The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1506671
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2023 ■ 49 answered points in the second half. The next game on the schedule was the team's home debut, against a na- tionally powerful Duke program that State had not beaten since 1946. Mike Clark, another senior, and Rossi both reeled off 55-yard runs in the first half to give their team a 14-0 lead, and senior two-way star Don Montgomery intercepted a pass and returned it 11 yards to complete the 21-7 upset. The game ball for that victory right- fully belonged to Wood, but team cap- tain and future NFL star Joe Scarpati asked his friend and teammate if the team could give the ball to Edwards to commemorate the coach's first win over Bill Murray's Blue Devils. Wood said no. Scarpati, who had drawn No. 10 in the game-ball lottery, offered up his chance at the prize if Wood gave the Duke ball to Edwards. Wood relented and gave up the Duke ball to his head coach. Edwards' team followed up with wins over Virginia in Norfolk, Va., and non- conference foe Virginia Tech at home, before losing at Florida State, 14-0. On the final weekend of the regular season, the Pack had a chance to win the confer- ence crown again, just as it had done in 1957 when halfback Dick Christy scored all 29 points in the season finale. The Wolfpack entered its finale on Friday, Nov. 22, 1963, with a 5-1 re- cord in the ACC and a 7-2 overall mark, rushing headlong toward the second postseason bowl appearance in school history. All it needed to assure itself a share of the second ACC title in school history was to beat a hapless Demon Deacon squad that had just broken col- lege football's longest losing streak at 18 consecutive defeats the week before with a narrow 20-19 victory over South Carolina. Something happened earlier in the day, however, that cast an unexpected pall over the game: U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, sending the country into a tailspin. The Wake Forest team was already in Raleigh. There were just hours re- maining before the scheduled kickoff. Ultimately, school officials and football staffs agreed to play the game. "This is a day of deep tragedy for our nation and mankind," NC State Chan- cellor John T. Caldwell said at the time. "Let not the playing of this game dimin- ish our sense of respect for our great president or the office." What followed was a total rout by the Wolfpack, ending in a 42-0 victory, as the offense rolled up 408 rushing yards, including 133 by Clark, in the only 100- yard rushing game of his career. Even though it was only the second ACC championship in school history and the third football title since 1927, there was little celebrating, with NC State having to share its league crown. 'That's My Ball. I Won It.' In the final moments, Wake Forest was trying to score, but was stopped at the goal line just as time expired. Wood, knowing that the game ball was his, grabbed it out of the official's hand. Wake Forest junior fullback Brian Pic- colo seethed that the opportunity to score the team's only points ticked away with the clock. "That's my ball," Wood told the ref- eree. "I won it." Wood took the ball back to the team's locker room in the basement of Reyn- olds Coliseum, had a few of his senior teammates sign it with a magic marker and took it back to his dorm for safe- keeping. Wi t h i n two m o n t h s, Wo o d wa s drafted into the U.S. Army Corps of En- gineers and sent away to Georgia and Alabama for training as part of the 11th Air Assault Division. Later in 1964, he was among the first American troops sent to fight in Vietnam. Over the next two years, he helped deliver and set up engineering equipment throughout the central part of the country, in a helicop- ter six days a week. He returned from the war decorated and unscathed, and he re-enrolled at NC State to pursue a master's degree. He never completed his postgraduate studies, but he spent the next four de- cades using his wood science and tech- nology degree working in the outdoor chemical industry. He retired in 2003 and lived for a while in High Point be- fore moving to Timnath, Colo., just outside Fort Collins, to be near his NC State alumnus son's family. And the game ball Wood so happily won on one of the saddest days in U.S. history? It was scratched up a good bit when his dad and older brother played backyard Thanksgiving football with it while he was in Vietnam. He held on to it through the years but gave it to the NC State athletics department in 2017. ■ Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu.