The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1466831
MAY/JUNE 2022 ■ 47 Wayne Morris and Bowling Green's Dan Taylor. They were told fellow freshman Archie Griffin of Ohio State would be the cover shot. Griffin, of course, had plenty of oppor- tunities to be on the cover of SI while be- coming college football's only two-time Heisman Trophy winner. But in the 68- year history of the magazine, the Buckey twins are the only Wolfpack football play- ers ever to appear on its cover. "That was actually a dangerous situ- ation," Dave Buckey said a half century after the magazine hit newsstands. "If you think about it, having two freshmen on the cover of Sports Illustrated the first year freshmen were eligible, that could have been a problem on the team." The Wolfpack was already breaking in a new head coach, 33-year-old Lou Holtz, but he was adept at handling this kind of situation. He brought it up in a team meeting before practice. "I stopped by the Student Supply Store to get a copy, and the cashier told me that some guy had stopped by that morning and bought half the copies," Holtz said. "Then, about a half hour later, some guy who looked just like the other one bought the other half." The team broke out in laughter. "Coach Holtz explained that we had a chance to get some recognition for our program, and anytime you have a chance to get publicity like that, you take it," said Dave Buckey, who still lives in Raleigh, while Don lives in Ocala, Fla. "It was good for the university and good for the program." Freshman eligibility was big news at NC State when presidents of NCAA in- stitutions voted to allow it beginning in 1972, ostensibly as a cost-cutting mea- sure. Men's basketball coach Norm Sloan immediately had four jerseys made with the last names of David Thompson, Monte Towe, Tim Stoddard and Mike Dempsey on the back and left them in their Reynolds Coliseum lockers. He told them to be prepared to practice and play with the varsity. Sloan was completely in favor of mak- ing freshman basketball players eligible for the second half of the 1971-72 sea- son; North Carolina head coach Dean Smith was not. The ACC chose to wait until the fall to allow freshmen to play, depriving the college basketball world of another half season of watching Thompson, still re- garded as the greatest player in league history, play his pioneering game. Football coaches, especially the big- gest names in the business, were against playing freshmen. Alabama's Bear Bry- ant, Nebraska's Bob Devaney, USC's John McKay and Ohio State's Woody Hayes, among others, didn't believe freshmen could break into the starting lineups of their bloated rosters. Holtz, however, was different. He was intent on restoring the Wolfpack to its success of the mid-1960s, and he was ready to do it with talented players, young or old. Shortly after taking the job at NC State, he hired Purdue assistant Bo Rein as his offensive coordinator. Rein had been recruiting the Buckey brothers, who were from Akron, Ohio, while he was still with the Boilermakers, and he ramped up those efforts on behalf of Holtz. By the beginning of the season, Holtz had made the Buckeys the core of his second platoon, a full squad of younger players that he inserted for the fourth series of every game, beginning with the season opener against Maryland. "Dave, do you remember the first play you ever ran here?" Holtz asked the quarterback at an appearance in Ra- leigh in 2005. "It was third-and-15, and I called a draw. Dave ran the ball and got the first down. What I didn't tell him was that I didn't trust him to throw the ball. "That's how geniuses are made." The Pack opened eyes with a tie against the Terrapins and a one-point loss at North Carolina. By the time Sports Illustrated was published on Oct. 30, 1972, Holtz's inaugural team was 4-2-1, and the Buckeys and other fresh- men were playing anywhere from a quar- ter to a third of the snaps. Dave Buckey was playing behind veteran starter Bruce Shaw, while Don was in the mix with a group of more experienced receivers. When Shaw broke his wrist before the 1972 Peach Bowl in Atlanta, Dave Buckey made the first start of his career and helped the Wolfpack score a blis- tering 49-13 win over Bobby Bowden- coached West Virginia. Dave Buckey was NC State's backup quarterback in 1972. He and his twin brother, Don, were part of a youth movement that transformed the Wolfpack football program under coach Lou Holtz. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE ATHLETICS