The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/846301
176 ■ THE WOLFPACKER A ll I needed was a quick 15 min- utes to talk about NC State's 1967 football team. That's not enough to say "Hello" to Chuck Amato, much less hear the full story of the legendary "White Shoes Defense." So not long ago in a Raleigh coffee shop over the span of about four hours, we shared a Jim Valvano day: we laughed, we thought, we cried. Amato still has a house on the northwest side of the Raleigh's Beltline, and he was on a summer break from his job as the defen- sive coordinator and associate head coach for the Akron Zips to spend time with family. It's hard to believe that it's been more than 10 years since he was let go as head coach by his alma ma- ter, the place where he had played, coached, and received both under- graduate and master's degrees in mathematics. It still stings. "I never saw it coming," he said. He bears no ill will, though, thanks to sage advice he received from NFL coach Bill Parcells while attend- ing a practice in Miami shortly after his dismissal. "Chuck, just don't get mad," Parcells told him. "Everybody in the country who knows football, and who knows you, knows what you did at NC State. "Don't hold grudges." In his first four years as the Pack's head coach, Amato was on top of the world. He used his recruiting links to bring top- notch talent from Florida. He went to four straight bowl games. His teams beat North Carolina three times out of four. Sure, a couple of Alabama kids — Philip Rivers and Jerricho Cotchery — had a lot to do with that success. But Amato, at all times, was the catalyst for change, primar- ily in action and attitude. So much has changed since then. The $160 million expansion and renovation of Carter-Finley Stadium that began shortly after Amato was hired in 2000 was com- pleted with the opening of the Close-King Indoor Practice Facility in September 2015. Amato's replacement head coach has been replaced. Two of his most famous quarterback recruits, Rivers and Russell Wilson, will have 20 years of NFL ex- perience between them at the end of the upcoming season. He fought throat cancer and has reached the five-year survivor mark. He now works for the son of his mentor and second father, Bobby Bowden. At the age of 71, he is still watching film, making practice plans and going out on the road recruiting. And there's a reason people like me — an incurable story listener — can't quit him. It's one of the reasons former head of ACC officials and longtime member of the Durham Sports Club Tommy Hunt invited the coach to speak at a lunch meeting in June. Here is why Amato has always been good copy: You never know what you will talk about when you sit down with him. But you know it will be fun. • How his high school coach, a member of Duke's 1938 Rose Bowl team, tried to get him to be a Blue Devil. The topic was discussed at length. • How a blown ACL knee injury kept him from playing football profes- sionally and finishing high in the NCAA wrestling championship. It was agonizingly recalled. • The protracted 45-day hiring process at NC State, when he was an associate head coach under Bowden for Florida State's 1999 na- tional title team. It was fun to relive. • How a return for Bowden's fi- nal three years with the Seminoles after Amato left the Wolfpack ru- ined a potential broadcasting career. What a loss for television ratings. Name a subject and Amato can soliloquize about it. It's a glori- ous thing to witness, just like his 35-minute opening statements at his weekly press conferences used to be. In many ways, he's the same mercurial Italian kid from Western Pennsylvania who showed up on the runway of the Philadelphia air- port to meet his big brother Rosie, a member of NC State's 1963 ACC championship team that played in the Liberty Bowl. The elder Amato was going to introduce his younger brother to Wolfpack head coach Earle Edwards. Chuck, a state champion wrestler, had dropped so much weight, however, several teams that were recruiting him — Duke, Syracuse and Penn State — were put off by his lack of size. He wasn't introduced to Edwards until much later. He's the same kid who talked his team- mates into painting their football cleats white the night before the season-opening North Carolina game in 1967 and got into the face of a teammate who asked, "Won't we kind of look ridiculous if we lose?" "You think we're going to lose a game this year?" Amato breathed with rage. "Then you aren't dressing with the rest of us." Amato still wakes up every morning at 4:15 for his daily workout. He lives alone in Akron, while his wife stays back in Ra- leigh to be a full-time grandmother. As we departed in the parking lot, with one last raspy comment, Amato made sure to reiterate that his heart was, and always will be, bright red. ■ ■ PACK PERSPECTIVE Chuck Amato Is Still 'Good Copy' 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 Amato was a linebacker on NC State's 9‑2 team in 1967 and then coached the Wolfpack from 2000‑06. PHOTO BY KEN MARTIN