The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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72 ■ THE WOLFPACKER BY TIM PEELER A s NC State's athletics department makes a transition in leadership from retiring Debbie Yow to newly hired Boo Corrigan, here are five(ish) ADs who made a significant difference in the history and fortunes of Wolfpack athletics since the first director was hired a little more than 100 years ago. Roy Clogston (1948-69) Clogston served longer than any other person in the job and helped the department transition from a patchwork of part-time coaches, multi-sport players drawn directly from the student body and busy-body influ- ential alumni. Hired in 1948 from Saint Lawrence Col- lege, Clogston — a World War II Navy commander — guided the Wolfpack through turbulent and troubled times, but saw the program rise to national heights just after his retirement in 1969. The primary challenge he faced when he first arrived in Raleigh was getting the department out of tremendous debt — it owed Johnson & Lambe Sporting Goods for equipment and some $80,000 to the college's dining hall for feeding varsity athletes. It took Clogston and Wolfpack Club di- rector Harry Stewart nearly a decade — during which time Chancellor Carey Bos- tian wanted to drop football as a varsity sport — but they finally got the athletics department out of debt on July 1, 1957. The department has been self-sustaining ever since. In large part, the success of Everett Case's basketball program gets credit for saving the department, after Reynolds Coli- seum opened in 1949. People clamored to see the Wolfpack, which won nine confer- ence titles in Case's first 10 years. While Case hand-picked successor Press Maravich to take over the basketball pro- gram in 1964, Clogston was responsible for hiring former Wolfpack guard Norman Sloan to coach his alma mater. Clogston also hired Penn State graduate Earle Edwards away from Michigan State to be the Wolfpack football coach in 1953. Edwards not only saved the football pro- gram from financial collapse, he won five ACC titles, four while playing at decrepit Riddick Stadium and another after Carter Stadium opened in 1966. Just as the school had done with Case in building Reynolds Coliseum, Clogston helped Edwards fulfill his dream of a new home for Wolfpack football. State's baseball program also received a big boost when it opened Doak Field on the west side of campus in 1968, replacing the smaller baseball field of the same name in between Thompson Gym and Reynolds Coliseum. Clogston left the department when he reached the mandatory state retirement age of 65 in the fall of 1969. Willis Casey (1969-86) Two internal candidates applied for the job when Clogston stepped down: Sloan and Casey. Sloan initially accepted the job without knowing he would have to give up his basketball coaching duties, but de- clined the position when he understood he couldn't do both. Casey, inducted into the 2018 class of the NC State Athletic Hall of Fame, over- saw the most successful era of Wolfpack athletics in school history. He wasn't warm and fuzzy, and he never had a generous budget to work with, but he demanded re- sults. A native of Goldsboro and a graduate of UNC Chapel Hill, Casey was hired as swimming coach at the same time Case was hired as basketball coach, just after World War II. He had unprecedented suc- cess in the pool, winning 11 conference titles and producing four individual NCAA champions in 23 years of coaching. His Wolfpack teams owned a 189-23 record (.892 winning percentage) in dual meets and 33 of his swimmers won All- America honors. And every one of his scholarship swimmers, at his insistence, earned an NC State degree. NC State's swimming complex, the Wil- lis R. Casey Natatorium, is named in his memory. "He was a man who was a genius with an athletic department budget, a man who was an expert at choosing coaches, a mover and a shaker behind the scenes in the ACC and the NCAA, and a man who had a deep dis- like of the public spotlight," the late Frank Weedon once said of his longtime boss. In 17 years on the job, Casey's depart- ment won 49 ACC titles, two NCAA team titles, two Association in Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (the early governing body for women's sports) national titles and 15 individual national championships. He turned a $700,000 budget that was ■ PACK PAST The Best Athletics Directors In School History Willis Casey, who headed the athletics department from 1969-86, was elected to the NC State Athletic Hall of Fame as part of the 2018 class. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE MEDIA RELATIONS