The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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■ pack past Florida State. But on the final weekend of the 1963 season, the Pack had a chance to win the conference crown again, just as it had with Christy's 29-point performance in the season finale six years before. The final game was slated for Friday night at Riddick Stadium, moved there because Duke and North Carolina were supposed to play in Chapel Hill on Saturday, for what was supposed to be the most important game of the ACC season. But the Blue Devils had lost three of four games, and the Tar Heels had lost to Clemson, putting the Pack The Pack won, 42-0, in less than inspiring circumstances. The Pack rolled up 408 rushing yards, including 133 by Clark, the only 100-yard rushing game of his career. Even though it was just the second ACC title in school history and the third football title since 1927, there was little celebrating of clinching a tie for the league championship. It was one of the only college or professional football games played that weekend. Most other teams canceled their Saturday and Sunday contests to mourn Kennedy's death. North Carolina eventually beat the Blue won the H.C. Kennett Award as the school's top athlete. Montgomery, who also played baseball, earned second-team All-ACC honors in that sport after breaking Gabriel's season and career home run record. Sharing the ACC title in 1963 started Edwards' program on a roll. It won the 1964 title outright, shared the title again in 1965, just in time for the opening of gleaming new Carter Stadium, a stadium built through the fundraising efforts of the Wolfpack Club and the success of Edwards' programs. The No. 19 Pack earned the second postseason appearance in school history, but fell to No. 11 Mississippi State 16-12 in the 1963 Liberty Bowl. Photo courtesy nc state media relations in a tie for first place heading into the final weekend. All Edwards and his team had to do was beat lowly Wake Forest in the season finale to clinch a share of the ACC title, no matter what the outcome of the game between Duke and UNC. But a ghastly pall was put over the game. Four hours before kickoff, in Dallas, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, shocking the nation on the weekend before Thanksgiving. Though there was no choice but to play the game, the stadium observed a prolonged moment of silence before the contest. "This is a day of deep tragedy for our nation and mankind," said Chancellor John T. Caldwell. "Let not the playing of this game diminish our sense of respect for our great president or the office." Devils the following week to gain its share of the title and earn the league's automatic berth into the Gator Bowl. But the Wolfpack, which had been denied a postseason berth in 1957 because of NCAA basketball probation, was also invited to the postseason for the first time since 1946, going to Philadelphia to face Mississippi State in the five-year-old Liberty Bowl. It was the first time in league history that the ACC sent more than one team to a bowl game. On a frigid afternoon, when an announced crowd of 8,300 spectators were barely visible in the wind-swept 102,000-seat Municipal Stadium, the 19th-ranked Pack fell 16-12 to its No. 11 opponent in the second bowl game in school history. Edwards was named ACC Coach of the Year for the second time, and Montgomery was named first-team All-ACC for the second year, named a second-team All-American and The 1967 team was within inches of winning a national championship, but was derailed on a fourth-and-goal play at the end of a game at Penn State. Still, it recorded one of the biggest upsets in school history when it defeated second-ranked Houston in the Astrodome and rose to No. 3 in the national polls. It ended the season by beating Georgia in the Liberty Bowl for the school's first postseason win. The following year, it won another outright title, its fifth under Edwards. The veteran head coach, newly elected into the NC State Athletic Hall of Fame, went on to win two more ACC Coach of the Year honors before retiring in 1970. He's now remembered as the savior of Wolfpack football, thanks to the run of success his teams made beginning a half-century ago this year. ■ You may contact Tim Peeler at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu. 88 ■ the wolfpacker 86,88.Pack Past.indd 88 8/23/13 2:21 PM