The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1059287
which he never got back. We moved around so many times through the years, who knows where that thing ended up? "He held that against me the rest of his life." Towe didn't even get penance from his old coach when he returned to Raleigh in 2006 as the associate head coach for Sidney Lowe. He managed to find an old Sam Esposito model glove on Ebay that he presented with great fanfare. "But it wasn't his glove," Towe said. Though he was small, the 5-7 Towe was an exceptional high school athlete, always playing the most important positions: quarter- back, shortstop and point guard. It was Esposito who first spotted Towe's potential on the hard- wood, even though the undersized guard was the seventh-ranked recruit in a seven-player freshman class. After noticing that Towe's team always won pickup games, Esposito famously told men's bas- ketball coach Norm Sloan: "Skip, the midget can play." Towe's basketball exploits at NC State are well chronicled — surely you know he was the point guard on the Wolfpack's ACC champions in 1973 and 1974, and the most valuable player in the NCAA title game against Marquette — but his baseball career has been largely forgotten. "Well," Towe noted, "there's not much to remember." Towe managed only two half-seasons with the Wolfpack baseball team, starting late because of his commitment to Sloan's basketball program. Esposito didn't mind, since he was one of Sloan's assis- tants and often had dual-sport athletes. Esposito's two best starters in 1973, Mike Dempsey and Tim Stoddard, both played basketball for Sloan. Towe played 14 games as a freshman after basketball season ended, hitting .220 with a double, a triple and two stolen bases. He was all set to be the starting second baseman as a sophomore, but by the time his first varsity hoops season was over Towe was a walking horror movie star. He played the final two months of the ACC championship season with a broken wrist and the final six weeks with a broken nose, for which he wore a protective mask during games. He spent the 1973 offseason as a spectator as Esposito led his baseball squad to the first of three consecutive ACC titles. He was back in action, though, in the fall of 1973, a big part of the greatest season in NC State athletics history. While Lou Holtz led the football team to his only ACC championship and Don Easterling led his swimming team to the third of his 11 consecutive conference titles, Towe helped Sloan and company win the ACC and NCAA basketball titles. The day after the basketball team beat Marquette in Greensboro for the school's first national title in any sport, both Towe and Stod- dard were at baseball practice. Dempsey, who didn't play basketball that season, was already playing but pitching with a sore arm. The Pack finished third in the ACC standings, but rallied in the four-day tournament, which was played at all three Triangle schools. Clemson, who won the regular season and was favored to win the tournament, lost an early game then struggled to come from behind in the four-team double-elimination portion of the tournament. On the final day, Clemson and the Wolfpack played two games at Doak Field, the Pack needing just one game to take its second consecutive title. A Basketball Lifer Monte Towe Went From Multi-Sport Athlete To Longtime College Coach And Is Still Involved In The Sport WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Monte Towe Basketball (1972-75), Baseball (1972-74) Age: 65 Living: Gainesville, Fla. Occupation: High school basketball coach Did You Know? At 5-7, Towe is tied for the fourth-shortest player to ever play in the NBA. Also tied for fourth is another former Wolfpack product — Spud Webb. Towe jokes "there's not much to remember" about his baseball career, but he still won championships and made lifelong friendships with teammates and coaches during his time on the diamond. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE MEDIA RELATIONS JANUARY 2019 ■ 39