The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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78 ■ THE WOLFPACKER BY TIM PEELER I n the long history of intercolle- giate athletics at NC State, which dates back to 1892, only a handful of individuals have been in charge of the department. And it hasn't always been an ath- letics director. Two of the first three athletics directors — Harry Hartsell and Tal Stafford — were former football and baseball teammates who had gone into coaching and private business following their graduation from NC State. Hartsell, a native of Asheville, was hired in 1916 after the school fired inexperienced football coach Britt Patterson five games into the season, primarily for his on-the- field profanity and his northern way of doing things. Hartsell took over as the head football, baseball, basketball, and track and field coach, and as the school's first full-time athletics director. He and his staff, including Stafford, won unofficial state titles in three of the school's four varsity sports during the 1917-18 school years, but his tenure was cut short when he was drafted into the U.S. Army during World War I. Bill Fetzer was hired from Davidson as football and baseball coach and athletics director when Hartsell left for military duty, with Stafford staying on as the department's graduate manager of athletics. Fetzer had an excellent 14-5 record in his two seasons as football coach, but bolted for UNC after the 1920 baseball season. Hartsell was called back from private business to replace Fetzer from 1921-23, but students were so fed up with good-old- boy leadership in the department that they passed a resolution preventing the school from hiring anyone to lead the department who had past ties to NC State as an athlete, coach or donor. In 1924, NC State went through a com- prehensive college-wide administrative restructuring, which included completely revamping the athletics department, insti- tuting the college's first physical education department and establishing its first intra- mural program. All three programs were led by John F. Miller, a successful football, basketball and baseball coach at Missouri during and im- mediately after World War I and the athletics director at Albion College from 1921-23. He served two different tenures as ath- letics director, first during the expansion following World War I and then during the lean times at the end of the Great Depres- sion and during World War II, when the college often relied on part-time coaches for its major sports. The initial decision to combine athlet- ics and P.E. did not go well, causing fric- tion between Miller and the varsity coaches. Stafford was elevated to athletics director in 1927, while also serving as the alumni sec- retary under the umbrella of the Faculty Ath- letics Committee. He eventually gave up his posts to become editor of the Alumni News. Stafford was replaced by Dr. R.R. Ser- mon, who arrived in 1925 as an assistant football coach, head track coach and varsity athletics trainer. A star player at Central State Teachers College and Springfield Col- lege in Missouri, Sermon became a jack-of- all-trades at NC State. He was named athletics director in 1929 and took over as head basketball coach when Gus Tebell left for Virginia at the end of the 1929-30 season. Midway through the 1930 football season, when first-year head coach John Van Liew was fired for wandering off the sidelines during the middle of a game at Riddick Stadium, Sermon took over as head football coach for the remainder of the season. Sermon's 12-year tenure was tur- bulent, with the department drop- ping several varsity sports while op- erating on a Depression-era budget. When World War II came along, the athletics department was turned back over to Miller and the P.E. de- partment, though athletics business manager John Von Glahn, a former NC State football player and team- mate of both Hartsell and Stafford, handled most decisions regarding varsity athletics. Van Glahn was officially named athletics director after the war and is responsible for turning athletics into a freestanding department. In 1946, he hired full-time coaches for most of NC State's varsity sports, replacing part-time coaches who had helped get the school through the war. He chose Indiana high school coaching legend Everett Case in basketball, former Tennessee All-American and NFL star Be- attie Feathers in football, former Detroit Tigers pitching ace Vic Sorrel in baseball and unknown UNC graduate Willis Casey as the swimming coach. Casey, who served as the department's business manager for decades while coach- ing the swimming team, later became the most influential and successful athletics di- rector in school history. Van Glahn had been in the position less than a year when Chancellor John Harrelson decided the school needed to expand the athletics department, offering Van Glahn the position of college purchasing agent so he could hire a more experienced athletics director. Roy Clogston, a former football and wrestling coach, was lured away from his job as athletics director at St. Lawrence Col- lege in New York and held the job for 22 years, longer than anyone in school history. Following World War II, the department grew from just one administrator to an ever- expanding professional organization of full- time deputy, associate and assistant directors in a university unit that now numbers more than 200 full-time employees. ■ ■ PACK PERSPECTIVE The Evolution Of NC State Athletics Directors Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu. The Wolfpacker is a publication of: Coman Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 2331, Durham, N.C. 27702. Offices are located at 905 West Main St., Ste. 24F, Durham, N.C. 27701. (919) 688-0218. The Wolfpacker (ISSN 0273-8945) is published bimonthly. A subscription is $39.95 for six issues. For advertising or subscription information, call (800) 421-7751 or write The Wolfpacker. Postmaster: Send address changes to: The Wolfpacker, P.O. Box 2331, Durham, N.C. 27702. Periodical mail postage paid at Durham, N.C. 27702 and additional offices. First-class postage is $14 extra per year. E-mail: thewolfpacker@comanpub.com • Web site: www.thewolfpacker.com Willis Casey (left) was the most successful athletics director in NC State history, while Roy Clogston held the position longer than anybody else, leading the department for 22 years. PHOTO COURTESY TIM PEELER