The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/98466
■ pack past Twenty Nine Years & Counting! Hardee's Furniture has a reputation based on integrity and excellent customer service which is what we believe has kept us successful in the home furnishings business for 29 years. At our 40,000 square foot facility we guarantee you'll find the lowest prices and largest selection of namebrand furniture. Vanise Hardee HARDEE'S smallest underdog this side of Rudy. His 33-12-3 record in four seasons gave him a .719 winning percentage, the best of any NC State coach since World War I. He excited the Wolfpack fan base more than any other coach before or since, other than the Philip Rivers era under Chuck Amato, a one-time Holtz protégé. "If Earle Edwards brought respectability and respect to State football, Lou Holtz took the sport a step further," News & Observer columnist Joe Tiede wrote when Holtz left. "He popularized it to a point never approached before." Holtz, now enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame and a bona fide coaching legend, admits that he had a good thing going in Raleigh and he never should have left. FURNITURE "a WAREHOUSE of SAVINGS" 252-977-2325 Hwy. 301 between Wilson & Rocky Mount at Sharpsburg Mon., Tues., Thurs. & Fri. 8:30am-7pm; Wed. & Sat. 8:30am-5pm; Closed Sunday www.hardeesfurniture.com Men's & Women's Clothing Social Occasion | Accessories www.kannonsclothing.com Joe Ann Wright Boo Jefferson Mary-Kat Phillips '76 George Knuckley '81 Dick Wright '76 Holtz, a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, left NC State for the New York Jets in 1976. He would go on to coach at Arkansas, Minnesota, Notre Dame (where he won a national championship in 1988) and South Carolina. photo courtesy notre dame media relations But he did it any way. "I never really wanted to leave NC State," Holtz said. "Does it bother me to this day? Yes. "The lesson is, don't go do anything unless you are totally committed to seeing it through. When I went to the [NFL's New York] Jets, I had no plan, no sense of urgency, no commitment to seeing it through." Holtz left Raleigh because he was miffed. He didn't really believe that pennypinching athletics director Willis Casey — who had no choice in one of the ACC's most underfunded programs at the time — fully supported Holtz's efforts to build a top-notch football program. There was the incident on the Derr Track practice fields, when Holtz had an NC State professor — who liked to jog around the track during his lunch break — arrested while running during a closed Wolfpack practice. The coach, who always controlled 72 ■ the wolfpacker 70,72-73.Pack Past.indd 72 12/11/12 2:30 PM