NC State Establishes Athletics Hall Of Fame

NC State NCSU Sports History Rankings & Lists Tradition39

NC State has announced we are going to start an Athletics Hall of Fame. The first group of inductees will be selected this summer and inducted on Oct 5 before the Florida St football game.

Here is the article from gopack.com that includes the bios for the selection committee: link

There is also a list of criteria: link

The following criteria should be considered as a guide in electing outstanding student-athletes (not listed in order of importance):

1. Olympic medal winner or member of Olympic medal winning team
2. Individual or team national champion
3. Individual or team conference champion
4. World record holder
5. National record holder
6. Conference record holder
7. NC State record holder
8. National team selection
9. First Team All-America selection
10. First Team All-Conference selection
11. National or state hall of fame member
12. National player or coach of the year honor
13. Conference player of the year honor
14. Letter winner in multiple sports
15. Academic All-America and Academic All-ACC honors
16. Distinguished post-University career in athletics, business or public service.

There are also Special Inductees

Special Inductees may include coaches and athletic staff members, distinguished alumni, friends of NC State Athletics, and other individuals who are not necessarily eligible as a Student-Athlete Inductee. Eligibility as a Student-Athlete Inductee shall not disqualify an individual for consideration as a Special Inductee. A maximum of one (1) nominee from this category may be elected in any year; except that, up to three (3) Special Inductees may be elected to the first three induction classes. There is no expectation to choose a Special Inductee every year.

Here is more info for the number of inductees each year

A maximum of six (6) individuals shall be elected in a given year; except that, up to ten (10) members may be elected to each of the first three induction classes. The election of a team or unit (e.g. tennis doubles team, swimming relay team) shall count as one (1) against the maximum number of annual inductees. Consideration will be given to the number of male and female inductees and the number of inductees by sport in each, annual induction class.

Inductees shall be invited to the annual North Carolina State University Athletic Hall of Fame Induction event the night prior to an NC State football game each fall. Attendance is required for induction, with the obvious exception of posthumous inductees.

I’m not entirely clear if the 10 inductees cap includes the special inductees or not. Caulton Tudor’s selections in the N&O only had 10 selections so let’s assume that’s the case.

Here’s my own personal list of 10 in no particular order (assuming that with his NFL obligations Philip Rivers can meet the attendance requirement). I also have to admit that I don’t have a lot of historic knowledge of athletes in the Olympic sports but tried not to let football and mens basketball make up the entire list.

1. David Thompson
2. Philip Rivers
3. Roman Gabriel
4. Cullen Jones
5. Julie Shea
6. Andrea Stinson
7. Mike Caldwell
8. Jim Valvano (special inductee)
9. Kay Yow (special inductee)
10. Everett Case (special inductee)

SFN will be running a series of features on potential inductees into the Hall of Fame in the coming weeks and months. In the meantime, we would love to hear from you on who would make up your first class of Hall of Famers? Share your lists in the comments.

About WV Wolf

Graduated from NCSU in 1996 with a degree in statistics. Born and inbred in West "By God" Virginia and now live in Raleigh where I spend my time watching the Wolfpack, the Mountaineers and the Carolina Hurricanes as well as making bar graphs for SFN. I'm @wvncsu on the Twitter machine.

NC State NCSU Sports History Rankings & Lists Tradition

39 Responses to NC State Establishes Athletics Hall Of Fame

  1. Wolfgirl87 05/30/2012 at 11:08 PM #

    Bill Cowher certainly needs to be on list.

  2. TopTenPack 05/31/2012 at 9:15 AM #

    I would love to have it added to the list of rules that prior student-athletes must hold a NC State degree to be considered. I am not saying that they stayed all four years, but at least finished their degree at some point. Perhaps not just from NC State, just finished their degree.

  3. [email protected] 05/31/2012 at 9:27 AM #

    This is the first time I have written. I have been a reader for a long time. While I agree for the most part of your list, I am a lot older than most of you and remember some names that should be on the list ahead of a lot of the ones you have. Along with Everett Case you should included on the original class, the names of those that helped him build State into a basketball power. Those are as follows: Ron Shalik, Norm Sloan, John Richter and Lou Pucillo I’am Sure there are others that should not be forgotten just because they were not there in more resent time.

