Oh, say, can you see a class act all the way?

06-07 Basketball General Media Sidney Lowe38

Add dignity, patriotism and class to heart and mental toughness and all the other accolades for Coach Sidney Lowe and his Wolfpack. Local sports humorist, icky tarheel but otherwise all-’round great guy BobLee Swagger makes an observation in his post-ACC Tournament column that will make you proud:

Yesterday at 1:00 PM EDT, everyone in the St Pete Times Forum stood up to ask “Jose” if he could see. The Raycom camera panned the team benches …. Uh oh … well, uh oh for Carolina because The Wolfpack clearly won the National Anthem.

El Sid, Monte, assorted assistants, managers, trainers and players were all standing in a straight line looking up at the flag with their right hands over their hearts. NASCAR pit crews do not do it any better. It looked terrific and obviously is not by accident or optional for anyone on the NC State bench. Whether it’s simply a team solidarity/disciple thing or patriotic … it merits a BobLee AttaBoy. …. Then the camera panned the Carolina bench … uh oh.

No one was purposefully disrespectful but there were about 20 different poses, looking arounds, shufflin’, checkin’ out cheerleaders, smilin’, frownin’, Now I saw no John Carlos black glove protests, nose-pickin, or genital scratchin nor any overt disrespect to the flag, country, et al. I’m sure a faction of UNC’s infamous atheistic anarchists Islamo-faculty squirrels would prefer a much more overt embarrassment to the University. Anyway …. NC State clearly won the National Anthem.

A VERY reliable source tells me that even UNC system president Erskine Bowles was impressed.

(Note: I tried to find a photo of Lowe & co. during the National Anthem, but this was the best I could find. If anyone has one, add it to the comments and I’ll do the rest. Thanks to Gene Galin and ACCbasketballphotos.com for this shot.)

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06-07 Basketball General Media Sidney Lowe

38 Responses to Oh, say, can you see a class act all the way?

  1. BJD95 03/14/2007 at 2:32 PM #

    I’m pretty sure it’s a shot at us lefties, noah – but not one that I fully comprehend, either.

  2. beowolf 03/14/2007 at 2:36 PM #

    BJD, I know you though not noah, but you are in no way a “lefty” like those BobLee calls the “faculty squirrels.”

  3. Rick 03/14/2007 at 2:41 PM #

    I agree with noah about people messing up the anthem.
    It is irritating especially when they turn it into a twenty minute American Idol audition.

    Of course if the entire crowd were to sing it the singer woudl be forced to sing it the right way.

    I love to hear an entire arena sing the Canada anthem too.

  4. TNCSU 03/14/2007 at 2:47 PM #

    I don’t remember the “Home of the Wolfpack” ending during the 80’s, but there’s alot about my college years that I don’t remember….regardless, I don’t really like it.

  5. legacyman 03/14/2007 at 3:03 PM #

    The National Anthem used to be sung by the home crwod in Reynolds and often at football games. I see no reason why we can’t all sing it together in the RBC if we want to.

  6. tractor57 03/14/2007 at 3:44 PM #

    In my day we were treated to Mrs. Norman Sloan singing the anthem at every home game.

  7. Brikyrd83 03/14/2007 at 3:46 PM #

    tractor, you beat me to the punch!!! I remember it well…

  8. tractor57 03/14/2007 at 4:12 PM #

    And everyone stood at attention and some sang (no modifying the lyrics either)

  9. CaptainCraptacular 03/14/2007 at 7:46 PM #

    Great article BLS!!! Hilarious stuff…

    *It was inexcusable and justified only by the fact that screwin’ NC State is like the unofficial favorite sport of pretty much everybody on Earth not part of WolfPackNation. INCOMING!!! …. alert the neighbors. First round of F-bombers should show up by 4:30. But, Hell, it’s true*

  10. stejen 03/14/2007 at 9:39 PM #

    I have to admit that I am bothered by one thing. What would have happened if the camera’s had seen the State team dong what UNC was doing? You can bet just about every major newspaper in North Carolina would have been all over it and questioning Lowe’s ability to even make his team stand up and look at a flag during the anthem. Roy Williams has the luxery that Lowe will never have and that is that he knows the press will not be all over him for ethical violations everytime a player is seen not respecting the flag, the officials, or whatever. To an extent I am amused the press holds State to higher moral standards then UNC but it isn’t right. What do you think would happen if one of Lowe’s assistant’s was arrested for drunk driving (driving a Univeristy owned car, no less) with a blood alcohol level over %0.20? Do you think they would have praised the man for admitting he had a problem and checking into rehab as Phil Ford was able to do? And then raise Cain when the coach that was hired later refused to hire him as an assistent? Amen to Matt Daugherty for saying “no” to Phil Ford. Shoot, even Williams has stated now that he would have brought in his own assisants and not held on to Smith’s baby’s.

  11. Packaholic1 03/15/2007 at 8:03 AM #

    When Norm Sloan went down to Charleston to coach the Citadel, he had a meeting with Gen. Mark Clark, commandant and hero of World War II. Sloan explained that his wife would sing the national anthem prior to each home game, and Clark said, no way, that anthem cannot be sung by anyone. Sloan was about to blow a gasket and resign (before the first practice!) when Clark reconsidered, gave Mrs S a trial, liked it and all was well.

  12. genefoto 03/19/2007 at 3:20 PM #

    accbasketballphotos.com is temporarily down. should be back up in the next 24 to 48 hours.

  13. genefoto 03/29/2007 at 11:39 AM #

    We landed up having to move the accbasketballphotos.com site to a new hosting company. The main page is up and we have started the reloading process of image files.

    The image of Mr. Wolf standing with his hand over his heart should be back up shortly

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