26 ■ THE WOLFPACKER
BY TIM PEELER
t's hardly unusual for a college
athletics program to leverage the
loyalty of a former player to heal
lingering wounds.
So, in the aftermath of the one-
year tenure of men's basketball
coach Will Wade, NC State athlet-
ics director Boo Corrigan returned
to another coaching candidate on his ra-
dar, Tennessee associate head coach and
former Wolfpack player Justin Gainey, to
lead the program.
Gainey, a native of High Point and grad-
uate of Greensboro Day School, has never
been a college head coach before, but ev-
eryone — including former boss and Hall
of Fame coach Rick Barnes — has declared
him more than ready to take charge of the
Pack. He becomes the eighth alumnus of
NC State to lead the program since World
War I.
How have the alumni coaches done at
the helm? In his only season, Tal Stafford
beat North Carolina for the first unof-
ficial state championship in 1918. Norm
Sloan won three ACC titles and the 1974
I
HOMECOMING
PARADE
NC State Has Often Turned To Alumni
To Lead Its Men's Basketball Program
One of Everett Case's "Hoosier Hotshots" during his playing days, Norm Sloan returned to Raleigh and guided NC State to the 1974 national championship, the
school's first-ever NCAA team title in any sport.
PHOTO BY ED CARAM/NC STATE ATHLETICS
