The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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80 ■ THE WOLFPACKER BY TIM PEELER E ven though I was once banned from enter- ing the gates of Carter-Finley Stadium, it will always hold a special place in my heart. Don't worry, I didn't do anything too un- seemly. Not like one of my college room- mates, who was ejected from the stadium — twice, in fact — for defending the stadium's turf during the infamous melee that followed East Carolina's fence-destroying celebration in 1987 that resulted in the suspension of the series between the two rivals. I didn't get caught as a student drinking too much before a game, joining my friends in the south end zone and sliding down the grassy bank multiple times on a flattened pizza box after being told to stop. (Note: I said, "I didn't get caught"…) Nor did I celebrate too hard after a win, like the 1986 victory over South Carolina, the 1998 win over Florida State or the nationally televised 2000 Thursday night triumph over Georgia Tech during Philip Rivers' freshman year. As a writer covering all of those games, and many more, I've never celebrated any victory or wallowed in the misery of a defeat. There was one time, however, that I was happy beyond belief after leaving Carter- Finley. On May 9, 1988, joined by my par- ents, my best friend and the feisty roommate who had been ejected from the ECU game, I walked through the gates as an NC State graduate, following just the second com- mencement exercises ever held in the football stadium. I had listened to former NBC newsman Ed- win Newman give the address and waited in the sun with 4,000 other graduates that soggy spring day. It had rained the night before, and we thought we might have to be moved indoors to Reynolds Coliseum. The field was a mess. On top of the rain, Pink Floyd chewed up the turf three nights earlier in one of the great concerts ever hosted at the stadium. Newman — to my knowledge the only NC State commencement speaker to ever host "Saturday Night Live" — was a controver- sial choice to give the address. The student- led committee that recommended speakers gave Chancellor Bruce Poulton three names: singer John Denver, television host Oprah Winfrey and sex therapist Ruth Westheimer. Poulton rejected all three and invited New- man on his own. Newman was a perfectly nice man and said great things about NC State, but it wasn't exactly the Gettysburg Address. "In a way, state universities are this country at its best," he wrote in his syndicated col- umn following his address. "They provide opportunities; they serve their states and the nation through research and extension work; and they do it across class and other dividing lines. They reflect the changes in the nation, and they promote those changes. "It may sound stuffy, but that makes it no less true: If the United States has flourished, it is in part because of places like NCSU. We are lucky to have them." You can't disagree with his sentiment, of course, but the best delivery that day came from the Domino's guy who brought an extra- large meat lovers pizza to the graduating se- nior two rows below me, his last cheap meal before entering the real world. Through the years, I've been privileged to see some of the great and rare moments at the stadium. Carter-Finley, celebrating its Golden An- niversary during the 2016 season, is certainly a different place these days. The grassy bank disappeared in 2000, shortly after ground was broken for the Murphy Center. The old press box, semi-lovingly known as "The Double- Wide in the Sky," and the world's slowest elevator are long gone, replaced by Vaughn Towers. The stainless steel grill on the second level, which served Raleigh's best hamburg- ers this side of Char-Grill, is an ever-fading memory. So is the small, well-stocked cart that late sports information director Ed Seaman used to push through the narrow aisles of the press box, plying writers with the alco- hol inspiration they needed to make dead- line on their prehistoric laptop computers made by Radio Shack. He never stopped by my seat when I was a student and under 21, but when I covered my first NC State football game for The Salisbury Post in 1988, he made a big deal of parking the cart near my seat and saying a little extra loudly, "Tim, can I get you something?" It was the first time I felt like a real sports- writer. My experiences at Carter-Finley are dif- ferent than most fans, I know. I've never left at halftime to go to the parking lots. I haven't tailgated — not once — since I was sopho- more in college. There were times when I would arrive up to six hours before a game and leave four hours afterwards. More than once, I had to throw my com- puter over a locked gate and scale it just to escape the stadium in the middle of the night, long after other writers and stadium security personnel were tucked in bed. But why was I banned from entering its hallowed gates for the Gardner-Webb game on Sept. 19, 2009? Public safety concerns. North Carolina was fighting an outbreak of the H1N1 influenza virus, and somehow, despite my best misanthropic tendencies to avoid other human life, I was one of about 150 people in North Carolina who contracted that highly contagious version of the swine flu. My doctor forbade me from going anywhere where people were gathered. And the absolute best part about Carter- Finley Stadium is that no matter the opponent, no matter the date, no matter the weather, no matter how the season is going for the football team, it will always be packed with thousands of NC State's closest friends. I wouldn't do anything to harm them. ■ ■ PACK PERSPECTIVE My Carter-Finley Memories Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker. You may contact him at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu. The Wolfpacker is a publication of: Coman Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 2331, Durham, N.C. 27702. Offices are located at 905 West Main St., Ste. 24F, 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. Periodical mail postage paid at Durham, N.C. 27702 and additional offices. First-class postage is $14 extra per year. E-mail: thewolfpacker@comanpub.com • Web site: www.thewolfpacker.com Vaughn Towers on the west side, completed in 2005, included a new press room. PHOTO BY KEN MARTIN