The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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MAY/JUNE 2024 ■ 49 The one place Gabriel never got around to visiting was crumbling Riddick Sta- dium, where he eventually played all of his football games during a Hall of Fame college career. (Gabriel is in the College Football Hall of Fame and was an inau- gural inductee into the NC State Athletic Hall of Fame.) "One of the main reasons I went to NC State, other than to get a fine education, is that I didn't know at the time which sport I liked the best," Gabriel said. "I played all three, and North Carolina State was one of the few schools that would allow me to play my freshman year, as long as I could keep my grades up." Gabriel played on the freshman bas- ketball team in 1958 and spent three years with the baseball team. It was on the foot- ball field, though, where he became an All-American. As a sophomore in 1959, he quickly won the starting quarterback job. An injury kept him out of three games, but he led the nation by completing 81 of his 134 passes, a school-record 60.4 percent. Gabriel also became the first NC State quarterback to throw for more than 800 yards. As a junior, he had his best passing season, throwing for 1,182 yards and was 10th in the nation with 1,356 yards of total offense. He accounted for more than 50 percent of the Pack's total offense as a ju- nior and senior and was responsible for an ACC-record 34 touchdowns in his career. 'More Moves Than A Clock' The Wolfpack did not enjoy great suc- cess as a team during the Gabriel era, win- ning only 11 games in his three varsity sea- sons. That can be partly attributed to the schedule. The Wolfpack generally played only three home games a season at Rid- dick Stadium, a 20,000-seat, on-campus facility that dated back to the early 1900s. Edwards chose to take his team on the road, using the money he got from guar- antees to bankroll the athletics program and raise the funds needed to begin con- struction on what is now Carter-Finley Stadium. "Gabe had a terrific impact on the foot- ball team," Edwards once said of his most famous player. "He sent us in a new direc- tion, and much of it he had to do on his own because we didn't have the kind of supporting cast he deserved. He started us in a new direction and others followed." Immediately after Gabriel's career ended and his famous No. 18 had been retired, Edwards and the Wolfpack won outright or shared four of the next seven ACC championships and moved from Riddick to the program's new home, Carter Stadium, near the North Carolina State Fairgrounds. The superstar signal-caller never played in a postseason bowl game with his team- mates. He was, however, on the 1962 Col- lege All-Star team that played against the NFL champion Green Bay Packers, and he scored the winning touchdown in the second annual East-West All-Star Game. "He's going to be a great passer," leg- endary Packers coach Vince Lombardi predicted during Gabriel's rookie season. "He has more moves than a clock." Gabriel was the most celebrated college player of his era, and every professional football team wanted him. He was chosen No. 1 overall by the Oakland Raiders in the American Football League Draft, and No. 2 overall by the Los Angeles Rams in the NFL Draft. Gabriel signed with the Rams and spent the next five years biding his time on the bench, awaiting an opportunity to play. That chance finally came when George Allen took over as head coach of the Rams. In 1967, Gabriel and Allen led the Rams to an 11-1-2 record. In 1969, he was the NFL's Most Valuable Player. And in 1973, he was named the NFL's Comeback Player of the Year after being traded to the Phila- delphia Eagles. Gabriel grew into one of the biggest celebrities in a town of celebrities, espe- cially after he began his acting career. He had significant roles in two major motion pictures, "Skidoo" and "The Undefeated" and co-starred with some of Hollywood's elite like John Wayne, Rock Hudson and Jackie Gleason. He had minor roles on several television shows, including "Gil- ligan's Island," "Wonder Woman" and "Perry Mason." Throughout his 16-year NFL career, the outspoken Gabriel maintained a super- star's presence with both the Rams and Eagles. He passed for 29,444 yards, com- pleted 52.6 percent of his attempts and threw 201 touchdown passes. Life After Football After retiring from football in 1977, Ga- briel focused on a variety of projects, pri- marily involved with sports. By his own accounting, he raised nearly $7 million for various charities, primarily through golf tournaments. Gabriel was both a college and pro- fessional coach and was involved in mi- nor league baseball and football ven- tures in Charlotte and Raleigh. He was the head coach and general manager of the Raleigh Skyhawks, a one-year entry in the World League of American Football that played its home games in Carter- Finley Stadium. He also spent time in the broadcast booth as a radio and television analyst. For the last two decades of his life, he lived in Little River, S.C., less than 45 minutes away from his hometown of Wilmington. Gabriel reconnected with his alma mater in retirement. Three close friends, including one of his former offensive line- men, Collice Moore, donated $150,000 in his honor to name the finishing hole at the Lonnie Poole Golf Course — No. 18, just like his retired jersey number — in Gabriel's honor. Gabriel never heard his number called for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but his legacy will always be turning the quarter- back position into something bigger and better than it had been previously, at NC State, at Los Angeles and at Philadelphia. Maybe that's enough to carry his leg- end. ■ Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu. " Gabe had a terrific impact on the football team. He sent us in a new direction, and much of it he had to do on his own because we didn't have the kind of supporting cast he deserved. " Former NC State coach Earle Edwards