North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: Dails Enjoy Sharing Prosperity
2/27/2008 12:00:00 AM | Softball
BY TIM PEELER
GARNER, N.C. Jacqueline Dail admits she’s not much of an athlete. In high school, she was a cheerleader. Her sister, Judy Newton, was the family’s accomplished athlete.
But Jackie, as she is known to friends and family, has been working on her fastball. She took a softball and glove with her on a weekend retreat to Myrtle Beach, just to practice for her big moment this afternoon, when she throws out the first pitch at the opening of the Curtis and Jacqueline Dail Softball Stadium on NC State’s campus. She even got some recent tips from a Major League All-Star, Colorado Rockies outfielder Matt Holliday.
Still, she’s a little nervous about what the results of her first public pitch might be.
“I think it might be a comedy hour,” she says.
But surely no one would laugh at either Curtis or Jacqueline, two of NC State athletics most generous benefactors. They’ve been too important to the changing face of facilities on campus.
In 2002, the couple gave a $5.2 million gift at the time, the largest athletic gift the school had ever received that has peppered the campus with a half-dozen facilities that bear their name: Doak Field at Dail Park, the Curtis and Jacqueline Dail Football and Basketball practice facilities, the Curtis and Jacqueline Dail Outdoor Tennis Facility, the Dail Club at Vaughn Towers and Dail Plaza between Carter-Finley Stadium and the RBC Center.
“It’s hard to imagine that anyone could have had a bigger impact on what we have been doing over the last decade in terms of our facilities than the Dails,” NC State athletics director Lee Fowler says. “Their contributions to those projects have been invaluable.”
In addition, the couple has endowed a softball scholarship and the Sixth Man scholarship for the men’s basketball team.
“Mr. and Mrs. Dail have been very generous and supportive of all of our facilities projects and scholarships,” says Wolfpack Club executive director Bobby Purcell. “They are the kind of the people who never forgot where they came from. They have always made it a priority in their lives to help others. They have been very successful themselves, through hard work and diligence and devotion to their careers.
“Now, they are giving back and making sure that people who need it, like young people getting scholarships and teams needing facilities. They are doing all they can to help NC State athletics and academics.”
In all, they have given more than $10 million to the school’s athletic and academic endeavors. In 2006, the NC State Alumni Association named the Dails honorary alumni, which had happened only seven previous times in the school’s 121-year history.
The Dails, married more than 50 years, are not just friends of NC State. They are also the best friends of area animals. They gave $600,000 to the Wake County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for a pet adoption center and they are active in church activities.
“We enjoying doing what we can do to help,” Curtis Dail says.
Curtis Dail didn’t go to NC State he declined a partial athletic scholarship offer from East Carolina, was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1952 and graduated from a business school in Fayetteville after he got out but his affinity for the university can be attributed to a legendary figure in Wolfpack athletics, Hall of Fame basketball coach Everett Case.
They met on several occasions in the late 1950s, not long after Dail finished his four-year stint with the famed 101st Airborne Infantry. At the time, he was a police officer and then a state trooper in
“I used to go to ball games at NC State all the time and to the Dixie Classic,” Curtis Dail says. “I thought the world of Everett Case and I really enjoyed the people I met there.”
That affinity grew to a life-long devotion after the Dails moved to Garner in 1960, when Curtis Dail began working as an insurance claims manager. He stayed in that business until 1975, when he decided he wanted to work as hard for himself as he was working for the insurance company.
“I thought I might end up in a little better situation,” he says.
He bought two Hardee’s franchises in the area. Eventually, he owned 24 restaurants in the
Jackie, who retired from IBM in 1990, attended
“I think you have to be affiliated with a school in this area,” says Jackie Dail, wearing her 2008 Hoops for Hope T-shirt over a long-sleeved blouse, “and we have really always been NC State people.”
The Dails don’t just provide financial support they are active fans at football, basketball and baseball games. A quick look around their home in Garner shows just how much they love the school, from the NC State flag that flies underneath the American flag in the center of their circular driveway to the autographed footballs, basketballs and baseballs that greet visitors in the foyer to the large Block S magnet on the refrigerator.
About the only thing Curtis Dail enjoys as much as NC State athletics is flying his four-seat Cessna 182. He’s had his pilot’s license for more than two decades. But there are some things the Dails don’t do together Jackie made Curtis sell his helicopter last year.
“She never liked flying in that thing,” he says. “I think she flew in it four times in the seven years I had it.”
There was a time Curtis Dail didn’t care much for football, either. But, after spending time around the program, enjoying games from the Dail Club at Carter-Finley Stadium and getting to know the players and coaches, he has changed his outlook. They also enjoy basketball together, but Curtis Dail’s real passion is for baseball. They both enjoy afternoons in the stands at Doak Field at
And, now, they are happy to provide the newest home for Wolfpack athletics, the Dail Softball Field.
“I know these young women and their coaches are happy they have a field on campus,” Curtis Dail says. “I am glad for them.”
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
