The Wolfpacker

March 2013 - Signing Day Edition

The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports

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By Tim Peeler ���Take time every day to laugh, to think, to cry.��� ��� Jim Valvano���s gravestone T he producers of the new documentary film about NC State���s 1983 national championship had a daunting challenge: to find a new way to commemorate the most unbelievable, yet broadly familiar, title run in the history of college basketball. Well-decorated filmmaker Jonathan Hock was eager to take on the difficult task of retelling the story that has been remembered in some written or digital format at just about every five-year interval since Wolfpack sophomore Lorenzo Charles made his famous dunk to beat top-ranked Houston in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The result is ���Survive and Advance,��� an installment in ESPN���s successful 30-for-30 documentary series. It will air on the cable sports network at 9 p.m. on Sunday, March 17, just after the NCAA Tournament selection show. NC State fans can get a sneak peek at the 105-minute film on Monday, March 11, at Reynolds Coliseum. Tickets are free, but must be reserved in advance at GoPack.com. Hock, who has directed several wellreceived sports documentaries since leaving his position with NFL Films, agreed to the project because of his relationship with Dereck Whittenburg, the senior guard whose desperation shot with three seconds to play ended up in Charles��� hands right before the buzzer went off. Hock and Whittenburg were acquainted with each other because of their work together on a weekly show when Whittenburg was the head coach at Fordham. In the summer of 2011, Whittenburg was just getting started as an analyst for ESPN, and he approached Hock about putting together the definitive telling of the Cardiac Pack story. Hock, a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania in 1983, had long admired Whittenburg and the shear improbability of both the title run and the final play of the championship game. He readily agreed to produce the story from Whittenburg���s vantage point, as the catalyst on a team that was loaded with talent, driven by an inspirational coach and had the experience in the loaded ACC to compete with any team in the country. Shortly after coming to a verbal agreement to make the film, the Wolfpack community was rocked with two devastating losses. Assistant coach Ed McLean, the former Broughton High coach who was head coach Jim Valvano���s strategic advisor on the bench during the championship run, died at his home in Wake Forest, N.C., at the age of 75. Survive And Advance A New ESPN 30 For 30 Film Looks Back At The Pack���s 1983 National Title Run The movie "Survive And Advance" will debut on ESPN on Sunday, March 17 at 9 p.m. after the NCAA Tournament selection show. image courtesy ESPN Two months later, Charles was killed in an accident on Interstate 40 in Cary, when the empty bus he was driving careened off the road and slammed into a tree. In an instant, the unassuming forward from Brooklyn, N.Y., who never really accepted the importance of that iconic play was gone, and the story took another tragic turn. They were preceded in death by two other members of the team. Valvano, the charismatic coach who shared his dream of win- ning a national championship with his players on the day he was hired to replace Norm Sloan, died of cancer in 1993, but not before establishing the V Foundation for Cancer Research, the primary charity supported by ESPN. Quinton Leonard, the little-remembered fourth senior on the squad, died of a heart attack in 2006. In Hock���s eyes, the loss of Charles significantly altered the project he was about to undertake. The other deaths were devastating, 24��� ������ the wolfpacker 24-25.30 For 30 Movie.indd 24 2/26/13 3:47 PM

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