The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/470359
70 ■ THE WOLFPACKER BY JIM POMERANZ D uring the academic year of 1973‑74 at NC State University, the men's basketball team gener‑ ated most of the excitement on campus. It created most of the excitement in all of Raleigh and throughout North Carolina, for that matter. The buzz created by the Wolfpack as it played its way to winning the NCAA Na‑ tional Championship reached far beyond athletics, helping many get past interna‑ tional, national, local, and campus issues of concern. It was a trying time across the United States with the Vietnam conflict still rag‑ ing. There was an energy shortage with the possibility of gas rationing. The United States presidency was in jeopardy because of the 1972 break‑in of the Democratic Na‑ tional Committee at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C., and Chief Execu‑ tive Richard Nixon's subsequent cover‑up. These issues and others were of concern to State students, faculty, and staff as well as most United States citizens. On the NC State campus, students in general were upset that the annual All‑ Campus concert celebration was cancelled due to lack of funds. Campus politics was, well, campus politics. Issues on campus came and went, some lingering and others passing. The African‑American population, which made up 2.4% of total enrollment, was upset about the small number of black counselors and professors and was also upset about other related issues. We discovered from Dean of Student Af‑ fairs Banks Talley why it would be difficult for State to reach a 10% desegregation goal set forth by the University of North Carolina Board of Governors but that a 1% increase, going from 350 African‑Ameri‑ can students to 500 by 1977, could be met. "Black students are not inclined towards the hard sciences but more towards the liberal arts," he told the student newspaper, the Technician. "This fact is one reason for the relatively small projected black The 1974 National Champions An Excerpt From The New Book 1973-74 Reliving The NC State Wolfpack's Title Run