The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/368728
84 ■ THE WOLFPACKER BY TIM PEELER T he question is one Danny Peebles has been asked — and one he has pondered — ever since he ran in his first youth track meet as a 9-year-old on NC State's Derr Track. Was he a football player who ran track or a sprinter who played football? The answer, Peebles has come to realize, is pretty simple. He was a talented, multi-sport athlete who parlayed his God-given speed to be a superstar in track and fulfill his lifelong dream to play professional football, some- thing he wanted so badly that he turned down every sprinter's dream — a chance to run in the Olympics. And he became successful as a profes- sional player, going to the Tampa Bay Buc- caneers in the second round of the 1989 NFL Draft. But a life-threatening head injury suffered during a game at the Hous- ton Astrodome in his third season ended a promising career at the age of 25, forcing Peebles to fall back on the dual accounting and business finance degrees he earned at NC State. A successful salesman, the co-founder of a Raleigh church and, most recently, a part- time track coach for his former mentor, NC State coaching legend Rollie Geiger, the native of Raleigh has seen all of his dreams come true. "I left NC State fulfilled, academically and athletically," the 48-year-old Peebles said. "I earned two degrees while running track and playing football. I have used all three of those to do the things I wanted to in life." In the spring, Peebles received a phone call from NC State athletics director Deb- bie Yow, informing him that he had been elected to the NC State Athletics Hall of Fame. He was stunned. "I still haven't been able to wrap my head around it," Peebles said. "I never paused long enough to think about what I was doing at NC State might put me in this situation. I am just competitive. "So whether it was catching every ball thrown my way or winning every race I was in, I never paused to consider what all I was doing. For me, it was just one day at a time, one step at a time, one goal at a time, one year at a time. Then, you look back at the bricks you were blessed to lay, and they are still there to be remembered. "I don't know if it will ever sink in." Peebles is a true hometown hero, a multi- ple state championship winner at Broughton High School who used to stop by NC State on his way home from school every day. His formative years were in the 1970s, when David Thompson, Monte Towe and Tommy Burleson helped the Wolfpack win a pair of ACC titles and the 1974 NCAA championship in basketball. It was when Lou Holtz took the Wolfpack football team to four consecutive bowl games. And it was when miler Jim Wilkins began NC State's foundation for success on the track. Peebles met his wife, Monique, while they were both enrolled at State and saw the first two of his four children born be- fore he earned his two degrees. His young- est daughter, 13-year-old Jada, recently made headlines when she committed to play for Wes Moore's Wolfpack women's basketball team. (See sidebar on page 86.) "We are a Wolfpack family," Peebles said. And quite a legacy. "Danny got two degrees from NC State and has been one of those guys that you are so proud to say that you were able to coach, because of everything he did then and ev- erything he has become now," former Wolf- pack coach Dick Sheridan said. "He's a person that I am proud to say was part of our program and a person who NC State is proud to have as a graduate." At first, coming out of Broughton, Pee- bles was convinced that NC State was just too close to home, so he resisted the court- ship of then football coach Tom Reed. He considered Tennessee, Auburn, Clemson and others that were big in both football and track at the time. Just about every- one, however, wanted him to play defen- sive back. And just about everyone said he wouldn't be able to run track until after his sophomore season in football. Except his hometown school. "At the time, [current Wolfpack Club executive director] Bobby Purcell was the ■ PACK PAST Two-Sport Standout Danny Peebles As a sophomore wide receiver in 1986, Peebles caught a 35-yard Hail Mary pass from quarterback Erik Kramer to beat South Carolina with no time left on the clock. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE MEDIA RELATIONS