The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1525890
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024 ■ 33 Obviously, both the Wolfpack and Volunteers have grown up since then, even though they played only three other times over the next 131 years. This year's game is the first between the ACC and SEC opponents since 2012, when they met in a similar early-season Chick-fil-A Game, a doubleheader that featured the Wolfpack and Volunteers in a Friday night opener, followed by Clemson and Auburn on Saturday af- ternoon in Atlanta. Tennessee won that game, 35-21, in what proved to be then-Wolfpack head coach Tom O'Brien's final season. The other two Pack-Vol games were in the early days of the sport, long before the formation of the ACC or the SEC. In 1911, under coach Eddie Green, NC A&M shut out Tennessee, 16-0, at Riddick Field in Raleigh. Then, on Sept. 29, 1939, NC State chose the mighty Volunteers of Gen. Robert Neyland to be the op- ponent in a Friday night game as part of State's three-day 50th anniversary cel- ebration. Tennessee, which had won its first national title the year before with an unbeaten, untied and unscored-upon team, was too much for coach Williams "Doc" Newton and his squad, taking a 13-0 lead in the first seven minutes that stood for the remainder of the game. No other opponent fared much bet- ter against Tennessee that year, with Neyland's Volunteers becoming the last Division I NCAA team to go through a regular season without allowing an op- ponent to score. Heading into this season, both No. 24 NC State and No. 15 Tennessee are ranked, making the Mayo Classic one of the top regular-season nonconference games in recent memory for the Wolfpack. The loss to Neyland's Volunteers would be near the top of this list of the biggest nonconference games in NC State foot- ball history, as would multiple losses to Alabama, Penn State, Florida and Ohio State. Here, however, are the Pack's big- gest regular-season nonconference wins. NC State 16, No. 2 Houston 6 Oct. 7, 1967 | Houston Wearing borrowed shoes from the op- ponent's equipment room, Earle Ed- wards and his unranked Wolfpack re- corded perhaps the biggest victory in school history. All season, senior linebacker Chuck Amato captained a Wolfpack defense that had garnered national attention for wearing white-painted shoes. The play- ers saw no reason not to paint the can- vas, rubber-soled shoes that Houston provided to visiting teams that played at the Astrodome, the world's first indoor artificial turf stadium. The Pack defenders totally outper- formed the second-ranked Cougars, who happened to be the Southwest Confer- ence's best offensive team and one of the highest-scoring squads in the nation. The "White Shoes defense" forced 5 turnovers, with 3 fumble recoveries and 2 interceptions against an offense that had averaged 40 points in its first three games, all wins. Additionally, middle guard Terry Brookshire blocked an extra point on Houston's only touchdown of the day, and end Mark Capuano blocked a field goal just before halftime. All- America tackle Dennis Byrd created one of those fumbles and knocked Houston's dangerous running back Warren McVea out of the game with a shoulder injury early in the second quarter. The Pack offense got all the scoring it needed on two short touchdown runs by Bobby Hall and a 30-yard field goal by Gerald Warren. The victory vaulted the previously unranked Wolfpack to No. 9 in the As- sociated Press rankings, which included only 10 teams that season. State rode a