North Carolina State University Athletics
Program Spotlight: Dick Christy
11/23/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Editor’s note: Fifty years ago, NC State accomplished the unthinkable, winning its first ACC Championship under the guidance of fourth-year head coach Earle Edwards. With an offensive backfield that featured undersized backs Dick Christy and Dick Hunter, the Wolfpack had a reliable offense and a spectacular defense, which record five shutouts in 10 games. Throughout the season, we will remember the 1957 ACC Champions as they celebrate the 50th anniversary of their remarkable and unexpected championship.
BY TIM PEELER
The date was Nov. 23, 1957, and Edwards and his team were elated just to have the ball in this season-finale against
There was no time left on the clock. On the final offensive play of the game, Wolfpack quarterback Tom Katich was intercepted and the Gamecocks ran the ball all the way back into Wolfpack territory. But
A game can’t end on a defensive penalty.
Up in the press box of Carolina Stadium, NC State assistant coach Pat Peppler was drawing up a pass play for Christy to throw the ball to speedy Dick Hunter, in the hopes that Hunter could make something special happen. Peppler called the play down to the sideline, but the message never got to Edwards, who had won only three ACC games in his first three seasons as the head coach of the Wolfpack.
At this point, however, he was on the verge of completing an unbeaten season in the league, with a slim hope of actually winning a conference championship, an unthinkable feat for
But 1957, Edwards guided his team to six wins and two ties, including a 0-0 affair at the Orange Bowl against Miami and a 14-14 tie against national power Duke. All the Wolfpack needed to do to win its first conference title of any kind since 1927 was beat the Gamecocks and hope that rival
All those thoughts were going through Edwards’ mind as he stood on the sidelines, trying to decide what to do.
That’s when Christy, the Wolfpack’s All-America halfback who had already scored the team’s first 26 points of the game on four touchdowns and a pair of two-point conversions, tugged on his coach’s sleeve.
“Coach, let me try a field goal,” Christy said.
Christy was the Wolfpack's first football superstar, a double-duty, double-sport guy who was the heart-and-soul of the ’57 team. But he had never attempted a field goal in his college career. Sure, he fooled around after practice every now and then, kicking without any opposition in front of him. But Edwards was reluctant to send him on the field with the game, and the potential conference championship, on the line.
“Holy balls,” Edwards said to the 6-foot-2, 191-pound halfback, “you’ve done everything else today. Go give it a try.”
So Christy walked out on the field, told his teammates what he was going to do and told Hunter to hold for him.
“That was the only time before or since that I ever held on a field goal or extra point,” Hunter said. “I didn’t know what I was doing.”
Neither did Christy, to be honest.
But, Hunter placed the ball down, and Christy made a perfect line-drive kick from 46 yards away. Players from both teams stood quietly as the low-flying ball took seconds to travel the distance, but when it went through the uprights there was a near-riot on the field, as the Wolfpack took home the 29-26 victory.
Christy was an excellent athlete who came to NC State from
Christy excelled in his three varsity seasons, playing offense, defense and running back kicks. He had kickoff returns of 96 and 97 yards in the Wolfpack's first three games of 1957, and in
Just before halftime, in an October game against the Seminoles, Christy ducked down the sidelines on a pass pattern, left the field of play, ran behind the Seminole bench and back onto the field behind the FSU cornerback. Christy hauled in a 48-yard touchdown pass from Ernie Driscoll eight seconds before halftime, the only score in the 7-0 Wolfpack victory.
The officials didn't call the obvious penalty and Florida State coach Tom Nugent jumped all over his defensive back, who was trying to return to college football after sustaining a knee injury two years before. It’s the play that gave the Wolfpack the win and send the defensive back, Burt “Buddy” Reynolds, packing for a career in
“My side of the story is that, first, he ran out of bounds,” Reynolds said in the fall of 2006. “Secondly, I think he ran behind our bench and came back on the field. He just disappeared out of my line of sight and was behind me.
“The ball player that played against Dick Christy was not the same ball player I was as a freshman. That’s not to say that he wouldn’t have gotten behind me anyway. He was a great, great ball player, and the person responsible for starting my acting career. After that game, I am going off to become a movie star.”
Christy was also an excellent defensive player back in the two-platoon days when everyone had to play both ways. Against
But no single performance in ACC or NC State history has ever out-shone what Christy did in the game against the Gamecocks, with the first-career field goal as the exclamation point. As the Wolfpack celebrated in the lockerroom in
Christy’s exploits that day earned him a lauded spot in Wolfpack history. He went on to play professional football afterwards and was an AFL All-Star in 1962. But he never got to grow old with his legend. He died prematurely on July 8, 1966, in a single-car accident outside his hometown in
Fifty years after NC State’s first ACC title, Christy is still remembered fondly by his teammates.
“He was such a good guy,” said Dick ""Amedo'' DeAngelis, who blocked for Christy for three years. “He was married, so he didn't hang out much with the rest of the players. But he was a terrific athlete, who played three ways on football and was a very good diver for the swimming team, which is something a lot of people don't know.”
Christy’s family remained close to the program for years after his death, traveling from
Christy's widow, Louise, came with her family on the fall afternoon in 1997 when the school retired his No. 40 jersey. Part of that entourage included his grandson, Richard Joseph ""Dick'' Christy II, who was then a freshman golfer at
The younger Christy is now NC State’s associate athletics director for external affairs, overseeing marketing and other aspects of the Wolfpack athletics department. He also organized a reunion this fall to celebrate the 1957 and ’67 teams that are remembered as two of the best in school history. More than 70 former players attended the event.
It was the younger Christy’s first real chance to mingle with his grandfather’s peers.
“The neat thing for me was hearing the off-the-field stories, from guys like Steve Vitek, Fran Tokar and Joe Rodri,” said Christy, who was born 13 years after his grandfather’s death. “To be embraced by those guys like you are a grandson, when you have never met them before, a lot of that just speaks to what kind of person he was. That was something I never got to experience.
“You hear the legendary, on-the-field stuff, which you have to take with a grain of salt because it grows as the years go along. But when you hear the kind of person he was and how close he and Coach Edwards were, those are the things are really neat to hear.”
Tim Peeler is the managing editor of GoPack.com. He can be reached at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