  4. Tau837 05/31/2012 at 9:47 AM #

    IMO the first class should be for the absolute best of the best. And the first few classes should also probably be mostly focused on high profile athletes/contributors, which likely means mostly high profile sports, i.e., football and basketball.

    My first class:

    David Thompson – Stands head and shoulder above all other N.C. State basketball players, and thus should be the only basketball player in the first class.

    Ted Brown – Still the ACC rushing leader, 34 years after he completed his career. Only player in ACC history to earn All-ACC honors all four years of his career. By naming him, I am suggesting he is the best/most accomplished N.C. State player of all time, in part because I weigh accomplishments at State higher than accomplishments somewhere else (e.g., Olympics, NFL, NBA, etc.).

    Everett Case – Father of the ACC. Arguably unparalleled influence in ACC history.

    Kay Yow – Incredible 34 years of service with the Wolfpack. Top 15 in all time wins in women’s basketball, Olympic gold medal and 4 ACC championships. Influential in women’s sports, particularly in the state of North Carolina.

    That’s it for me. IMO that group deserves to stand alone as the inaugural class.

    My second class would be larger, and it would include, in no particular order:

    Jim Valvano
    Norm Sloan
    Ronnie Shavlik
    Tom Burleson
    Roman Gabriel
    Philip Rivers
    Dick Christy
    Jim Ritcher
    Tab Ramos
    Julie Shea-Graw

    My third class would include, in no particular order:

    Willis Casey
    Sam Esposito
    Earle Edwards
    Dennis Byrd
    Torry Holt
    Chris Corchiani
    Rodney Monroe
    Andrea Stinson
    Steve Rerych
    C.A. Dillon

    My fourth class would include, in no particular order:

    Dereck Whittenburg
    Sidney Lowe
    Thurl Bailey
    Mike Caldwell
    Turtle Zaun – Tough call for me on the order of baseball players, but he was 3 time 1st team All ACC and ACC POY.
    Elizabeth Ann Emery

    That is my top 30. 8 men’s basketball players, 7 football players, 2 baseball players, 2 swimmers, 1 soccer player, 1 women’s basketball player, 1 runner, 7 coaches/administrators, 1 special contributor.

    It’s possible I missed one or two more deserving candidates, especially from the Olympic sports, and it is also light on females (only four, one in each class). That said, I think this is a great list and order of induction.

    I like Fire and Ice going in together, and I think they are more accomplished individually than the guys on the 83 championship team, so I have them in the class before Whittenburg, Lowe, and Bailey.

  5. wolfbuff 05/31/2012 at 12:17 PM #

    These are all great, worthy suggestions. Will be interesting to see how it unfolds. One name that I haven’t seen mention (and I’m sure it’s not the only one) is Kenny Carr. He kind of got lost DT’s long shadow. But he was AA, Olympic gold medalist, etc.

  6. JSRy2k 05/31/2012 at 12:35 PM #

    Don’t forget our beloved bass fishermen!

  7. sequoyah 05/31/2012 at 3:34 PM #

    in the second or third class induct Stoddard & Towe together as two-sport ACC champions… Stoddard is the only man ever to play on both an NCAA basketball and a MLB World Series championship team.

  8. Wolfgirl87 06/01/2012 at 12:45 AM #

    Bill Cowher?

  9. acc 10k 06/03/2012 at 4:17 PM #

    On the “Joan Benoit has to be in if Cullen Jones is in”
    First, Benoit only spent one year at State (six years before the Olympics) before going back to Maine, and pretty much no one not associated with NC State ever mentions her association with NC State. All the swim gold medalists are to my knowledge NCSU graduates, and won NCAA titles while at State.
    Second, living inductees have to be present to for the induction. I’m not sure Joan Samuelson would come without an appearance fee. This isn’t intended as a criticism of her, just haven’t seen anything in nearly three decades of running to indicate that she feels a connection to NC State.
    Correction – Rerych did not win an NCAA championship (just two Olympic relay golds.)

