The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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86 ■ THE WOLFPACKER BY TIM PEELER O f his many football accomplishments during his six decades as a North Caro- lina Sports Hall of Fame coaching legend, nothing makes Henry Trevathan prouder than his work with NC State's special teams during the 1980s and '90s. That was a Golden Age of kickers and punters in Raleigh, when Mike Cofer, Kelly Hollodick, Craig Salmon, Tim Kilpatrick, Steve Videtich, Marc Primanti and others won national and ACC honors for head coaches Dick Sheridan and Mike O'Cain. Trevathan was the kicking coach for those teams that produced three All-ACC punters, three All-ACC placekickers and an All-American. The year after he retired, in 1996, Primanti had college football's great- est kicking season, making every one of his 16 field goal attempts and all 26 of his point after tries to become the first ACC product to win the Lou Groza Award as the nation's best kicker. "I don't know that any program anywhere had a better run than we had during those 10 years," said Trevathan, who came to NC State when Sheridan arrived from Fur- man in 1986. Truth be told, NC State has had an out- standing tradition of kickers for decades, from Leslie "Footsie" Palmer, a punter and halfback from the 1940s that helped the Wolfpack qualify for its first postseason game, the 1946 Gator Bowl; to volunteer kicker Dick Christy, the halfback whose first career field goal came while time expired against South Carolina in 1957 and gave NC State its first ACC championship; to All-American Gerald Warren, who broke the NCAA record with 17 field goals in 10 games in 1967. All-American punter Johnny Evans and placekickers Nathan Ridder and Todd Auten excelled in the 1970s and '80s, but the Sheri- dan era kicked off a special era of specialists for the Wolfpack, beginning in Trevathan's first season when Cofer, who later kicked in two Super Bowls for the San Francisco 49ers, and Hollodick both earned first-team All-ACC honors. Salmon was a first-team all-conference punter the next season. Before long, the Wolfpack regularly pro- duced the league's and the nation's best kickers, from second-team All-American Videtich to consensus selection Primanti. "It was such a great era of kicking during that time," Trevathan said. Trevathan was a high school legend as an assistant coach at Class 1-A Windsor and 3-A Rocky Mount, before taking over the reins at Wilson's Fike High School, where he won three consecutive state championships from 1967-69 at one of the state's smallest Class 4-A schools. He returned to East Carolina, his alma mater, as an assistant coach for 11 years and spent time at both Lenoir-Rhyne and Elon before coming to NC State. He remembers the decade in Raleigh as a joyous time, which is why a few months ago he starting thinking about a homecoming re- union of the Raleigh chapter of Hi-Phi Kick 'em High — the kicking fraternity Treva- than developed with his Wolfpack special- ists, graduate assistants and volunteer student stat keepers. They had their weekly meetings at Amedeo's on Western Boulevard. He made a few calls — with the help of his son, Henry Trevathan Jr., who is head coach Dave Doeren's director of high school relations — and before he knew it, more than a dozen of the elder Trevathan's former stu- dents were on board for a pre-game tailgate for the Wake Forest-NC State game. It was the first time he had arranged such a reunion and was thrilled to see his protégés all grown up, some of them with college prospects of their own. There were snap- pers, holders and kickers of all sizes, with a few former managers thrown in for good measure. "It was a pretty simple get-together," Trev- athan said. "We met outside the gates in the parking lots and then went to the game. For me, it was heartwarming because I was a little bit late in calling to say, 'It's time we got together.' "Maybe it was because it was homecom- ing and a lot of them planned on being there anyway, but so many of them said, 'Count me in.' It was a blessing for me." For Trevathan, a 2012 inductee into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, it was another bright moment in a life that was completely devoted to football, on both the high school and college levels. In 1992, while he was still with the Wolfpack, he and former North Carolina head coach Bill Dooley received the North Carolina High School Coaches Award for service and de- velopment of high school football in the state. Though Trevathan moved on in 1995 — spending nearly two decades as a part-time kicking coach at Bridgewater College in Vir- ginia — he is confident that his special teams left a legacy that continues today. So maybe it was fitting that after the re- union tailgate was over, the parking space was tidied up and the game began, Treva- than and his former pupils went in to see the Wolfpack pummel the Demon Deacons. Early in the game, senior placekicker Niklas Sade became NC State football's all-time leading scorer, breaking the career record of 312 points set by Ted Brown from 1975-78. That 36-year-old record was one of the old- est in the books, and it added on to Sade's mark as the Wolfpack's all-time leader in points scored, field goals kicked and extra points made. And a week later, senior punter Wil Bau- mann, a finalist for this year's Ray Guy Award (nation's top punter), was named first- team All-ACC. Their four-year accomplishments, along with holder Scott Thompson, simply con- tinued one of NC State's finest football legacies. ■ ■ PACK PERSPECTIVE Henry Trevathan Has Special Memories Of NC State Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker. You may contact him at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu. Trevathan served as the kicking coach for the Wolfpack from 1986‑95, mentoring three All‑ ACC punters, three All‑ACC placekickers and an All‑American. PHOTO BY MATT CARTER The Wolfpacker is a publication of: Coman Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 2331, Durham, N.C. 27702. Offices are located at 324 Blackwell St., Ste. 1020, Durham, N.C. 27701. (919) 688-0218. The Wolfpacker (ISSN 0273-8945) is published bimonthly. A subscription is $39.95 for six issues. For advertising or subscription information, call (800) 421-7751 or write The Wolfpacker. Postmaster: Send address changes to: The Wolfpacker, P.O. Box 2331, Durham, N.C. 27702. 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