The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1546417
50 ■ THE WOLFPACKER Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu. PACK PERSPECTIVE BY TIM PEELER I t's been an incredible summer of sadness for those who remem- ber some iconic characters of NC State athletics. You can read about the deaths of some of those folks —men's bas- ketball player Cozell McQueen, legendary baseball player and coach Jim Toman and longtime radio statistician Howard Baum — on other pages of this issue. All of them hit in a different way. The one that hit hardest for me, however, got the least attention in local media. It was the Aug. 14 death of former men's basketball player Vic Molodet, a backcourt hero for coach Everett Case and true pioneer in the earliest days of the ACC. Granted, fans of today don't ap- preciate the importance of those championships the way older fans do. Back then, a league title was the only pathway to the NCAA Tournament. Molodet, who died at his home in Greensboro at age 93, was there for the league's beginning, help- ing Case's program win the ACC's first three titles. Along with Ronnie Shavlik, Molodet was a superstar, earning second-team All-ACC honors in the league's inaugu- ral and second years, 1954 and '55, and first-team laurels as a senior in 1956. He was also selected All-Dixie Classic in his final two seasons. But that's not Molodet's full story. It took a huge lobbying effort by one- time teammate Lou Pucillo to get the East Chicago, Ind., native elected to the NC State Athletic Hall of Fame as part of the 2024 class. Molodet sauntered down the red carpet at the induction ceremony on his way to receive his hall of fame medal. It was the same way he played the game, rushing Case's high-scoring of- fense down the floor with backcourt- mate John Maglio, a combo affection- ately known as the M&M Twins. They were responsible for creating a fast- paced aura around Case's program in the way they got the ball into the hands of Shavlik, the league's first two-time All-American. "I'm an unabashed fan of Molodet," said the late Irwin Smallwood, long- time sports editor of the Greensboro News & Record, who covered Case's program in the '50s. "When I get into arguments with younger guys talking about backcourt guys, I tell them, 'Give me Molodet, and you can have anybody else but [North Carolina's] Phil Ford. Give me the two of them, and I'll beat everybody.'" Molodet's shining moment came in the 1956 ACC Tournament after scoring the winning basket against Wake For- est in the regular-season finale. In that game, Shavlik suffered a clean break of his left wrist and was feared to be out for the rest of the season. Molodet stepped forward in the tournament and scored 21 against Clemson, 26 against Duke and 32 against Wake Forest to set the ACC three-game scoring record of 79 points. He was a rare unanimous choice as the tournament's Most Valuable Player. Shavlik did return in the tourna- ment but was not the same player who had led the Wolfpack to its highest ranking ever to that point in Case's tenure and the one most likely to contend for an elusive national title. The path to facing off against San Francisco and its star center Bill Russell seemed pretty simple in the 25-team tournament, especially when the Wolfpack was paired against tiny Canisius, a team that was making its first appearance in the post- season. What happened next was some- thing that bothered Molodet un- til the day he died. He picked up four fouls in the first half and sat out more than 32 minutes of a game that went to four overtimes, the longest ever played in NCAA Tournament history. He eventu- ally fouled out in the first extra period, leaving the team in the hands of an obviously whipped Maglio, who played all 60 min- utes, and a still-hurting Shavlik. When Maglio missed the front end of a one- and-one with less than 10 seconds to play, Canisius raced down the floor, and reserve player Frank Corcoran heaved a shot from 18 feet that fell flawlessly through the basket, completing what is still one of the biggest upsets in NCAA Tournament history. The 5-foot-11 Molodet never forgave the two reach-in and two charging fouls called against him in the most impor- tant game of his career. "It ended quickly, and miserably," said Molodet, who played briefly in the NBA and spent his post-basketball career as a sporting goods salesman. "I probably could've killed that official. That was a sad, sad day." So was the day that Molodet died quietly at his home, far removed from his glory days but properly honored for what he meant to the program. ■ Molodet was a three-time all-conference point guard for the Wolfpack, winning second-team honors in 1954 and '55 and a first-team nod in '56. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE ATHLETICS Vic Molodet Shined For NC State At The Dawn Of The ACC Era