The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1546417
TRACKING THE PACK 16 ■ THE WOLFPACKER BY TIM PEELER H oward Baum lived a full life, filled with good meals, bowl- ing and NC State athletics. For nearly 60 years, Baum was the statistician for the Wolfpack Sports Network, going all the way back to when his friend Bill Jackson was the voice of NC State football. He followed the Pack to every end of the country and several places around the world before his death on Aug. 27 at his home in Fayetteville, N.C. He was 92. Baum and Jackson formed a fast friendship through bowl- ing. Baum, who came to North Carolina for a two-year stint in the U.S. Army, owned B&B Bowl- ing right outside the front gates of Fort Bragg, which gave it a ready- made customer base for many decades. Baum got to know Jackson when the latter came to Fayette- ville to promote the North Caro- lina Bowling Proprietors Asso- ciation, which Baum founded. He also was a founding member of the North Carolina Bowling Re- porters Association and served for decades on the board of the Bowling Proprietors Association of the Carolinas and Georgia. In 2008, Baum was inducted into the International Bowling Hall of Fame for his contribu- tions to the sport. Before NC State's 1967 football sea- son, Jackson offered his friend $10, a free media meal and a parking pass to come help as a spotter in the press box. Baum, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Busi- ness, said, "I'll keep a few stats on the side." Baum continued to keep stats all the way through the Wolfpack's most re- cent football and basketball seasons. He may not have attended NC State as a student, but few loved it more. Among his last coherent words, according to his daughter Nancy Baum Schenk, were "Go State" as he sang the school's iconic "Red & White Song" for the final time. A few years ago, Baum named his fa- vorite Wolfpack athletes. Not surpris- ingly, his list included David Thomp- son, Chris Corchiani, Torry Holt and Philip Rivers. He posted stats for all but Thompson, who played in the early 1970s, before Baum began keeping bas- ketball stats for the network. Funny enough, he did not name any- one from the 1983 national champion- ship, and maybe this is the reason. Around that time, Baum's wife, Lynda, had been tugging his sleeve to take their first cruise vacation. On Jan. 20, 1983, the day after guard Dereck Whittenburg suffered a broken foot, seemingly ending his career and the Wolfpack's season, Baum told his wife to book the cruise. Then something unexpected hap- pened: Whittenburg came back quickly, and the Wolfpack became the best team in the country. "That S.O.B. healed fast," Baum said. So, on the night of April 4, 1983, the Baums were stuck on a ship somewhere near the Bahamas with no way to watch the national championship game between NC State and Houston. He woke up the next morning without know- ing about the S.O.B.'s missed shot that was grabbed and dunked by Lorenzo Charles for the win. All Baum knew was that the crew at the purser's desk posted this score on the ship's bulletin board: North Carolina 54, Hous- ton 52. He made the poor kid working the overnight shift im- mediately change it to "NC State." "We still go on cruises, every December during exam week and every spring," Baum said. "But since that first cruise in 1983, we have always made sure we sched- uled the spring trip after April 5. Just in case." Baum's last great adventure was to travel with the Wolfpack men's basketball team on its remarkable run to the 2024 Final Four with broadcast partners Gary Hahn and Tony Haynes. Baum worked the following two seasons, though he only attended home games this past year. He was celebrated on the Lenovo Center's giant videoboard at the Wolfpack's final home game. "Howard has been, by far, the best statistician I have ever worked with in my years of broadcasting," Hahn said in a 2008 interview. "He's amazing. He's basically a one-man stats crew." Baum was also the crew's unofficial concierge, arranging reservations at fine dining establishments on road trips. "Howard loves food," Hahn said. "He doesn't eat to live as most of us do. He lives to eat. As soon as one meal is over, he's planning the next one." Baum took a lot of good-natured rib- bing from the radio crew and his many friends in the media. But, like former sports information director and associ- ate athletics director Frank Weedon, he was a walking encyclopedia of NC State basketball and football history. ■ Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu. No One Tracked The Pack As Doggedly, Or As Long, As Howard Baum Baum had a deep knowledge of NC State football, basketball and baseball. For almost 60 years, he was the statistician for the Wolfpack Sports Network. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE ATHLETICS