  10. acc 10k 06/03/2012 at 11:27 PM #

    Some comments regarding the rules, and practical issues about the initial classes:
    – The rules don’t specifically limit how many will come from a single sport, but they do say “Consideration will be given to the number of male and female inductees and the number of inductees by sport in each, annual induction class.” We can probably assume that means there is no way more than three from the same sport will go in a 10-person class, and it is very unlikely that more two will be chosen. It’s also very unlikely the inaugural classes will have less than two female athletes. A lot of proposals seen here violate those principles.
    – This is intended to be a very high-profile ANNUAL event. That argues against an inaugural class of just really well-known coaches and football and men’s basketball players at the expense of more successful athletes in less attention-grabbing sports. (1. It’s the first year – everyone is excited; 2. David Thompson! You don’t need anyone else to get people excited.) It argues against taking 15 football and basketball players and seven well-known coaches in the first three years. I will prove in a subsequent post that anyone suggesting this is horrendously uninformed about all the successful athletes in NC State history in other sports. But aside from that, the committee is not going to use up all the best-known people in the first three years and then have ceremonies 5-8 years from now made up entirely of incredibly successful athletes that no one outside their own teammates remembers.
    In other words, the first class is not going to be nine football/basketball people and Julie Shea.
    – Living honorees must attend the induction. There is no way an active NFL player is going to be there on a Friday night during football season. Take Philip Rivers and Mario Williams off your lists. There are still five football players for (I would argue) two spots in the first class. PR and Super-Mario can be the marquee name for the awards ceremony the first year after they retire.

