North Carolina State University Athletics
PEELER: Military Ties Run Deep at NC State
9/16/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 16, 2010
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. -- The North Carolina School for Agriculture and Mechanic Arts opened its doors to the school's first freshman class in 1889, with a military background that is deeply embedded in its roots. Alexander Quarles Holladay, NC State's first president (1889-1899), was a colonel in the Confederate Army.
The school's first chancellor, John W. Harrelson, left his position on the NC State faculty to serve in World War I and was always addressed as Col. Harrelson the remainder of his career, even after he was named dean of administration in 1934 and was officially named chancellor in 1945.
In 1894, the school established a military science program that required all students to participate in military training drills (no less than three hours a week for most students).
Following the Defense Act of 1916, the school introduced a qualified Reserve Officer Training Corps that continues to this day. Just after U.S. entered World War I, the entire campus was turned into a military training center and more than 2,000 NC State alumni eventually served in the war. The Memorial Belltower on NC State's campus honors the 33 alumni who died during the war.
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Military Appreciation Day Events |
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Feature |
Time |
Location |
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Adopt-A-Troop tailgates |
Pregame |
CFS parking lots |
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Backhome Box collections |
Pregame |
Gates 3,6,9,13 |
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Wounded Warriors entry |
6:45 |
North entrance |
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F-15 flyover |
7:30 |
Overhead |
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Full-field U.S. flag |
Halftime |
On field |
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Black Daggers (parachute demonstration team) |
Halftime |
On field |
The daily drills were dropped following the Korean War, but over the last 90 years, NC State's ROTC programs have commissioned more than 2,500 officers. The school has also produced more generals than any school other than the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
Among those generals is Gen. Henry "Hugh" Shelton, the 14th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Maxwell Thurman, the Vice Chief of the Army; Gen. Dan McNeil I, the commander of the International Security and Assistance Forces in Afghanistan.
NC State currently has more than 400 students enrolled in Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force ROTC. Last year, it commissioned 54 officers to serve in the military.
The football team continues to have strong ties to the military, especially since current head coach Tom O'Brien is a former Marine officer who both played and coached at Navy. Monday, prior to his weekly radio show, O'Brien was presented with a American flag from Bob Kimery, who carried it with him on a mission in Afghanistan, as thank you for O'Brien's support of the troops.
O'Brien, a member of the board of directors for the U.S. Marine Corps Toys for Tots program, actively involves his players in the local drive to purchase new toys for local children during the holiday season.
Many former NC State athletes have a background in the military and have proudly served in every military engagement since the Spanish-American War.
Here are just a few:
• Halfback Frank Thompson of Raleigh was one of NC A&M's greatest athletes of the early 20th century. He helped the football team win Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association championships in 1907 and 1910 and was an excellent baseball player. He eventually became one of the school's most successful baseball coaches. He enlisted as a second lieutenant in the Army in 1917 and was killed on the battlefields of France just a few weeks before the Armistice that ended the war was signed. The school memorialized Thompson by naming its first basketball arena in his honor. It was converted into the Frank Thompson Theater in the early 1970s and was recently refurbished.
• Former basketball center Robert "Opie" Lindsay, who graduated from NC State in 1916, was the only North Carolina-born flying ace of World War I. The Madison, N.C., native shot down six German airplanes over the battlefields of St. Mihiel, France, and was twice shot down himself, once behind enemy lines. Promoted to Lt. Colonel, he finished the war as the Air Liaison Officer for the Third Army. Afterwards he was a founding member of the Civil Aeronautics Administration, a forerunner of the Federal Aviation Administration.
• Fullback and outfielder William C. Lee, a native of nearby Dunn, played just one year of football and baseball at NC State (1916-17) before enlisting as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army to fight in France. He became a military instructor at NC State in the 1920s, a military observer in France and England in the 1930 and the developer of the first platoon of parachute troops at the outset of World War II. He designed the tactical plan for the airborne and glider attacks for Operation Overlord, the D-Day invasion at Normandy, France. He is known as "Father of the Airborne Command."
• Center Steve Sabol was one of three brothers from Campbell, Ohio, to attend NC State in the 1930s. His older brother Andrew played football and basketball at the school. His younger brother Frank graduated with a degree in ceramics engineering. Steve was a four-year starter at center in football. He was named third-team All-America by the Associate Press in 1936 and was voted by his fellow students as the winner of the Alumni Athletic Trophy in 1936 as the school's best athlete. He joined the Marines immediately after graduating from NC State and was a lieutenant colonel when World War II started. In 1943, he was awarded the Bronze Star for leading his battalion of the first Marine Division in an island campaign in the South Pacific.
• Chris Young, a former walk-on quarterback and special teams holder from 2001-04, is a second lieutenant in the U.S. Marines in the southern Helmand Region Afghanistan. He first arrived there in March 2008 and was engaged in 40 firefights in 30 days. However, all 35 of his men survived the constant barrage, and last year Young was awarded a Bronze Star for bravery and courage under fire. His cousin, former NC State defensive end Drew Wimsatt, flies Cobra attack helicopters for the Marines in Afghanistan.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
