The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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72 ■ THE WOLFPACKER 10-game series, the 1974 team would win 9 times, maybe all 10. Probably, the 27–0 team from the previ- ous year, 1972–73, a team on probation and not competing in the NCAA tourna- ment, would also defeat State's second NCAA title team as many times in as many chances. Those two teams — 1972–73 and 1973– 74 — were that good. The 1972–73 and 1973–74 Wolfpack teams combined to go 17–1 against nationally ranked oppo- nents, including a 14–1 mark against teams ranked in the national top 10, 10–1 against teams ranked in the top 5, and 5–1 against teams ranked in the top 3. Those numbers are tough for any college team to match. As a State student in the early 1970s and as many alumni of a lot of colleges and universities enjoy doing, I get pleasure from looking back to relive the glory of my days at State. A question asked of many usually goes something like this: Knowing what you know today, would you like to return to your college days and do it all over again? My answer is yes, but I don't have to know any more than I did then to do it all over again. Well, maybe I would about some things, but not about the fortunes of the basketball team. This book is about 1973–74 State bas- ketball, but it's not a "look back" manu- script. It's a look at that season in the pres- ent tense with my past tense observations. Writing a book about what happened more than 40 years ago by talking to the char- acters and what they are doing today is a volume for someone else. This book is based on stories and information taken directly from the student newspaper, the Technician, much of which I penned. The departing editor created several bound volumes of the entire year of printed newspapers and distributed them to some staff members. I was one of the lucky few to be given the 1973–74 bound edition of the Technician. It's something that I've read and reread countless times. This project, which could have been completed by a number of people, began in 2002 with an idea that's pretty much as you see it here. Soon after starting the project, I expanded it to include more of the entire year at State as seen through the Technician. But, as the word content grew, the original idea returned. This book is about 1973–74 NC State Wolfpack bas- ketball and winning the NCAA National Championship as seen through the writings in the Technician, some reprinted in their entirety as complete chapters and others included in part in other chapters. You'll read some in present tense and some in past tense. Instead of chapters about those players from today's perspective, you'll read sto- ries about the players when they were at State. And, since there were games played when the Technician did not publish, de- tails of some games are not included in this book. The articles from the Techni- cian have been copy edited for correct- ness, clarity, and consistency using the Chicago Manual of Style 16th Edition and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary 11th edition. Overall, the work of students during the academic year 1973-74 remains intact. To put this chronicle into perspective, before the games begin, before the player profiles, you'll take a few steps back from the 1973–74 basketball season and explore the commitment to successful athletics at State through comments from Chancellor John Caldwell and Director of Athletics Willis Casey. And, there's a look at the NCAA probation that kept the 1972–73 Wolfpack from competing in play beyond the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament. Jim Pomeranz Tells A Story That Had To Be Told Nobody has ever been able to convince author Jim Pomeranz otherwise when he says that NC State's 1974 national championship basketball team, which went 30-1 and ended UCLA's streak of seven consecutive NCAA titles, would beat its more famous 1983 counterpart if the two were to somehow match up on the hardwood. "It's the best basketball team NC State has ever had, and maybe the best basketball team NC State will ever have," he said. "It got a lot of great credit at the time, but as soon as the 1983 team won — with the way they won — they overshadowed the methodical winning that happened in 1974. "I say in the book that if they played against each other 10 times, the '74 team would win at least nine of them, maybe all 10. "Eddie Biedenbach, who was an assistant coach in '74, read my book before I published it because he wrote the foreword. He called me to say, 'Don't say that in the book because you'll make some people mad.' I told him, 'It's not a matter of making people mad, it's about the truth. What do you think would happen?' "He just said, 'I'm not getting into that.'" Pomeranz would know. He was practically a member of the team after traveling with the squad all season and cov - ering them in-depth as the sports editor of the Technician, NC State's student newspaper. There were not many who had a more up-close and personal view of the historic campaign that frequently gets overshadowed by the amazing Cinderella story that fea- tured a larger-than-life coach nearly a decade later. The story of the 1974 team is one that had to be told. Television clips can't retell the narrative, like they could in 1983, so who better to weave that tale than a guy who was practically a part of the team without actually being listed on the roster? When star point guard Monte Towe was coaching at NCSU under Sidney Lowe and the '74 team held a reunion, he saw Pomeranz beforehand and talked the former scribe into coming along as his guest. Much like his relationship with that historic group, the way Pomeranz told the story is unique. He didn't want to look back at the team and talk about all of the historic facts, which there are no shortage of. In his words, he wanted a story of, "actuality, not of remembrance," so the majority of the book is articles reprinted from the Technician with permission; many of them penned by Pomeranz himself. "If I had gone to Monte Towe now to talk about the season, he would be talking about what he remembered," he explained. "What I wanted to do was print what he was thinking then. "We edited for clarity and style, that's all. We didn't change the substance whatsoever. Remember, these are student writers and we edited ourselves — we didn't know whether to put the preposition here or there. "I wanted this book to be about a view from then, from when it happened." Pomeranz is pleased with how the book turned out, but more importantly, he is proud to have presented Pack fans with another way to celebrate and remember that legendary season that is all too often forgotten. Digital versions are available online, while softcover copies can be found at the Red and White Shop in Ridge - wood Shopping Center or online at Amazon.com and BarnesAndNoble.com. Hardcover books are for sale on Lulu.com. "If you weren't old enough to know what was going on in '73-74, or even if you were and still concentrate on that '83 team, you owe it to yourself as an NC State fan to go back and remember," Pomeranz said. "It's not the definitive history of that team, but it's pretty darn close. State fans should enjoy looking back and seeing what the team was like." — Ryan Tice Pomeranz was the sports editor of the NC State student newspaper during the Wolfpack's 1973-74 NCAA championship season. PHOTO COURTESY JIM POMERANZ