  11. acc 10k 06/04/2012 at 12:33 AM #

    The last comment was about what probably will happen, based on both the explicit rules and what will probably develop from the goals of the Hall of Fame committee. The next two are about what should happen, based on a lot of thought over several years and some specific research over the past week. Tomorrow I’ll get into general stuff about who belongs in the top ten, who deserves to be in the discussion, and the large number of people mentioned in this thread who have no business whatsoever being part of the equation for JUST TEN PEOPLE FROM OVER 100 YEARS OF NC STATE ATHLETICS. But this comment is about just one person who has not been mentioned at all, but who absolutely deserves to be in the first class and would deserve it even if the first class was only five members.
    As a runner, it is encouraging to me to see that virtually everyone, including multiple newspaper columnists and a lot of message board commenters, has Julie Shea in their initial class. This is an absolute no-brainer, but I didn’t expect a runner from 30 years ago to get that much love. This is what I would say about her record:
    – Julie Shea is one of the three best athletes in NC State history.
    – She is very possibly not the best women’s distance runner in NC State history.
    For those who don’t know, Shea ran for State from 1977-1981, which were the last four years that women’s sports were conducted by the AIAW instead of the NCAA. She won the 1979 and 1980 AIAW cross country meets, in which State also won the only two women’s team national titles in Wolfpack history. In 1979 and 1980 she won the 5000 meters at the outdoor track championships, and in one of the most amazing national championship performance in distance running history in 1981 she won the 3000, 5000, and 10,000. She won the 1980 and 1981 McKelvin Awards as the ACC Athlete of the Year, the only woman to win it before a separate women’s award was created in 1990, and the only NC State woman ever to win.
    But when Shea was a junior, Betty Springs arrived at NC State as a freshman, and finished fifth and second in the nation for those two championship teams. Springs then won the first ever women’s NCAA championship period – by anyone in any sport – at the 1981 NCAA cross country meet. She repeated that title in 1983. In the nearly three decades since only two other American women have done that. In case you think her competition wasn’t as tough as Shea’s – first of all, Springs WAS the competition for Shea; and second, in 1982, when Springs was out with an injury, the title was won by a Virginia runner who always finished behind Springs when she was on the course, and who went on to run in the Olympics. The times that Springs (and Shea) ran on the track were fast enough that they would be national title contenders today.
    Springs also won NCAA titles in both the 5000 and 10,000 meters in track in 1983. She was unbeaten in college competition for the entire year of 1983 in track and cross country. Five days after the NCAA cross country meet she won the US championship, a double no one has achieved since. She did not win more track titles because she essentially “turned pro” after those 1983 cross country races, choosing to run the first Olympic Trials marathon instead of her final track season. (She would have been a lock to make the Olympic team at 5000 or 10,000 meters, but in 1984 the longest race for women in track was the 3000, and she made the decision that the marathon was her best chance.) She traded the lead with Joan Benoit in the first 13 miles of that race – her first serious marathon – before eventually fading due to the overly ambitious pace. It wasn’t her only ground-breaking Olympic Trials race – as a 19-year old freshman she was fifth in the first ever women’s 5000 meters. And in 1988, even after battling two years of injuries, she was sixth in the first-ever women’s 10,000 meter Olympic Trials.
    Springs made five US teams for the world cross country championships, finishing in the top ten three times, with the two best (6th in 1981 and 5th in 1983) coming while she ran for NC State. She was ranked number one in the US and number three in the world in the 5000 meters in 1983, again while still in a Wolfpack uniform.
    Springs missed the entire year of competition in 1982 because immediately after winning the 1981 NCAA cross country meet it was discovered that she was running with a broken bone in her foot that required a major surgery. This probably explains the biggest holes in her resume compared to Shea. First, she only had three track seasons, because she ran the Olympic Trials marathon during what would have been her redshirt-senior year, probably costing her two NCAA titles. Second, the time she lost to injury spread over two school years (spring and fall 1982). Thus she never had NCAA track and cross country wins in the same school year, and did not get the same consideration for the ACC Athlete of the Year that Shea had received. Realistically, it was probably true that after breaking ground by giving the award to both a woman and a “minor” sport athlete, the media was not going to pick another NC State women’s distance runner no matter what she did. They picked James Worthy, Ralph Sampson, and Michael Jordan the next three years, and based on just on what they had already done in college, only Sampson was really a no-brainer.
    Comparing the full careers of Shea and Springs:
    – Both won two national titles (AIAW or NCAA) in cross country. Shea won five in track, one each as a sophomore and junior to go with the three as a senior. Springs won two in track as a junior and did not have a senior season. Springs also beat everyone except Shea in both cross country and track as a sophomore. So basically, from the spring of her sophomore year on, Shea was better than everyone at any other school. From the fall of her sophomore year on, Springs was better than everyone at any other school.
    – Both were on the two NC State national cross country championship teams. The two seasons before Springs arrived, the teams Shea led finished ninth and second in the nation. The two seasons after Shea graduated, the teams Springs led finished fifth and third in the nation. Both made all the teams they were on very good, and both were essential to reaching the championship pinnacle.
    – They ran the same events, at almost exactly the same time. At the end of that time, Springs held the NC State school records in the 3000, 5000, and 10,000. She still holds the first two records.
    – It’s a fairly minor issue, mainly because I think what you did in a Wolfpack uniform should be the overwhelming factor in choosing the Hall-of-Fame. But Springs had a more extensive record in national and international competition, both while running for NC State and afterward.
    I’m not even remotely suggesting that Julie Shea does not belong in the first Hall of Fame class. All of the writers who have put her in their first ten are absolutely correct. But Betty Springs is just as deserving. And being in the FIRST class is a really big deal. For someone this good, it is totally unfair to say “We’ll get to you soon, but we’ve already got a runner in this class.” It you are deciding about the tenth and 11th candidates, I could see that. But we are talking about someone who rates ahead of everyone except Everett Case and David Thompson. Decide which of your other names you want to cut. Betty Springs has to be in the first ten.

  12. acc 10k 06/04/2012 at 8:41 PM #

    This thread has proposed:
    – 12 men’s basketball players (and not Sammy Ranzino, arguably the second best player in school history)
    – 12 football players (and not Mario Williams, the only #1 draft pick in ACC history)
    – Three men’s swimmers (and not David Fox, who won a relay gold medal in 1996; Duncan Goodhew, who won an individual gold in 1980; and Steve Gregg and Dan Harrigan, who won individual medals in 1976 while they were still on the NC State team.)
    – One wrestler (and not Scott Turner, Outstanding Wrestler at the 1988 NCAA tournament; or Sylvester Terkay, school record holder for pins and probably the most physically dominant person in the country his last two seasons.)
    – One soccer player (clearly the best one, but left out the all-time leading scorer, Okpadu; Guitterez, the all-American who led the only Final 4 appearance; and 2-time World Cup player Mastroenni)
    – One women’s runner (not Betty Springs, described above; and omitted NCAA champs Suzie Tuffey, Laurie Henes, and Kristin Price, not to mention everyone else from a program with 20 ACC championships)
    – One men’s tennis player
    – One women’s basketball player
    – One women’s swimmer
    – Eight coaches (but not Geiger, the winningest coach in ACC history; Easterling, who won 12 straight ACC swimming titles; or Guzzo, who won 12 ACC titles in wrestling)
    – SIX media people (counting Weedon and Dillon here)
    – NO golfers
    – NO men’s runners – despite 20+ ACC titles since 1983 – no Danny Peebles or Alvis Whitted (ACC track MVP’s and NFL players), no Bob Henes (one of only two 3-time ACC cross country champs, first multiple all-American distance runner)
    – No women’s soccer players (no Charmaine Hooper, 3-time world-cup player)
    – No one from women’s tennis, gymnastics, volleyball, or softball (as far as I can tell that’s the right decision)
    The totals: 33 male athletes, 3 female athletes, and 14 non-athletes (but Sloan could be counted as an athlete as well)

