ideas, and I welcome suggestions. Just e-mail me at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
I'll write features and some news, as I did for years while covering N.C. State, North Carolina and Duke for the newspapers in Raleigh, Salisbury, Durham, Greensboro and a few other places. The great thing about athletics is there is always another story to tell the next day.
I'll look at the school's history, as I did this past summer while writing the forthcoming book ""Legends of N.C. State Basketball,'' which should be hitting the book stores any day now. It examines the legacies of more than two dozen N.C. State basketball players and coaches. Just because an athlete's college career is over doesn't sever the tie with his school. One of my favorite stories of last year was about Wolfpack basketball legend David Thompson, who returned to school in the summer of 2003 to finish the two classes he needed to get his Sociology degree. Now the greatest player in ACC basketball history is a N.C. State graduate, nearly three decades after his playing career ended.
And I'll be on hand to lend a perspective for events and happenings in the future, as the university continues to move ahead with massive improvements and upgrades in its athletics facilities. That will only improve the quality of the athletes who find their way to N.C. State's campus.
My goal is to chronicle and trumpet the triumphs and sacrifices made by N.C. State athletes, coaches and administrators in their pursuits of competition and championships.
It's hard to forget that burning look of fire in Dennis Byrd's eyes on that practice field some 25 years ago. Maybe I can impart the passion I have for sports into others, without ever having to pick anyone up by a facemask.
You may contact www.gopack.com writer Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
