Gary Hahn To Have Story In Next “Chicken Soup For The Soul”

General Media NCS Basketball40

A future edition of the popular series of books “Chicken Soup for the Soul” will feature the play-by-play man of the Wolfpack, Gary Hahn.  The Chicken Soup series, originated by Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield features inspirational stories ostensibly for the reader to use for discovery and experience.

WRAL

“Hahn thought of former N.C. State Coach Les Robinson, whose role in the early 1990s was to make the players more students than athletes. As a result, the team’s record tumbled.

“Les is sort of a hero of mine in a way, because he really sacrificed his college basketball coaching career for the good of N.C. State,” Hahn said.”

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40 Responses to Gary Hahn To Have Story In Next “Chicken Soup For The Soul”

  1. GAWolf 04/04/2009 at 7:01 AM #

    I don’t know what to think about this. I really, really don’t. Part of me thinks: “you know what? he’s right. thank you, Les.”

    And then part of me thinks: “Isn’t this attitude exactly what’s wrong with NC State athletics in general? Why can’t we have both… that’s what we’re supposed to have.”

    I’m honestly befuddled by this.

  2. 61Packer 04/04/2009 at 7:38 AM #

    These CSFTS books tend to be inspirational. I guess that inspiration is something that’s in pretty short supply for State fans right now. Hahn should know.

  3. howlie 04/04/2009 at 7:40 AM #

    The presupposition for all ‘student-athletes’ is ‘student.’ That part has to be in place, otherwise they can’t be the 2nd part: ‘athletes.’ Les IS a good man an a great State ‘compatriot,’ but he did nothing to help us by wanting us NOT to be like ECU and UNCCH.

    If the BOD wants to continue to be in league with the UNC Board of Directors and to have a double standard for NC State where we are supposed to have ‘students,’ while other institutions have (in Carolina & ECU’s situation) ‘athletes–without the ‘student’ presupposition, or) ‘student-athletes’ (as in the case of other schools), just declare it… instead of secretly admiring this emmasculated version of student-aths our administration [sic] “supports.”

  4. Wolf Dog 04/04/2009 at 8:28 AM #

    Best Post so far. I agree with Gary Hahn. Few if any people have showed more love and put NCSU first than Les Robinson. I agree Les is one of my personal hero’s also. He was a Great AD!

    I consider those that bad mouth Les have little understanding of what he did for NCSU and to be just totally ignorant people.

    Thank you Les Robinson!!!!!

  5. harrisek 04/04/2009 at 8:33 AM #

    Losers are losers. Les Robinson was and is a good man but was a bad ACC basketball coach, he sacrificed nothing. Gary Hahn should take off his rose-colored glasses and see the Robinson Era for what it was, a death march for Wolfpack basketball.

  6. Wolf Dog 04/04/2009 at 8:36 AM #

    Without Les I truely believe those above him would have let us become Duke Football and miami basketball.

    There would be no renovated Carter Finley, TOB, and no RBC center. We could not have even attracked an Herb to come here. Les saved us and it all started with a man willing to come here and coach in an unwinnable environment.

  7. redfred2 04/04/2009 at 8:45 AM #

    X

  8. blpack 04/04/2009 at 8:47 AM #

    Les took one for the team, but it didn’t have to be as bad or as drawn out as it’s been. Our own self imposed penalties and wanting to appear as an Ivy League school by those in charge started us on the path to turning our backs on those hoops achievements in days past. We can be great in academics and athletics, but we haven’t figured that out yet. I hope we get there one day soon.

  9. SMD 04/04/2009 at 8:49 AM #

    Is it just me or does Gary Hahn remind anyone else of Ned Flanders? 🙂

  10. redfred2 04/04/2009 at 9:16 AM #

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  11. Alpha Wolf 04/04/2009 at 9:27 AM #

    No, it’s not only you. I have seen the same thing. Through the magic of Simpsonize Me here is Gary Hahn as a Simpson character:

  12. tractor57 04/04/2009 at 9:29 AM #

    In my opinion there wouldn’t even be ANY BB program minus the efforts of Les. Like Redfred mentioned Les competed under some very extreme limitations imposed by the university. I agree he never showed the signs of being a D1 level head coach but he wasn’t hired to win BB games.
    And thus the struggle since the Valvano era.

  13. Alpha Wolf 04/04/2009 at 9:33 AM #

    “I agree he never showed the signs of being a D1 level head coach”

    Except that he took Valvano’s players to the NCAA in his first season. After that, they left and the recruiting restrictions left, leaving Les to coach a team bereft of talent.

    But he still did put Todd Fuller into the NBA.

    Truth is that Les was not as bad a coach as his record, which I think would have been better it he had been able to recruit like the rest of the basketball world.

  14. redfred2 04/04/2009 at 9:40 AM #

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  15. redfred2 04/04/2009 at 9:52 AM #

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  16. Pack1998 04/04/2009 at 10:03 AM #

    People need to understand Les never had ACC talent but still almost broke even with UNC for his career. No, his overall record was not great. I still think if he picked up a few of the talented players he almost had things may have been different.

