The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1419104
6 ■ THE WOLFPACKER ■ WOLFPACK CLUB NEWS For more information, contact our offices at 919-865-1500 CLUBS THE WITHIN THE WOLFPACK CLUB WOLFPACK CLUB Student WPC Benefits: membership T-shirt, online access to The Wolfpacker, premium student seating for football and basketball games, meetings with coaches and student-athletes, membership decal Junior WPC Benefits: membership T-shirt, membership card, membership decal, official Junior Wolfpack Club gift WOLFPACK CLUB Varsity Club Benefits: exclusive access to Varsity Club room before basketball games, reduced price season tickets for football and men's basketball, free reserved parking with season tickets, invitation to sports reunion(s) Follow The Wolfpack Club! You will be hard-pressed to find someone who believes in the mission of the Wolfpack Club as much as Brent Bumgarner. His passion for NC State ath- letics dates back to 1968. As an 11-year-old growing up in Win- ston-Salem N.C., he joined a Southern Baptist youth group for a trip to a Wake Forest home game against NC State. "I probably went there as a Wake Forest fan, because at the time they were a Baptist school. But I decided I liked red and white. I liked the way the Wolf- pack played. State's never-say-die approach is what made me a fan," Bumgarner noted. "Then it really materialized when Lou Holtz got there in football and David Thompson came in basketball." Bumgarner considers himself fortunate to have been a student at NC State during the same four years in which future College Football Hall of Fame running back Ted Brown was setting records. He called Philip Rivers "the best quarterback and leader I have ever seen." So passionate was Bumgarner about NC State athletics that he did not wait until graduation to join the Wolfpack Club. Before the start of his senior year, he decided to get a jump on others and signed up. "I knew longevity counted in my points total," Bumgarner explained. He graduated from NC State in 1979 with a degree in mechanical engineering. His wife Laura is also a 1979 State graduate with a chemistry degree. He enjoyed a long and successful career with Procter & Gamble, spending his last 25 years working in Cincinnati. Upon his retirement they returned to Raleigh. Not many Wolfpack memories can top Bumgarner making the trip to Albuquerque, N.M., in 1983 to watch the Cardiac Pack win a national title. Because presumptuous UNC and Virginia fans had booked hotel rooms in the city, a group of about 400 Wolf- pack fans had to make do with a hotel near the Continental Divide 70 miles west of Albuquerque. The morning of the title game, a blizzard forced them to beat the weather back into the city for the memorable evening. More recently, his son Stuart was a prestigious Park Scholar at NC State and is now an emergency medicine doctor. Through that time, Bumgarner has been an active member of both the Wolfpack Club and NC State University, and he's even been a 20-year member of the Park Scholarship Selection Committee. He was the Pitt County chairman for the Wolfpack Club from 1985-89 and then the state chairman in Ohio from 1994-2017. He has also made planned gifts to both the Park Scholarship and to endow a football scholarship at NC State. "I'm happy to be able to give back. I really believe in the purpose of the Wolfpack Club," said Bumgarner, who attends many NC State sporting events with Laura. "If you love NC State athletics, you need to be a long-term member. The Wolfpack Club funds all scholarships for all student-athletes. "We have incredible student-athletes across all sports that are successful on the field, in the classroom and in the community. I want those students to stay here after gradua- tion to enrich North Carolina well into the future." — Matt Carter WPC DONOR SPOTLIGHT Brent Bumgarner Bumgarner — pictured with his wife, Laura — be- came a Pack fan in 1968, after he attended an NC State football game at Wake Forest as an 11-year-old. PHOTO COURTESY BRENT BUMGARNER