The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1113082
20 ■ THE WOLFPACKER TRACKING THE PACK ■ A Night Of Celebrating On April 13 at historic Reynolds Coliseum, the NC State Athletic Hall of Fame ceremony that was originally scheduled for Sept. 14, 2018 was finally held. Hurricane Florence forced the postpone- ment of the event, but nothing could dampen the celebration of the various Wolfpack icons. The late former NC State swimming coach and director of athletics Willis Casey, golfer and PGA pro Tim Clark, national champion and Olympic medal-winning swimmer Cullen Jones, women's basketball star Trudi Lacey, men's hoops all-time leading scorer Rodney Monroe and the immortal 1983 men's basketball national title team were honored for their lengthy list of accomplishments. The evening honored their achievements and was capped by a speech representing the new class from Terry Gannon, the sharpshooting guard on the 1983 championship team who is now a broadcaster for ABC. PHOTO BY KEN MARTIN "My parents had always had a huge impact on my career, from just coming to my meets to sending me texts. They always told me to never let anyone tell me there is something I can't do, to go out and prove people wrong, to always believe in myself, and to choose friends who believe in me." — NC State Hall of Fame swimmer and Olympic gold medalist Cullen Jones (Swim- ming World Magazine) THEY SAID IT "Willis [Casey] was a great coach and competitive person. He was great in identifying good coaches and letting them know his expectations for them. He was demanding, but he didn't really micromanage. He wanted to win badly and sort of infected everyone with his competitive spirit. He was especially competitive about beating Carolina." — Wolfpack Club executive Bobby Purcell on the late Willis Casey, who was NCSU's director of athletics from 1969-86 and was recently inducted into the Wolfpack's Hall of Fame (GoPack.com)