    Some people just don’t seem to get the concept. THEY ARE PICKING 10 PEOPLE. There are more than 10 players each suggested from football and men’s basketball, and that’s with some possible/probable top five guys left off. Virtually everyone suggested here (with the exception of the radio/TV people) will eventually get in, but some won’t make it in the first ten years.
    Even if you look at the first three “inaugural” classes, that’s only 30 people total. Somewhere between six and nine of those will be non-athletes. Taking the smallest total, that means 24 athletes, and there are certain to be at least two women per year. That leaves – at the absolute most – 18 male athletes.
    The two most dominant sports in NC State history – men’s swimming and women’s cross country – had people who were literally among the top five in the world while competing for State that were not mentioned by a single commenter. The absolute best team of the last 25 years – men’s cross country – went completely unnoticed.

    For an assumed minimum of six women’s spots in those first classes, only three names were suggested, and one (Emery) isn’t even close to belonging at that level. Making the reasonable assumption that each subsequent class will have at least one woman, you need at least 13 for the first 10 years.

    Granted that some people were just throwing out names of someone they remember who should be in the Hall someday. But many others had full lists, or even multi-class lists. And they are mostly grossly ignorant of huge swaths of NC State athletic history. If you know that you lack knowledge about entire sports or even the whole class of non-revenue sports, then don’t make statements that person X (not David Thompson, Everett Case, or Kay Yow) HAS to be in the first class. You don’t know enough about the candidates to be ruling everyone else out. And especially don’t propose whole groups of 10, because that sets up a dynamic where the people you proposed are now being displaced by the superior candidates you didn’t know about, rather than a even-handed discussion of the contenders.

  13. acc 10k 06/04/2012 at 9:52 PM #

    This thread has proposed:
    – 12 men’s basketball players (and not Sammy Ranzino)
    – 12 football players (and not Mario Williams or Erik Kramer)
    – Three men’s swimmers (and not David Fox, Duncan Goodhew, Steve Gregg or Dan Harrigan)
    – One wrestler (and not Scott Turner or Sylvester Terkay)
    – One soccer player (but no Okpadu, Guitterez, or Mastroenni)
    – One women’s runner (but no Springs, Tuffey, Gomez, Price, or anyone else from the team with 20 ACC championships)
    – One men’s tennis player
    – One women’s basketball player
    – One women’s swimmer
    – Eight coaches (but not Geiger, Easterling, or Guzzo)
    – SIX media people (counting Weedon and Dillon here)
    – NO golfers
    – NO men’s runners – despite 20+ ACC titles since 1983 – no Danny Peebles or Alvis Whitted (ACC track MVP’s and NFL players), no Bob Henes (one of only two 3-time ACC cross country champs, first multiple all-American distance runner)
    – No women’s soccer players (no Charmaine Hooper, 3-time world-cup player)
    – No one from women’s tennis, gymnastics, volleyball, or softball (as far as I can tell that’s the right decision)
    The totals: 33 male athletes, 3 female athletes, and 14 non-athletes (but Sloan could be counted as an athlete as well)

    Some people just don’t seem to get the concept. THEY ARE PICKING 10 PEOPLE. There are more than 10 players each suggested from football and men’s basketball, and that’s with some possible/probable top five guys left off. Virtually everyone suggested here (with the exception of the radio/TV people) will eventually get in, but some won’t make it in the first ten years.
    Even if you look at the first three “inaugural” classes, that’s only 30 people total. Somewhere between six and nine of those will be non-athletes. Taking the smallest total, that means 24 athletes, and there are certain to be at least two women per year. That leaves – at the absolute most – 18 male athletes. Forget about the mathematical impossibility of everyone being in the first class; no more than half the men proposed will make it in the first three years.
    The two most dominant sports in NC State history – men’s swimming and women’s cross country – had people who were literally among the top five in the world while competing for State that were not mentioned by a single commenter. The absolute best team of the last 25 years – men’s cross country – went completely unnoticed.

