The Expanded List of Carter-Finley's Greatest Games
May 22, 2006
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH - I'm looking for a little help. To help celebrate the 40th anniversary of Carter-Finley Stadium, the athletics department is looking to identify the top seven games ever played at NC State's home football stadium.
Why seven? Well, after we have identified the top 20 candidates, we're going to conduct a fan poll that will whittle it down to seven. Each of the games selected will then be recognized at a home football game this fall during the season-long celebration of the stadium's 40th birthday.
The anniversary coincides with the completion of the third phase of the six-year renovation project that has totally modernized the stadium in the years since head football coach Chuck Amato and athletics director Lee Fowler arrived in 2000.
The project to enclose the north end zone, which will add nearly 7,000 new seats where the old Finley Fieldhouse once stood, is slated to be completed by August 1, which will fully enclose the lower bowl of the stadium.
Already completed are the closed-in south end zone, the Murphy Center, the football practice fields, a new scoreboard and Vaughn Towers, all of which has given the Wolfpack one of the nation's top football facilities and pushed the capacity to Carter-Finley to nearly 60,000.
So here is how you can help: I've identified 15 top candidates, from off the top of my head, from consultation with de facto Wolfpack athletics historian Frank Weedon and through a little bit of research. I ran them by Tony Haynes, Gary Hahn and Johnny Evans of the Wolfpack Sports Network, all of whom have seen - and, in Johnny's case, played in - more games at Carter-Finley than I have. We think this is a good start, but we are hoping readers can make it more comprehensive.
So between now and July 1, we'll be looking to add five more games to this list, all based on input we receive from readers of http://www.gopack.com. Just e-mail me at mailto:tim_peeler@ncsu.edu with any game you believe deserves to be part of the initial list. I'll come up with a total of 20 candidates, you can vote from July 1 through Aug. 15 and then we'll count down the top games during the football season.
I know some of you have seen every game ever played at Carter-Finley. Many of you have certainly seen more than me.
The first time I ever attended a State home football game was on Sept. 9, 1983, my freshman year of college, when the Wolfpack lost to East Carolina, 22-16. That game is not included on my list. Nor, in fact, are any of the games from my first three seasons on campus, as State recorded three consecutive 3-8 seasons.
But there are plenty of candidates from 1986, when the Wolfpack celebrated the 20th anniversary of Carter-Finley with one of the most exciting seasons in school history. It was the first season under new head coach Dick Sheridan, and, like Amato's first season in 2000, every game went down to the wire.
And, in one case, beyond.
So look at the list. Make suggestions. And then come back to www.gopack.com this summer to vote on the top seven games ever played at Carter-Finley.
Top 15 games at Carter-Finley Stadium
- NC State 42, Virginia 21, Oct. 29, 1966: Carter Stadium opened two weeks earlier with a 31-21 loss to South Carolina. On this day, however, head coach Earle Edwards, who long pined for a modern stadium to replace the crumbling on-campus Riddick Stadium got his first victory at the Wolfpack's new home.
2. NC State 13, North Carolina 7, Sept. 16, 1967: The night before this season-opening contest, Wolfpack linebacker Chuck Amato convinced his teammates on defense to paint their shoes white with the case of shoe polished he bought from the Man-Mur Barber Shop on Hillsborough Street. Thus inspired, the Wolfpack beat the Tar Heels for the first win in an eight-game winning streak, thanks to a 55-yard touchdown pass from Jim Donnan to Harry Martell. It was the first of eight games that year that the "White Shoes Defense" held an opponent under 10 points. It was also the first game in a day-night double-header at Carter Stadium, with Duke and Wake Forest playing later in the day, the first only time in the history of the Big Four that the quartet played each other on the same day in the same location.
NC State 28, North Carolina 26, Oct. 6, 1973: Out to a 21-3 lead behind the leadership of quarterback Dave Buckey, NC State needed fourth-quarter, fourth-and-one touchdown by running back Willie Burden to seal the win over the Tar Heels, to break a two-game losing streak. The win sparked a four-game winning streak that season to give the Wolfpack its only ACC Championship of the Lou Holtz era.
NC State 12, Penn State 7, Nov. 9, 1974: Coming into the game, the Nittany Lions had the nation's top-ranked rushing defense, but it was a third-quarter defensive stand that won this game for the Wolfpack, ending an 11-game losing streak to Penn State. Running back Stan Fritts gained 112 yards, rushing for one touchdown and throwing an option pass to Pat Hovence for the other. The Wolfpack defense - guided by coordinator Al Michaels, a Penn State grad - stopped the Nittany Lions on four straight plays after a first-and-goal on the 6-yard line. Michaels received the game ball for his defensive squad's performance.
