The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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40 ■ THE WOLFPACKER Sure, he doesn't see so well anymore. His knees don't allow for him to zip up and down the court the way he used to do with John Maglio as the Wolfpack won the first three ACC Tournaments ever played, all in Reyn- olds Coliseum. Even golf, his longtime pas- sion as a member of Greensboro's Sedgefield Country Club, is off the table. His memories, however, are as strong as ever. "They were good times," Molodet said. "It was a great time to be at NC State." With Molodet having already been in- ducted into the North Carolina Sports (2001) and Indiana Basketball (2015) halls of fame, it strains credulity that he is not yet in the NC State Athletic Hall of Fame, along with Case, Shavlik, Dick Dickey, Lou Pucillo and a handful of other players from the pioneer days of basketball in the South. Dominating The ACC To be fair, Molodet and Maglio were often overshadowed by Shavlik, a mountain of a man from the Rockies who owned the lane in Case's high-scoring offense, grabbing re- bounds and putting back deadly short hook shots as he led the team in scoring twice and in rebounding three consecutive years. "My present team is the fast- est I've ever had at State," Case said prior to the 1955-56 season. "I match my guards against any in the country. Ronnie Shavlik has hit his stride, and there aren't many better ones when he is right." It was the 5-11 Molodet, how- ever, who ran the show, espe- cially on perhaps the best team Case ever produced. "I'm an unabashed fan of his," said Irwin Smallwood, the long- time sports editor of The Greens- boro News & Record, who cov- ered Molodet in the '50s and is a good friend of his still today. "When I get into arguments with younger guys talking about back- court guys, I tell them, 'Give me Molodet and you can have any- body else but [North Carolina's] Phil Ford.' "Give me the two of them and I'll beat everybody." For three years, the Wolfpack did beat everybody in the ACC, winning the first three tourna- ment titles on the heels of six consecutive Southern Conference championships from 1947-52. Every year, Case believed his next team was better than the last, at least until one of the most devastating losses in the history of the program, the longest game in the history of the NCAA Tournament that was affected because of Molodet's prolonged absence due to foul trouble. For multiple reasons, that loss coincided with the decline of Case's program, which won only one more ACC title in the coach's final eight full seasons, a period marred by NCAA penalties, a national point-shaving scandal and the resultant de-emphasis of bas- ketball at both NC State and North Carolina. MVP Performance In 1955-56, Molodet, Shavlik, Lou Dick- man and Phil DiNardo were all top-notch se- niors, and Maglio, Cliff Hafer, Bob Seitz and Nick Pond all returned from the 28-4 ACC champion team from the previous season. Early in the season, the Wolfpack won the Dixie Classic among its 10 consecutive victories and rose to No. 2 in the nation in both the Associated Press media rankings and the United Press International coaches' poll, behind only Bill Russell and defending national champion San Francisco. After winning the 1955 NCAA title with Russell as a sophomore, the Dons were ranked No. 1 going into the 1955-56 season and became the first team in college bas- ketball history to stay at the top of the poll every week of the season and to finish with an undefeated record. NC State was thought to be the only team that had a chance to beat the Dons, only be- cause Shavlik could match Russell under the basket and then Molodet could go dribble- for-dribble with San Francisco point guard K.C. Jones. It was a showdown that never happened, thanks to the first quadruple overtime in school and NCAA Championship history. While the Dons were running through their schedule on the West Coast, Case's team was piling up wins on the East. They lost to Duke and North Carolina during a three-game road swing, and to Maryland at home during the regular season, but few things seemed as if they could slow the Pack's charge toward a classic standoff in the national tournament, even after the dismissal of starting forward Hafer for school honor code violations. The end of the regular season was both uplifting and deflating for a team that scored 90 or more points 10 times during the season. Molodet, who had missed an earlier loss to Duke due to a viral infection he picked up on a winter hunting trip, scored a last-second layup for an 80-78 victory over Wake Forest that gave the Wolfpack a 21-3 mark heading into the postseason and the top seed in the ACC Tournament. Shavlik, however, suffered a clean break of his left wrist, a devastating injury that seemingly ended his fabulous college career. Seitz took over Shavlik's starting job — but only for one game. NC State's all-time rebounding leader returned to start in both the semifi- nals and finals. Molodet, however, became the unquestioned leader of the Wolf- pack offense, averaging 26.3 points in the three tournament games on 27-of-41 shooting (65.9 percent). He was the unanimous winner of the ACC Championship's Most Valuable Player award. Molodet, the oldest living MVP of the ACC Tournament, served as a sales representative for Converse and American Manufacturing and Foundry following a two-year stint in the National Industrial League with the Akron Goodyears. PHOTO BY TIM PEELER