The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1190316
94 ■ THE WOLFPACKER BY TIM PEELER W ander around an NC State football or basketball game — any sport, really — and you'll notice the familiar faces. The kid with the most Student Wolfpack Club points. The recent grad who wants to re- main connected to friends still on campus. The young family looking to introduce their kids to their alma mater, first by tak- ing them to see Mr. or Ms. Wuf, then by buying them an NC State T-shirt. The gen- tly aging alum still supporting the athletics program after all these years. They are all there, hoping to interact with the current generation of their school's athletes, surely hoping for a win, but really just eager to just engage. These are the reasons we like college athletics: the interpersonal connections that are available with just a little effort. It's one of the reasons I enjoy working on the annual "Where Are They Now" is- sue of The Wolfpacker. It's fun remember- ing the stars of my student days. Or those days when I was a young alum and saw Torry Holt pass his legacy to Terrence Holt. Or when I took my kids to meet Philip Riv- ers or Marissa Kastanek or Trea Turner. Or of a time in the future I might be able to just sit back and soak in the next genera- tion, something I've never actually done at any sporting event. Mostly, these days, I spend a lot of time walking at NC State games, trying to find former players or fans or someone who has a story to tell that I've never heard before. Hey, over there behind the NC State men's basketball bench is Ben McCauley, who is settling back down in Cary after more than a decade of playing overseas. What's Brandon Costner up to? Is he still playing golf left-handed and shooting baskets right-handed? How's Engin Atsur doing in Turkey? Did you see that Ilian Evtimov just became the all-time leading three-point shooter in one of the European professional leagues? What is he now, 40? Up in Carter-Finley's Dail Club for Homecoming, I noticed former linebacker and head coach Chuck Amato sitting with a bunch of former players, all of whom originally came from Pennsylvania to play for head coach Earle Edwards, a Penn State engineer. Sitting across from him is former team- mate and quarterback Ron Skosnik, a high school coach from QBU who sent his fair share of players to college programs, like dozens and dozens of other coaches who once played for the Wolfpack. Sitting next to Amato is former fullback Joe Scarpati, who became a pretty good safety for the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1960s, but is most famous for his partici- pation in a single play on Monday Night Football in his only season with the New Orleans Saints: He was the holder on kicker Tom Dempsey's record-smashing 64-yard field goal at the Louisiana Superdome. Outside the stadium, the living members of the 1979 ACC championship football team had their regular five-year reunion, led by former senior associate athletics director David Horning, who's 10 years removed from the blood vessel rupture that nearly took his life. He spends his time playing gui- tar and organizing mini lunch reunions for his former comrades in athletics, whether they were teammates or co-workers. Over in Reynolds Coliseum is Wolf- pack Club executive director Bobby Pur- cell, wearing the late Norm Sloan's famous plaid jacket that Monte Towe donated to the school for the Walk of Fame and History. Purcell wanted to give the well-worn plaid jacket one more lap around the old barn at one of the late November heritage games. Every person who saw him smiled and shared a story about Norm or a memory they had about the Wolfpack's 1973-74 NCAA championship team. Current students may have wondered who the guy wearing the close suit was. If they only knew about how popular such jackets and leisure suits were during the 1973-74 season when the Wolfpack won its first team national championship. Maybe it will make them curious about the coach that put together the greatest team and sin- gle season in ACC basketball history. Purcell hugged Lou Pucillo, Eddie Bie- denbach and Dereck Whittenburg, all of whom can stake their claim as the most popular former NC State basketball play- ers of the 1950s, '60s and '80s, respec- tively. He fist-bumped Ernie Myers, who was doing color commentary on the game for the fledgling ACC Network, still here, still involved. Sadly, one of the things that is slowly disappearing in the new world of college athletics, with its standing tap rooms and its multiple uniform combinations and its best and newest facilities is the family at- mosphere that once kept a tight perimeter around the enclosed Pack. But it still exists. You could see it in the eyes of the doz- ens of successful businessmen, fathers and husbands — all of whom had played soc- cer under head coach George Tarantini — who attended both the coach's funeral and the Nov. 23 memorial service at Reyn- olds Coliseum. (A handful of players from NC State's inaugural women's soccer team, for which Tarantini was the assistant coach, were there too.) They hugged, they cried and they toasted, all in memory of one of the more unique members of the extended Wolfpack family, a native Argentinian who came from Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and spent nearly 30 years teaching kids mostly from North Carolina to play an international game. It reminded me that you never really lose the connection you have to being part of this place. Where are they now? They are — we all are — still here. ■ ■ PACK PERSPECTIVE Where Are They Now? All Around 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 Wolfpack Club executive director Bobby Pur- cell — seen here with NC State alum Tommy Burleson — wore the late Norm Sloan's famous plaid jacket during a men's basketball heritage game at Reynolds Coliseum in November. PHOTO BY JACEY ZEMBAL