The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2025 ■ 49 for a greater number of those outside to come in; in this way, higher education is made more practical, and therefore, more useful, without losing any of its cultural value." As president, Riddick served during the most turbulent time in college his- tory. Campus was turned into a military school shortly after he was installed to train officers for the Great War in Eu- rope, then navigated the difficulties of the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 that claimed 13 students as well as his own niece, Eliza Riddick, a nurse who caught the dread disease while attend- ing students at the school. She was one of five members of Riddick's family who volunteered to care for students at the school infirmary. In the aftermath of the war, Riddick oversaw the school's greatest expan- sion, nearly doubling the size of the fac- ulty and student enrollment. He saw the school's physical plant grow from Holladay Hall and an outlying stable to a campus of more than 45 buildings and a centerpiece in the city of Raleigh. Part of that expansion was to Riddick Field itself, with senior classes giving money to gradually replace wooden stands with concrete bleachers. Dur- ing the Great Depression, several federal work projects built or completed many facilities on campus, including the addi- tion of concrete grandstands to the west side of the stadium. When completed, the stadium held about 20,000 specta- tors, more than enough to accommodate season-ticket holders and students who supported the Wolfpack program. A Return To The Classroom Riddick eventually tired of admin- istration and resigned as president in 1923 in order to establish NC State's newly formed School of Engineering, for which he served as the inaugural dean until 1937. He was a founder of the North Carolina Society of Engineering and was given a lifetime achievement award shortly before his death in 1942. "He had been president of State Col- lege, but didn't enjoy it, and had be- come dean emeritus of engineering in the University of North Carolina, and didn't enjoy that, either," wrote a friend in the Greensboro News & Record. "He was absorbed in that merger [of UNC, NC State and Women's College in Greensboro] under O. Max Gard- ner [in 1933], but pretending anything like an affection for 'Chapel Hill,' as he called the institution in Orange County, was too much for him. He was happiest when State was licking the tar out of the Tar Heels." Even after he retired as dean, he re- turned to the classroom as dean emer- itus and professor of hydraulics from 1937 to '42, completing 50 full years with the school in his hometown. He died at the age of 77 on June 9, 1942, at a hospital in Baltimore, where he was re- ceiving treatment for a terminal disease. For some 50 years, Riddick's name continued to be affiliated with NC State athletics, until the stadium that bears his name was torn down, bit by bit, be- tween 1968 and 2004. The first blows of the demolition were struck by surviving members of the 1916 football team. The last freestanding remnant, Rid- dick Fieldhouse, was torn down in 2013. Shortly after World War II, NC State's engineering laboratory was also named in Riddick's honor. It served the Col- lege of Engineering until 2007, when the school began to migrate from its original place on main campus to new buildings on Centennial Campus. It is still in use today, housing lab space and classrooms. ■ " The first time I ever saw the president-elect, he was at work on the gridiron, bending low and infusing his own irresistible and uncon- querable energy into the football team then under his supervision. Ever since then, his work has been close to the ground." North Carolina Gov. T.W. Bickett On Riddick Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu. New Athletic Park was renamed in Riddick's honor in 1912 and continued to serve as home to the NC State football team until Carter Stadium opened in 1966. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE ATHLETICS