North Carolina State University Athletics
Sidetracked by a little dust (5/20/09)
5/20/2009 12:00:00 AM | Pack Athletics
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. Other than the Reynolds Coliseum elevator nearly eating marketing intern Blake Scher on the loading dock, and me nearly falling off the old wooden ladder that we have nicknamed “Loosey” because of its 12-inch side-to-side sway with me standing on the next to last rung, and the overwhelming smell of rotting film, I didn’t think there would be anything inherently dangerous about our project to restore NC State’s athletics history.
That was before I got something that may or may not be walking pneumonia. It could just as well be Piggly Wiggly flu. Apparently, all that gunk I inhaled the first week of our effort to clean out the dusty closets of Reynolds Coliseum made a severe impression on my lungs, even though I was wearing a $3 dusk mask I bought at Home Depot.
So much for protection.
But after a few steroids, a Z-pack and some codeine-loaded cough syrup good thing I am not subject to NCAA drug testing I was ready to go back into the fray Tuesday morning. Of course, the interns Scher and football player Donald Bowens, both spent the weekend in sunny and relaxing Florida, while I was at home hacking up my lungs.
Doesn’t really sound fair to me, but they were refreshed and ready to go.
We obviously had to decelerate a little after our initial push into the basement of the 60-year-old building. But we continue to pull out vast amounts of history, in the form of 16mm films, framed and loose photos and newspaper clippings.
Those treasures have far out-weighed the minor inconveniences, like a trip to the urgent care center.
Remember how Everett Case and Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp had a long-standing feud? It began in 1950, when Case’s Wolfpack received the bid to the NCAA Tournament over Rupp’s two-time defending national champion Wildcats, who were relegated to the NIT.
The two coaches, easily the most dynamic figures in the development of college basketball in the South, remained at odds the rest of their careers. Case was certain that Rupp and his staff were the tattletales that reported NC State to the NCAA over the recruitment of high school stars Ronnie Shavlik and Jackie Moreland. State received a one-year probation for the first and a four-year probation at the time, the worst ever imposed by the NCAA for the second.
The two future Hall of Famers faced each other on the court only once, in the 1947 National Invitation Tournament in New York City. It was Case’s first year at NC State, and Rupp wanted to teach him a lesson. The Wildcats whipped the Red Terrors 60-42.
We found what I think is a rusty reel of that game, though we are not sure how much, if any, of it is salvageable.
The difficult part of this task right now is going through the reels of film to see which might be in good enough condition to watch. Former NC State basketball manager Tor Ramsey, now a filmmaker who has done feature films, History Channel documentaries and E! network variety shows, has been helping, using a Moviola film viewer we borrowed from another department on campus. Of course, that is after a failed attempt at using a 1950s-era 16mm viewer Ramsey bought on e-bay.
He found a film canister that contained the four-overtime game against Canisius in the 1956 NCAA Tournament, perhaps the most disappointing loss of Case’s career.
He found a Pilot Life production of highlights from the 1970 ACC Championship game against South Carolina, and reports that Eddie Leftwich’s steal from Bobby Cremins the pivotal defensive play of the contest is in near-perfect condition.
We are ready to add another member to our team, NC State diver Chelsea Ale, who will spend one day a week scanning and editing many of the photos that are currently locked away in filing cabinets. We will share some of the more interesting stuff, like the above picture, circa 1957, that features championship players and coaches.
For sure, I know that is Case and Shavlik, football coach Earle Edwards and Dick Christy, and baseball coach Vic Sorrell. But I am still trying to identify the others.
We’ll be going through more stuff over the next few weeks, and telling you all about it here in this blog spot. Hopefully, by then, I can stop being a hacker and go back to being just a hack.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
