The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2025 ■ 49 Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu. Yow assistant and retired ACC associate commissioner for women's basketball. "The team played inspired basketball. Kay had the strength and endurance to coach the entire game; the fans were going bonkers. "It was one of the most emotional events in NC State history." Nov. 12, 2023: Sophomore Saniya Rivers totaled a career-high 33 points and 10 rebounds, and head coach Wes Moore's Wolfpack scored a stunning 92-81 takedown of No. 2 Connecticut in a nationally televised game at Reynolds. It was the Pack's first win over Geno Auriemma's Huskies in more than 25 years and a precursor for the team's late-season run to the Final Four, just the second in school history. Top Five Other Athletic Events Oct. 5, 1975: The New Orleans Jazz with Pete Maravich defeated the Den- ver Nuggets with David Thompson in the third of four ABA exhibition games in North Carolina and the only one at Reynolds, bringing back two of the greatest players who ever graced the Old Barn's courts. Thompson, who scored 30 points, had just finished a remarkable playing career that included two ACC titles and the 1974 NCAA crown. Maravich, who scored 18 in the Jazz's 115-101 victory, had played innumer- able pickup games in Reynolds while his dad, Press, was both an assistant and head coach of the Wolfpack, but he never played there during his college career at LSU. Dec. 23, 1950: In their first-ever ap- pearance in North Carolina, the Harlem Globetrotters headlined a pre-Christ- mas doubleheader at Reynolds Coli- seum, defeating an all-star team made up of the best former Black collegiate players in the country. During that era, Reynolds was in- tegrated but had separate seating and bathrooms for white and Black fans. Hosting the most popular troupe of all- Black players was a historic moment in the state's athletics history. Led by the original "Clown Prince of Basketball," Reece "Goose" Tatum, the Globetrotters faced an all-star team that included former NC Central stars Harry "Trees" Taylor, Harold Hunter and Rob- ert Herring — all of whom played for Central's 1950 Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association championship team —along with Robert Wilson and George McQueen. The doubleheader began a long string of appearances at Reynolds by the Trot- ters, who played one or two games a year on State's campus until moving their an- nual visit to Dorton Arena from 1972-83. O c t . 2 0 -2 5, 19 5 2 : T h re e - t i m e Olympic champion and 10-time World Championship winner Sonja Henie, darling of women's figure skating, hosted six evening shows and two mati- nees of her own Sonja Henie Ice Review, back when skating on the South's first installed ice rink was an integral part of paying for the coliseum's operational expenses. Two years earlier, on Aug. 3, 1950, Harvard student Dick Button, the reign- ing Olympic and world champion men's figure skater, appeared at Reynolds for a special skating exhibition and was feted as one of the grandest athletes in the country. March 27-30, 1969: Of the three NCAA championships hosted on NC State's campus, only the 1969 fencing tournament was held at Reynolds. The 1961 NCAA Swimming Championships were held at the Casey Natatorium, and the 1989 Women's Soccer Champion- ship took place at Method Road Sta- dium. After favored New York University fell by the wayside early in the three-day tournament, Penn beat Harvard for the team title. Feb. 7, 2020: Just before the world shut down because of the global pan- demic, No. 3 NC State hosted No. 8 North Carolina in a top-10 ACC wres- tling match on its home mat. The Wolf- pack had a scant two-point lead going into the heavyweight bout. Sophomore Deonte Wilson secured the 19-14 team victory by winning the final bout with a 5-2 decision, sending the record num- ber of 4,383 spectators into a frenzy. It was an apex moment for a program that has won 24 ACC titles. With a 15-0 overall record and 5-0 league mark, the Wolfpack was ranked No. 3 in the nation after the ACC Tournament, with one of the best shots of winning the program's first NCAA title, but the championship event was canceled due to COVID. ■ Kay Yow (right) coached her first game at Reynolds in 1975 after arriving from Elon. She led the NC State women's basketball program for 34 years, and the court was named in her honor in 2007. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE ATHLETICS