The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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50 ■ THE WOLFPACKER BY TIM PEELER V eer left outside the main en- trance of the Naismith Me- morial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., and you will find a peaceful tribute to NC State legends Jim Valvano and Kay Yow, both of whom are now enshrined in the hall and memorialized by granite benches bearing their names. Both are recent additions, with Valvano's bench installed last year before he was even elected to the hall and Yow's unveiled in early August, the same weekend that Valvano, her friend and former boss, was enshrined as the only posthu- mous inductee to this year's in- ternationally spiced class of 15 players, coaches and contribu- tors. What the Coaches Legacy Circle is lacking, of course, are tributes to Wolf- pack basketball coaches Everett Case and Norman Sloan. Case, the Father of ACC Basketball, was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1982. His long-overdue inclusion in the hall was shepherded by the late Frank Weedon, who was origi- nally hired to be the sports informa- tion director for all NC State athletics in 1960 near the tail end of Case's tenure as basketball coach (1946-65). His résumé is filled with four single- class Indiana high school boys basket- ball state championships, 10 Southern Conference and ACC titles, and his 1950 team's trip to what is now known as the Final Four, along with the legacies left by All-Americans Dick Dickey, Sammy Ranzino, Bobby Speight, Ronnie Shav- lik, John Richter, Vic Molodet and Lou Pucillo. Weedon worked tirelessly to get the Old Gray Fox, a legend in both the Hoo- sier State and the Old North State, into the hall. Case was nominated on five occasions, each time after his death in 1966. That's roughly the number of times Sloan, who was recruited to play bas- ketball for Case and later led NC State to its first NCAA championship in any sport, has been nominated to no avail. It defies belief that Sloan is not in the hall, while former Maryland coach Charles "Lefty" Driesell is. No offense at all to Driesell, who was a friendly rival of his contemporary Sloan, bound together by their mutual disaf- fection for North Carolina coach Dean Smith and their on-court matchup in the 1974 ACC Tournament champion- ship game and other memorable con- tests throughout the '70s. However, Sloan won three ACC Tournament titles, two regular-season championships and the 1974 NCAA crown. His 1972 recruiting class that included David Thompson, Monte Towe, Tim Stoddard, Mark Moeller, Craig Kuszmaul, Mike Dempsey, Leo Campbell, Lewis Hardy, John McNeely, Creech Newsome, Nick "Biff " Nich- ols and Danny McGaugan is one of the greatest and deepest collections of tal- ent in ACC history. Six of them played on Sloan's ACC champion varsity teams, along with Sloan recruits Tom Burleson, Mo How- ard and Phil Spence. Dempsey and Mc- Neely also excelled in other sports. Sloan was also responsible for bring- ing Vann Williford, Kenny Carr, Charles "Hawkeye" Whitney and a slew of other talented players into the program, and he recruited a trio of freshmen named Sidney Lowe, Thurl Bailey and Dereck Whittenburg who did big things for Valvano, Sloan's successor. The arguments for Sloan surely outweigh any arguments against him. Maybe, like Val- vano, it will take the full in- vestment of securing a granite bench ($150,000) to help boost Sloan's candidacy. Fo r m e r Wo l f p a c k p l aye r Vinny Del Negro, a native of Springfield, Mass., is now a member of the Hall of Fame's board of directors and defi- nitely has a sympathetic ear to help make it happen. What bet- ter time to reboot Sloan's can- didacy and bench fundraising than this year, with the school preparing a season-long celebration of the 1974 national title? The same amount is also needed to place a bench in Case's honor, to go along with his contemporaries and ri- vals John Wooden of UCLA and Dean Smith of North Carolina and ACC coaches Jim Boeheim of Syracuse, Mike Brey of Notre Dame, Leonard Hamil- ton of Florida State, Mike Krzyzewski of Duke, Gary Williams of Maryland and Roy Williams of North Carolina. It seems like a no-brainer if the funds are available to pay homage to such pioneers. Hard work was done by the V Foundation and its fundraisers and several NC State donors to get Valvano's bench dedicated last year. Longtime donor Peaches Blank, Becky Bumgardner and others raised the money to get Yow's bench placed in a prominent location, and Susan Yow spoke on behalf of the Yow family to honor her older sister. These things take time, of course, but also a willingness of someone to dog- gedly participate in the fundraising like Weedon did so long ago. It seems like a worthy cause. ■ Basketball Honors Are Well-Deserved; Others Merit Recognition, Too Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu. PACK PERSPECTIVE Susan Yow unveils a bench at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame honoring her sister, longtime NC State coach Kay Yow. PHOTO BY TIM PEELER