    Someone who as the details about Les’s restrictions on recruits should post them. Apparently he had higher restrictions than anyone in the ACC.

    Overall, Les is a really good guy.

  17. old13 04/04/2009 at 10:07 AM #

    Yes, the mediocrity parade has been led by noone other than the NCSU administration for the last 25+ years. (And who made V HC and AD!) Given all that invoked, I think that Les did what he was supposed to do and was the best person for the job AT THAT TIME in that he could meet the administration’s ridiculous demands while keeping a basketball program in place as much as possible. The progression from Les to hiring you-know-who was also good in that the administration’s trust in athletics could continue to be built with primarily recruiting improvements in the BB program afforded by a coaching change. Of course, from that point on it has gotten very messy and lost the logical progression for getting the program to the next level by not making an arguably timely change in coaches and invoking the Wolfpacker debate that has rumbled on and on for 8-10 years now. But as far as Les is concerned, I tip my hat to him for his loyalty to NCSU and for trying to right the ship against very heavy seas.

  18. BJD95 04/04/2009 at 10:14 AM #

    I don’t think it’s very hard at all to lose and lose big “the right way.” You might be able to say that nobody would have been able to do much better, but I find it hard to believe that anybody could have done much worse. We lost to the dead-last team in the RPI at home. And Campbell twice.

    Only at NC State does that kind of track record get you promoted.

    Frankly, I stringly suspected that the Les era wasn’t going to end well when we got bounced in the 2nd round of the NCAAT, with Fire and Ice as seniors, and Gugs as a junior. That’s hardly a performance to be proud of.

  19. old13 04/04/2009 at 10:20 AM #

    Be that as it may, who else would have stepped into the breach under the circumstances of that time to do anything with the program? The administration certainly would not have tolerated a good coach who operated merely within the rules of the NCAA basketball world. Rather, they creaated their own set of added rules that even an Ivy League school would have had trouble with in trying to field a competitive team within that league. That’s what I give Les credit for.

  20. Greywolf 04/04/2009 at 10:24 AM #

    I wonder if I’m qualified to speak to any subject related to student-athlete. Why? Because depending on who you ask, I was neither student nor athlete. Being unqualified doesn’t seem to be a stop on the ‘Net, however.
    `
    Les Robinson took one for the team. The Gary Hahn story is Chicken Soup for the Soul. I suggest that this is the kind of story we need to heal the wounds and suffering that is now NCSU basketball. Question for those who desparately try to keep the wounds open. What’s your point?
    `
    Lee Fowler is wrong. The internet is not the lunatic fringe, it just has more than its share of the dregs of humanity who must piss other people. Maybe tearing people down is just the redneck way of building yourself up. Yeah, Les, you sorry sonofabitch you didn’t win so you suck. 😉 Have a nice day!
    `
    SFN admin and contributors mostly, along with more than a few of it’s posters, is the damnedest, most outstanding collection of internet posters imaginable. There is even at times honorable give and take even in the most widely and heatedly disagreed subjects. BJD, Alpha, Noah, Choppack, and others, thank you for the space to disagree and/or offer unpopular points of view. This is an extraordinary attribute co-mingled at times amazingly enough with censure for disagreement. What a country. 😉
    `

  21. Greywolf 04/04/2009 at 10:40 AM #

    “Frankly, I stringly suspected that the Les era wasn’t going to end well when we got bounced in the 2nd round of the NCAAT, with Fire and Ice as seniors, and Gugs as a junior. That’s hardly a performance to be proud of.”
    `
    BJD, No offense intended here, but would you like to see a list of Hall of Fame coaches who were bounced in the 1st or 2nd round of or who never made the NCAAT? One loss can hardly be an accurate portend of things to come, can it?

  22. redfred2 04/04/2009 at 10:42 AM #

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  23. RagingWolf 04/04/2009 at 11:00 AM #

    FYI, Fox sports is reporting that Arizona is going after Sean Miller:

    http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/9416148/Sources:-Arizona-turns-its-attention-to-Xavier's-Miller?MSNHPHMA

    A quote from the article: “Miller, who finished his fifth season at Xavier, is still debating whether Arizona is the right fit for him.” Could this be translated to “Miller is waiting to see if NCSU is going to hire him”?

  24. Greywolf 04/04/2009 at 11:12 AM #

    BJD,
    for starters HF coaches not making it past 2nd round of NCAAT or worse
    `
    Roy Williams, 04 and 06 (following NC in 05) UNX, 5 more times at Kansas
    `
    Mike Krzyzewski, 07,08, & 9 other times at Duke
    `
    Isn’t indicting Les freakin Robinson for getting bounced his first year as HC in the 2nd round a little bit much considering 2 Hall of Fame coaches managed this same feat a total of 16 times at God almighty Duke and UNX?

  25. Greywolf 04/04/2009 at 11:16 AM #

    A quote from the article: “Miller, who finished his fifth season at Xavier, is still debating whether Arizona is the right fit for him.” Could this be translated to “Miller is waiting to see if NCSU is going to hire him”?
    `
    Absolutely it does. Isn’t that what took Calipari so long to decide about Kentucky?

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