NC State 8, Florida 7, Sept. 20, 1975: Trailing the 13th-ranked Gators 7-0 with less than four minutes to play, Wolfpack defensive back Dan Meier recovered a fumble on the Florida 38-yard line. On the next play, Dave Buckey hit Elijah Marshall on a post pattern for a late touchdown. Holtz sent sophomore Johnny Evans in as a fullback, and he took the pitch in for a two-point conversion to give the Wolfpack a much-needed win.
NC State 27, Indiana 0, Oct. 4, 1975: What happened in this game may have been even bigger than the upset of Florida, because of the legacy it left. After sitting on the bench the first three weeks of the season and not making the trip to Michigan State for the fourth game, freshman Ted Brown was elevated to the varsity team for the first start of his career. He rushed for 121 yards and two touchdowns in this game, then added 106 yards and two touchdowns against North Carolina in the Wolfpack's next home game, a 21-20 victory that was saved when the defense stopped a two-point conversion attempt with 14 seconds remaining. Brown went on to become the ACC's all-time leading rusher with 4,602 career rushing yards, a title he has held for more than a quarter century.
NC State 28, Duke 7, Nov. 17, 1979: Defensive back Eric Williams had three interceptions in this win over the Blue Devils that clinched the Wolfpack's seventh ACC title in 22 years. However, despite being conference champions, the Wolfpack was not invited to participate in a post-season bowl game.
NC State 27, Clemson 3, Oct. 25, 1986: In a season that was defined by comebacks and close finishes, the Wolfpack scored a virtual blowout against the No. 16 Tigers in a game regionally televised by CBS. It was the first home win over a ranked team by first-year head coach Dick Sheridan, who guided the Wolfpack to an 8-3-1 record in his inaugural season.
NC State 23, South Carolina 22, Nov. 1, 1986: When the clock expired, the Gamecocks were leading, 22-17, thanks to the heroics of quarterback Todd Ellis, who erased an early 17-0 deficit. But when several South Carolina players taunted NC State quarterback Erik Kramer at the line of scrimmage on the final play, they were flagged for being offside, giving the Wolfpack one final play from the USC 33-yard line. The Wolfpack sent four receivers to the end zone, and a hobbled Kramer scrambled away from the rush and threw the ball in the direction of three of them in the south end zone. Danny Peebles, a track-star-turned-wide-receiver, found himself open and caught Kramer's wobbly pass for what is probably the most exciting finish to a game in school history.
NC State 43, Duke 43, Sept. 1988: History may not remember this tie as a great game, but there were certainly some offensive fireworks going on at the fairgrounds. The two teams combined for 979 yards in the contest, as NC State juggled its quarterbacks on rushing and passing downs. Shane Montgomery came in to throw, while Charles Davenport was in to run the ball. Montgomery threw three touchdown passes to Nasrallah Worthen to tie the school record, and Damon Hartman connected on a 37-yard field goal as time expired to force the tie.
NC State 28, Georgia Tech 21, Oct. 5, 1991: Thanks to a pair of defensive touchdowns, the Wolfpack scored its second consecutive win over a ranked opponent, defeating the defending national champion Yellow Jackets. Linebacker Tyler Lawrence returned an interception 32 yards for a score and Ricky Turner returned a fumble 26 yards for another score.
NC State 24, Florida State 7, Sept. 12, 1998: After giving up a touchdown on the second play of the game, the Mike O'Cain-led Wolfpack intercepted first-year quarterback Chris Weinke six times en route to beating the No. 2 ranked Seminoles. It is the highest ranked opponent the Wolfpack has ever beaten at Carter-Finley, and the highest ranked team State had beaten since 1967 when it beat second-ranked Houston on the road.
NC State 38, Syracuse 17, Oct. 1, 1998: The unranked Pack upsets the No. 11 Orangemen and future All-Pro quarterback Donovan McNabb for the second year in a row, in a nationally televised Thursday night contest.
NC State 30, Georgia Tech 23 (OT), Sept. 21, 2000: The legend of quarterback Philip Rivers was born a few weeks earlier in a double-overtime win over Arkansas State, but he was introduced to a national television audience in this Thursday night ESPN thriller in Chuck Amato's first year as head coach. Rivers, the freshman quarterback, brought the Wolfpack back from a 13-0 halftime deficit with three touchdown passes to sophomore wide receiver Koren Robinson, including a 23-yard game-winner in overtime.
NC State 17, Florida State 7: Nov. 23, 2002: After losing three consecutive games, the Wolfpack seemed to be reeling it began the season with a school-best 9-0 record. But the defense ruled the day against the Seminoles, earning the Wolfpack a bid to the Gator Bowl, where it beat Notre Dame to cap off a school-record 11-win season.
You may contact Tim Peeler at mailto:tim.peeler@ncsu.edu.
