Because Joe McIntosh deserves his own entry

Alums General NCS Football18

I was going to include a mention of this article in a “Bytes” entry, but I just can’t do that to someone so deserving of some of their own time in the sun.

I just ran a search for Joe McIntosh and I have rarely been more embarrassed than when I learned that McIntosh has only been mentioned once in the entire history of the blog.  (But, at least he got thrown into a fantastic historical entry that you should read.)

Joe McIntosh is one of my all-time favorite Wolfpackers who just happened to come along right after the greatest running back in Atlantic Coast Conference history – obviously, Ted Brown.  McIntosh wore #43 with pride, and for a young kid like me who was already enamored with a #43 from the basketball court – Hawkeye Whitney – you can imagine what quickly became my favorite number! 

When it was time for me to play basketball in junior high school – one year after Lorenzo Charles’ #43 had slammed home the 1983 National Basketball Championship – an older player on the team already was wearing #43.  So, I inverted the number and took #34 and never wore a different number in any organized game that followed through high school, intramurals and even church leagues.  So, now you know the origin of the infamous “JB34” and you can partly blame one of NC State’s best, Joe McIntosh.

McIntosh went on to be a standout running back for N.C. State, where he was the ACC Rookie of the Year with 1,190 yards rushing. He ended his career with 3,642 yards, which remains No. 2 on N.C. State’s list of career rushers behind Ted Brown.

He still maintains ties with the Wolfpack, going to the spring game with his son and a chance to meet with the players.

McIntosh was drafted by the Detroit Lions in 1985, but that experience never panned out. He played briefly for the Atlanta Falcons in 1987 during the strike year, but nothing much came of that, either. He appeared in two games, rushed for a total of 11 yards and caught three passes for 15 yards.

His most significant contribution, as it turned out, is in education. He is at Forsyth Technical Community College, where he is the director for the Student Success Center as well as director of Off-Campus Student services for the past five years. He’s been involved in the North Carolina Community College system for 23 years, including a 13-year stint at Davidson County Community College.

Alums General NCS Football

18 Responses to Because Joe McIntosh deserves his own entry

  1. Noah 05/22/2009 at 1:23 PM #

    Joe McIntosh and Joe Millinicek were the first two great NCSU football players that I remember.

    McIntosh had his career cut short by William Perry. The Fridge fell on Mc’s foot and broke one of the bones. That set him way back for his pro career.

    I remember him running for about 180 yards as a rookie against Wake Forest. I also remember him being featured along with Tim Espisito for Tom Reed’s first year. We were supposed to have a good offense that year, but it never really panned out.

    As a young man, Mc was also a dead ringer for Eddie Murphy.

  2. Noah 05/22/2009 at 1:38 PM #

    BTW, the QB for the Falcons during that strike year was Erik Kramer. In fact, Kramer’s first game was about as bad of a start as you could possibly want. His first pass fell out of his hand, his second was knocked down at the line of scrimmage and the third was picked off.

    After the strike, he went to Canada for a couple of years and came back with the Lions in 1991.

  3. Jeff 05/22/2009 at 2:14 PM #

    ^ Where he led the Lions to their first NFC Championship Game (in Washington) in some ridiculous amount of years. He then went on to also play for the Bears.

    Kramer easily ranks as one of my other all-time favorite NC State players. He is a “west coast guy” which keeps him away from Raleigh. I wish he was more visible/ingrained in our program; he’s just a likable and sharp guy.

  4. Texpack 05/22/2009 at 2:21 PM #

    Joe McIntosh played for the two worst Head FB Coaches at NCSU during my lifetime. I had the pleasure of watching him play under both Monte Kiffin and Tom Reed. We had enough residual OL talent from the Bo Rein era to have a pretty good running game in spite of Monte Kiffin. I have said multiple times that attending State football games without the help of intoxicants was unbearable under Kiffin and Reed. I’m glad to hear that Joe McIntosh utilized his time at State to put himself in position to earn his degree and have a real job in case the NFL didn’t work out.

  5. Noah 05/22/2009 at 3:20 PM #

    “Where he led the Lions to their first NFC Championship Game (in Washington) in some ridiculous amount of years.”

    Since like…1957, I think, when they won the NFL championship.

    Regarding Kiffen, other than being comically overmatched by the big names on our schedule, I remember very little about those years. I looked it up one time and it seems like we beat a grand total of two teams during his three years that had winning records.

    In 1981, we had a losing schedule, but we were in almost every game. But in his final year (82), we lost to Maryland by 17, UNC by 32 (my first trip to Kenan), Clemson (on probation) by nine, Penn State by 54, and Miami by 38.

    (Can you imagine having a non-conf. schedule now with South Carolina, Penn State and Miami??)

    The Tom Reed years were just comical.

  6. Trout 05/22/2009 at 3:40 PM #

    #43 would be one of the great numbers in NC State history – McIntosh, Whitney and Charles being 3 memorable ones to wear the number.

