The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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138 ■ THE WOLFPACKER ■ PACK PAST the national anthem. It was a prideful mo- ment, and something I'll never forget. "What other people remember is what our teammates and colleagues did. We all knew about it ahead of time, but we weren't going to tell anyone. We all supported what they did — it was what they needed to do." Rerych retired after those Olympics. By the time Spitz gained fame for winning seven gold medals at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, West Germany, Rerych was enrolled in medical school at Columbia University. He earned his medical degree there in 1974 and enrolled at Duke's rigor- ous surgical program. For the next 20 years, he was a thoracic and open-heart surgeon in Asheville, N.C. He's now a general surgeon at a hospital- based practice in Point Pleasant, W.Va. "One of the reasons I returned to general surgery is that thoracic and heart surgery are very labor-intensive and stressful," Rerych said. "I didn't need that kind of stress. I had proved my point." Rerych is the second physician to be in- ducted into the NC State Athletic Hall of Fame, joining women's basketball player and pediatric optometrist Genia Beasley among the ranks of the best Wolfpack ath- letes in their sports. One thing Rerych has had little time to do during his medical career is return to Raleigh. So he took the opportunity during the Hall of Fame weekend to reintroduce himself and his family to the campus he once roamed as the school's most successful athlete. "I haven't stepped on campus since 1974," Rerych said. "What an awakening — a very pleasant awakening. The university has come a long, long way since then, thanks to the administration and the student body." He'll never forget his time at State — and the opportunity given to him by Casey, one of the most successful coaches in any sport in ACC history. "I was blessed to have a great swimming coach who was also an extremely bright guy," Rerych said. "He was not an easy per- son to swim for. He was a taskmaster. He could be hard on people. "But he made us all better." And some, he turned into NC State Ath- letic Hall of Famers. ■ Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker. He can be reached at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu. Rerych was a three-time All-American, and he went on to be the first NC State athlete to ever qualify for an Olympic team and the first ACC athlete in any sport to win multiple gold medals. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE MEDIA RELATIONS