The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/197085
tracking the PACK Remembering Frank Weedon There are too, too many stories about Frank Weedon to capture in one sitting. There are too many memories, too many lives touched, too many umpires chastised to tell at a visitation, a wake or in a funeral service. So many of them flooded my mind when I got the phone call that early morning in September from former Wolfpack All-American defensive back Freddie Combs, who Frank always called one of his "illegitimate sons," to spread the news that the NC State athletics legend had succumbed to his gradual declining health and died at the age of 82. Since my student days at NC State, Weedon has been the tangible face, body and institutional memory of Wolfpack athletics for those who worked in the media and in the athletics department. He had long since moved on from being the nervous and excitable young sports information director who was single-handedly responsible for the only forfeit in ACC basketball history (Maryland 60, NC State 55, Jan. 7, 1967) and into the world of athletics administration, as a top lieutenant for athletics directors Willis Casey, Jim Valvano, Todd Turner, Les Robinson and Lee Fowler. A position in which he was again nervous and excitable. Weedon, a native of Washington, D.C., and a 1951 graduate of the University of Maryland, never lost his passion for college athletics, especially regarding the Wolfpack. Casey fired Weedon dozens of times for being on the wrong side of the athletics director's decisions. Trust me, though, Weedon never got around to cleaning out his things and finding another place to work. Weedon's office was a perpetual mess of stacked papers, old magazines, academic reports, photographs and the little memories of a near lifetime devoted to a single institution. I was once asked to go through it all, and try to make some sense out of the tiny pieces of paper tucked away on every corner and in every drawer of his desk. I found neatly clipped articles about Philip Rivers mixed in with those about Wolfpack softball and wrestling, media guides, game programs, a picture of Frank and his beloved late wife Janice standing at the podium of the White House briefing room, scrapbooks, yearbooks, phonebooks — just about everything imaginable. In one drawer were Roman Gabriel's game-worn jersey and a Diamond-S NC State flag that once flew over the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. In another was a packet of slides from NASA of an Apollo mission to the moon, with directions to "return within two weeks." That still hasn't happened. Another treasure trove of memorabilia was stored at Frank's house off Western Boulevard. In his attic, he had the only autographed picture I have ever seen of the late Everett Case. Frank was a collector and creator of memories, an institutional stalwart who was both comic relief and unbridled passion. For more than half a century, he showed up in his messy office to promote and defend NC State. He officially retired in 1996, but spent the next 15 years acting as the senior associate athletics director emeritus, which meant he was the go-to person for anyone who wanted to know the history of Wolfpack athletics. Many stories were told in the days following his death, all woven with the central theme to Frank's life: his commitment to the things he loved most. Certainly at the top of that list was Janice, who he married in 1989 at the age of 58 after many years of being wed only to his job. NC State athletics was there, but so too was his family, the West Raleigh Presbyterian Church and the Raleigh arts community. The sports stories, of course, were classic.There was the time he was in the dugout with summer league manager Francis Combs (Fred's brother), riding an umpire the entire game.The umpire, clearly out of his league, kicked Weedon out of the game and told him he didn't want him in his sight the rest of the afternoon. So Frank went and stood on home plate and said "You haven't seen anything near here all day." His nephew Ronald Weedon told a story about walking through Raleigh's Cameron Village one afternoon when they came across a panhandler wearing a North Carolina hat. Frank whipped around, took off the new NC State hat he was wearing and told the guy: "You'll have better luck wearing one of these." As they were driving back to campus, Ronnie told his uncle, "You know he's just going to put the other hat back on now that we have left, right?" So Frank did a U-turn and went back to verify the devotion of the Wolfpack's newest fan. In many ways, Weedon became a caricature of a sports publicist. He was one of the old guard of college sports information directors that helped shape the Atlantic Coast Conference's place as college athletics most accommodating conference. He now rests with his mentor at Maryland, Joe F. Blair, as well as Clemson's Bob Bradley and Marvin "Skeeter" Francis of both Wake Forest and the ACC office. Though he was often a punching bag with his colleagues because of his singular devotion to NC State — opposing football coaches were known to watch film of his Weedon, who worked in sports information and administration at NC State for more than 50 years, passed away Sept. 2 at the age of 82. Photo courtesy Simon Griffiths Photography antics on the sidelines during ACC football games — Weedon's list of accomplishments was long. With the help of NC State fraternities, he created the Wolfpack Sports Network, mainly because he didn't think NC State was getting fair coverage from local radio stations. He was on the hiring committees that brought football coaches Lou Holtz, Bo Rein and Dick Sheridan, women's basketball's Kay Yow and Jim Valvano — just to name a few — to NC State. He served on ACC committees for men's basketball, baseball, wrestling and other sports. He was a past president and longtime board of director for the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, where he always fought to include more former NC State stars. He was the tournament manager for the old Dixie Classic and a half-dozen ACC Tournaments. He was the official scorer for the 1966 Final Four, when long-shot Texas Western shocked Kentucky for the national championship. He saw a couple of other pretty good basketball champions when the Wolfpack won national championships in 1974 and '83. He always said that the greatest moment of his career was in 1982, when he accepted on Case's behalf when the coach was posthumously inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Weedon not only devoted his professional life to NC State, he also gave more money to the Wolfpack Club than any athletics department employee, with a $100,000 scholarship endowment and a $50,000 naming gift for the press box at Doak Field at Dail Park. He also led efforts to preserve both Thompson Gym (now Theater) and Reynolds Coliseum. Weedon can't be fully remembered in this small space. But in the larger place of Reynolds Coliseum, which will be the home of the newly established Wolfpack Athletic Hall of Fame after an extensively renovation in coming years,Weedon's presence will always be close to the legends he helped create. — Tim Peeler You may contact Tim Peeler at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu. November 2013 ■ 19 14-16,18-20.Tracking The Pack.indd 19 10/22/13 12:47 PM