    The greatest number in NC State history is no doubt 44, just based on DT alone.

    As a shared number, #24 is pretty damn good though: Tommy Burleson, Terry Gannon, Tom Gugliotta, Julius Hodge and Andre Brown quickly come to mind.

    Jeff, I don’t think #34 has been worn by too many greats. Kenny Matthews might have been 34, or Tony Warren (they are both from the same era)

  7. Noah 05/22/2009 at 3:55 PM #

    Walker Lambiotte wore #34

  8. primacyone 05/22/2009 at 5:27 PM #

    #1. As it relates to the title of this thread: You damn skippy. Joe is one of my all time favorites. And mutiply that times 1000.

    #2. Jeff: Awesome job with the qualitative post versus the deep quantitative post.

    #3. Mobile SFN: Loving it. Thanks a ton for that upgrade.

    From the beach at Emerald Isle.

    Let’s go Pack!

  9. StateFans 05/22/2009 at 8:09 PM #

    Noah beat me to it — I can’t believe that Walker Lambiotte isn’t one of the all time greats! 🙂

    On the football field, didn’t we have a string of pretty good #34s at linebacker?

    Frank Bush?

    David Merritt?

  10. Noah 05/22/2009 at 9:38 PM #

    Lambiotte IS one of the all-time greats…provided we’re talking about great players from Woodstock, VA or great Northwestern basketball players.

    Valvano’s failure to utilize him was a total missed opportunity.

  11. choppack1 05/22/2009 at 10:34 PM #

    Was Anthony Barbor a #24 as well?

    Wasn’t Feggins #34? (I know Bias wore 34 for UMd, and Hershel Walker wore #34 as well.)

  12. Greywolf 05/22/2009 at 11:14 PM #

    Recruiting Coordinator Bruce Mayes, “Ted, will you show Joe the library?
    Ted, “Sho nuff, I’ll show him.”
    Mayes, “Ted, you do know where the library is, don’t you?”
    Ted, “Sho, I know where the library is. Course I never been in it.”

    I’m not making this up.

  13. Noah 05/23/2009 at 12:20 PM #

    AB was #24, yes. Didn’t Bo Jackson wear #34? Or was it #32?

    Blair Thomas wore #32 for Penn State. (I have NO idea why I know this)

  14. TomPack 05/23/2009 at 7:08 PM #

    The thing I remember most from the Kiffen era was being up at halftime against UNC 10-0 at CF…then he has the team attempt an onside kick to start the second half. UNC recovered and took over from there. As far as Tom Reed..here was his offensive game plan:
    run left
    run right
    run up the middle
    punt.
    Gawd they were brutal to watch under him.

  15. Noah 05/23/2009 at 8:30 PM #

    To be fair to Kiffen, Carolina had been pulling a guy all season on the kickoffs. He ALWAYS turned his back and dropped back, so the hole SHOULD have been there.

    Except he didn’t do it that time.

  16. StateFans 05/25/2009 at 9:17 AM #

    Bo ws #34.

    There have been a ton of great #34’s outside of NC State.

    Herschal Walker, Earl Campbell, Walter Payton, Charles Barkley, Hakeem Olajuwon, Nolan Ryan

  17. Greywolf 05/25/2009 at 12:43 PM #

    “To be fair to Kiffen, Carolina had been pulling a guy all season on the kickoffs. He ALWAYS turned his back and dropped back, so the hole SHOULD have been there.

    Except he didn’t do it that time.”

    I remember that on-side attempt. Had it worked, and it well could have, the Monte Kiffin story might have had entirely different ending.

    Noah, do you remember Monte showing up on a white horse? I don’t recall what the occasion was — first practice, presser or what but it had a certain flair to it. I actually liked the boldness of the onside kick at a most unexpected time. I also highly suspect that UNX would have won without that recovery. We were an underdog as it were, weren’t we?

    Kiffin turned out to be a far better coach than was thought at that time. Hiring Kiffin was the kind of gamble IMO that was needed under our athletic budget to get an exceptional coach.

    The more things change the more they stay the same.

  18. CTPack 05/26/2009 at 9:31 AM #

    If you are playing basketball for NC State, you have to want #24. It has been honored 4 times. John Ritcher, Tommy Burleson, Tom Gugliotta, and Julius Hodge.

    Joe Mac was really one of the all time greats. He had insane quickness & moves. I played against him his senior year (my soph) and if you were 1 on 1, you were lucky to touch him. When we watched our film, we had a solid (all conf) DB miss him 3 TIMES on the SAME kickoff return (42 yards.)

    He was also his teams kicker back in Lexington making several from more than 40 yards. He would literally scored every point in the games – in our case he beat us 17-15 with a last second FG in the State playoffs.

    I remember talking to him when we were hanging around waiting to board the bus. Very soft spoken, complimentary, and humble, and as Noah says, dude looked just like Eddie Murphy.

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