North Carolina State University Athletics
Giving back with a little golf
4/11/2005 12:00:00 AM | Pack Athletics
April 11, 2005
BY Tim Peeler
RALEIGH - NC State athletics director Lee Fowler believes that it's important for Wolfpack coaches and athletics department officials to give back whenever they get a chance.
Monday is Fowler's turn.
The third-annual Lee Fowler Charity Golf Classic tees off at Prestonwood Country Club in Cary Monday morning, hoping to add to the two-year total of $28,000 that Fowler and the NC State chapter of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity have raised for the Jim "Catfish" Hunter Chapter of the ALS Association, which covers North and South Carolina.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, is a debilitating neurological disease with no identified cause and no known cure. It affects some 30,000 people in the United States.
It's a disease that has affected several sports figures from the state of North Carolina, from Hunter, a native of Hertford, to former East Carolina baseball coach Keith LeClair, to late Western Carolina football coach Bob Waters, who once coached his Catamounts against the Wolfpack in a motorized wheelchair from the sidelines of Carter-Finley Stadium in 1988.
The ALS Association is the primary charity for Phi Theta Delta, which was the fraternity Gehrig belonged to as a student at the Columbia University. The members of the NC State chapter, which has won the Caldwell Cup as the campus' best fraternity 12 times since its inception in 1988, approached Fowler three years ago about helping them with a philanthropy project to benefit the local chapter of the ALS Association.
"We should always find a way to give back to our community," Fowler said. "I always think it is great for our coaches, our students and our athletic department personnel to find ways to help others."
Fowler got his wife, Carol, involved. For each of the last three years, she has helped Raleigh attorney Mack Boxley, a Phi Theta Delta alum, organize the day-long event, finding sponsors and donors. Northwestern Mutual Financial Network is event's title sponsor.
The fraternity brothers volunteer throughout the event, handling such duties bag check-in, registration and prize distribution.
Fowler has also invited several Wolfpack head coaches to come visit with the 21 foursomes that will be playing in Monday's event - a total of 84 players in all. Players paid up to $900 per foursome to play in the tournament, which awards donated prizes in three flights and offers prizes on every hole, including the possibility of winning a new Lexus with a hole-in-one on one of the par-3s. In its first year, the event raised approximately $13,000. Last year, it raised $15,000. And this year, its goal is to approach $20,000. And next year, Boxley hopes to have enough participants to fill two golf courses.
Overall, it's a big golf week at NC State. Over the weekend, the Wolfpack men's golf team hosted the Courtyard by Marriott Intercollegiate at Devils Ridge Country Club, with the Wolfpack finishing fourth in the 15-team field with a score of 9-under par. Junior Taylor Crosby fired a 5-under 67 on Saturday to finish in a tie for second place in the individual competition.
This coming weekend, Wolfpack football legends Torry and Terrence Holt will host the Holt Brothers Celebrity Weekend, which includes the fourth-annual Torry Holt Golf Classic at Crooked Creek Golf Club in Fuquay-Varina. Proceeds from the weekend benefit The Holt Foundation, which provides money for cancer research.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