    For an assumed minimum of six women’s spots in those first classes, only three names were suggested, and one isn’t even close to belonging at that level. Making the reasonable assumption that each subsequent class will have at least one woman, you need at least 13 for the first 10 years.

    Granted that some people were just throwing out names of someone they remember who should be in the Hall someday. But many others had full lists, or even multi-class lists. And they are mostly grossly ignorant of huge swaths of NC State athletic history. If you know that you lack knowledge about entire sports or even the whole class of non-revenue sports, then don’t make statements that person X (“X” not David Thompson, Everett Case, or Kay Yow) HAS to be in the first class. You don’t know enough about the candidates to be ruling everyone else out. And especially don’t propose whole groups of 10, because that sets up a dynamic where someone has to argue AGAINST your candidate instead of looking at everyone on equal footing.

  14. acc 10k 06/04/2012 at 11:48 PM #

    Who should get in:
    You should start by listing the best candidates in each sport, in order. There’s nothing objective, for the most part, but at least within a sport you can have some sense of a fair order. It means if you know you are only taking two football players (or say, in year 4, one basketball player) you can simplify the discussion to who should get that one or two spots, and if someone is the fifth-best guy left in his sport, you know it isn’t his year.
    There are reasons you might deviate from the order – trying to get an old-timer in while they can still attend, bringing in a coach/player or teammate-duo together, or a recent athlete whose pro schedule won’t allow attendance yet. Especially in close calls, I would tend to put the veterans ahead of people who finished up in the past ten years.
    Coaches: Everett Case, Kay Yow, Willis Casey, Rollie Geiger, Jim Valvano, Norm Sloan, Earle Edwards, Cathey Buckey, Don Easterling, Bob Guzzo, Sam Esposito, Dick Sheridan (I’ve got Buckey that high because no cheerleader is ever going to get in, and there should be some recognition for the national success they had.)
    Men’s Basketball: David Thompson, Ronnie Shavlik, Sammy Ranzino, Rodney Monroe, Lou Pacillo, Tom Burleson, Kenny Carr, Chris Corchiani, Dick Dickey, Julius Hodge, Thurl Bailey, Derek Whittenberg, Sidney Lowe, Vic Molodet, John Richter, Lorenzo Charles
    Football: Ted Brown, Roman Gabriel, Jim Ritcher, Philip Rivers*, Tory Holt, Dick Christy, Jack McDowell, Dennis Byrd, Mario Williams*, Bill Yoest, Erik Kramer, Jerrico Cotchery, Johnny Evans, Willie Burden
    Women’s Basketball: Andrea Stinson, Chasity Melvin, Linda Page, Genia Beasley
    Swimming: Cullen Jones, Steve Gregg, Steve Berych, David Fox, Duncan Goodhew, Dan Harrigan, Dick Fadgen
    Wrestling: Tab Thacker, Sylvester Terkay, Scott Turner, Darrion Caldwell*
    Baseball: Mike Caldwell, Cammack, Terry Harvey, Turtle Zaun, Tom Sergio, Devine Men’s Track/Cross Country: Danny Peebles, Bob Henes, Alvis Whitted, Tyrell Taitt, Ryan Hill*, Chan Pons, Mike Patton, Chris Dugan, Jose Gonzalez
    Women’s Track/Cross Country: Betty Springs, Julie Shea, Laurie Gomez-Henes, Suzie Tuffey, Janet Smith, Kristen Price, Julia Lucas, Christy Nichols, Kristen Hall
    Men’s soccer: Tab Ramos, Sam Okpodu, Henry Guitterez, Fabio Mastroenni
    Women’s soccer: Charmaine Hooper, Linda Hamilton?
    Men’s Golf: Matt Hill*, Tim Clark
    Other: C.A. Dillon, Frank Weedon

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