The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1487679
48 ■ THE WOLFPACKER were officially 0-6 in the ACC, they maintained a 5-5 overall record in a sea- son in which NC State was the only team in the league to finish with a winning re- cord at 6-4. (To this day, none of the four schools claim the forfeited games in their all-time results.) The real loser, however, was Duke, which went from celebrating its record seventh shared or outright ACC title to finishing third, effectively ending the Blue Devils' football dynasty. Duke has won just one shared title since then, the 1989 co-championship with Virginia. "That season was a little bit different," Noggle said. "We started off 1-4 and lost to North Carolina, South Carolina and Clemson. Then we won the last five games of the year, and they announced the forfeits. "It was a weird year." Daily Victories Noggle's senior year in 1966 was more conventional. The Wolfpack finally moved into its long-awaited new home, Carter Stadium, though Noggle shared quarterbacking duties with junior Jim Donnan and sophomore Jack Klebe. Af- ter five years of traveling to Wyoming, Alabama (twice), Mississippi Southern (twice), Nebraska, Georgia, Florida State (twice), Florida and Iowa just to get away from its own home field, the Pack played six home games for the first time since 1945. NC State finished second to Clemson in the standings, the fourth year out of seven in a row (1963-69) that Edwards' teams were first or second in the ACC football race. Noggle, who earned a degree in science education in 1968, hoped to continue his football career and was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs. He was the last cut in preseason training camp and came home to begin a 40-year professional career in the trucking industry with Roadway Express, U.S. Truck Lines and his own company, C&N Logistics. In 2009, Noggle joined forces with for- mer Pack All-ACC defensive back Jack Whitley and his wife, Lynne, to create Whitley Logistics, where Noggle is the vice president of sales and quality for the refrigerated transportation company that services the pharmaceutical industry with local, regional and national routes. While the COVID pandemic was a nightmare in the transportation business in terms of finding equipment and driv- ers, Noggle and Whitley are still going strong. "People ask me all the time what kind of day I am having," said the 78-year- old former signal-caller. "I tell them that I woke up this morning, and that's my daily victory." ■ Noggle wasn't able to lift NC State past Clemson in its 1965 season opener. The Wolfpack fell 21-7 to the Tigers, but the two teams ended up sharing the ACC title that year after South Carolina was forced to forfeit four conference wins because two of its players had been ineligible. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE ATHLETICS Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu. " Coach [Earle] Edwards had a philosophy that if the other team didn't score, we couldn't lose. There is some truth to that. When you get down to it, the biggest thing I had to do was hand the ball off. It's so much different than the game today. " Noggle Jack Whitley was an All-ACC defensive back for the Wolfpack during the 1960s. In 2009, he and Noggle teamed up to create a refrigerated transportation company named Whitley Logistics. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE ATHLETICS