NC State grad, author, unofficial historian of Wolfpack athletics says @nytimes. @NCSHOF Board of Directors, co-host of @then_podcast.
Cary, NC
Joined April 2009
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Our day at the NC State Fair begins with an enormous doughnut. It will likely end late tonight with three bags of mini-doughnuts.
And a bellyache. – at Cary, NC
NC State football's 10:30 p.m. ET kickoff against Stanford next Friday night is awfully late, but not the latest kickoff time in program history.
When the Wolfpack played UCLA in 1959 and '60 at the Los Angeles Coliseum, both games started at 11:15 ET. (Fortunately, that was not even close to quarterbacks Roman Gabriel's and Billy Kilmer's bedtime.)
Another contest in 1960 against Arizona State in 1960 kicked off at 10 p.m. Raleigh time.
State head coach Earle Edwards would go any where, any time for a guaranteed payoff to help finance a new football stadium. In 1961, his team's September season-opener was in Laramie, Wyoming, where the team was greeted with 7-inches of last-day-of-summer snow.
During the week of the State-Carolina football game, Democratic candidate for president John F. Kennedy made five campaign stops in the Old North State on Sept. 24, 1960.
He started in Greenville, flew to Winston-Salem and Greensboro, on to Asheville, then finished up with a grand finale in Raleigh.
The tour reached its progressive peak in Charlotte when Kennedy was escorted on to the stage by four donkeys from a farm in Gastonia.
That same week, someone left open the pen on Highway 401 for Lobo, NC State's live wolf mascot. He wandered off into the Wake County woods and was never seen again.
State won the football game, 3-0, the lowest scoring outcome in the rivalry since a 0-0 tie in 1905. The Wolfpack needed to huge defensive plays from a junior All-America preserve the shutout.
His name was Roman Gabriel, who was better known for his offensive abilities. On one possession in the second quarter, two-way Gabe knocked the ball out of Tar Heel quarterback Ward Marslender Jr.'s hands. It was recovered in the end zone by State's Claude "Hoot" Gibson.
Marslender, like T.A. McLendon some 40 years later, claimed he was in.
Late in the game, UNC halfback Ray Farris threw a pass that bounced off the hands of teammate Moyer Smith and was picked from the air with one hand by Gabriel, who had stumbled onto the field the play before to replace cramping starter Tom Dellinger, at the 4-yard-line.
"I've never seen a closer game," Wolfpack coach Earle Edwards said afterwards.
Little known fact: former NC State player, assistant coach and @NCSportsHOF member (not to mention @BrindRod's FIL) Eddie Biedenbach taught Tom Hanks how to play table tennis. – at Cary, NC
“Forrest, you know how to play ping-pong?” 🏓
BID NOW in our Fall Movie Prop & Memorabilia Auction ➡️ bit.ly/4B43A1S
One of the most memorable chapters of Forrest Gump started with a paddle.
This screen-used Mao table tennis prop from the 1994 film comes from the personal collection of production designer Rick Carter.
ALT Packaging for a table tennis paddle and ball set labeled "Austria Gump-Mao Special Edition" featuring illustrations of two individuals. One paddle displays an illustration with a U.S. flag, while the other has a Chinese flag. Three balls are included.
Great account of the 1971 NC State-Wake Forest game in which, on the final play of the game with State holding a 15-14 lead, Wake quarterback Larry Russell came off the sidelines to tackle State's Bill Miller, who had picked up a blocked game-winning field goal attempt and was on his way to a decisive touchdown.
State was awarded the score for a 21-14 victory, but too many Wolfpack players were already in the lockerroom and too many fans were on the field celebrating the win over the defending ACC-champion Deacons to kick the extra point.
journalnow.com/sports/colleg…
A few years ago, I took my son ton Clinton, S.C. -- that's "Clennon" for the uninformed -- so he could attend a Presybterian College baseball camp. While he was going through workouts, I met my old Greenville News colleague Monte Dutton at McDonald's to relive some old times at the now mostly defunct Greenville News.
Monte, who died this week at the age of 68, was a NASCAR writer, a music aficionado, a prolific writer, a baseball proser and lover of life. "Gregarious" barely scratched the surface in the adjectives used to describe him. If you ever crossed his path, he left an impression.
Monte was Dick Sheridan's SID at Furman (if you are a sports reporter and don't know what an SID is, you are too young to read this post), which is one of the reasons he became friends with the irascible Bruce Winkworth. They shared many hilarious stories about the difficulty or working with perhaps the most controlling coach in the history of the Southern and Atlantic Coast conferences. And they shared music in the form of bootleg CDs.
Monte was an original, one of the few people on earth you could have a serious conversation about writing and literature over coffee and an Egg McMuffin.
I didn't see him after that two-day camp six years ago, but he sent me home with an armload of his novels that he wrote in retirement. I'll pull one off the shelf in his memory. "Crazy by Natural Causes" seems appropriate.
RIP to #Furman's most grandiose advocate.
Not on my checklist for this busy weekend of walking tours, football game activities and church meetings: violently poking myself in the eye with my toothbrush while preparing for bed.
See you tomorrow cruel world -- maybe. – at Cary, NC
Pretty cool special giveaway during @NCStatePFS Weekend for those who participated in my #RedTerrorTour ghost walk on campus. The card deck features the 10 #HallowedPlaces, with Mr. Wuf as the king, Ms. Wuf the queen and Tuffy III as the jack. – at Cary, NC
The first time NC State and Louisville met on the football field, they were both guided by two future NFL stars, Johnny Unitas and Alex Webster. Here's a story about that snow (and lime) covered game.
timpeeler.blogspot.com/2026/…
.@AllHands81 and @TerrenceHolt are shining lights for what student-athletes and professional athletes can be during their playing careers and how they can serve their communities in retirement. Proud to call them both fellow NC State alums. – at Cary, NC
Torry Holt says one of the most humbling moments of his life came after retiring from the NFL and entering business when the Super Bowl champion went to his first construction conference, someone asked what his company did and he couldn’t answer
“My brother had retired before I did, so he would tell me what retirement was like. One of the things he told me was, ‘When we go to these conferences, these people that you’re talking to, they’re all pros in that space.’”
“‘You’re not.’ ‘So you need to be ready to humble yourself, to listen, and understand that you don’t know this game.’ It’s not that you can’t learn it. Right now, you just don’t know it because you’re fresh out of the pros, and these folks have been doing it for years.”
“That didn’t really register to me until we went to our first conference. A gentleman asked me, ‘What is your company? What do you guys do?’ I couldn’t tell him. I could not tell him what Holt Brothers Inc. was all about.”
“And I felt so small. I felt so little and so embarrassed. And I said from that point on, when we go back to conferences, I will never feel like that ever again. So I went back and I learned our business.”
“If you don’t humble yourself and understand that, it’ll chase you away from doing something beyond the game, whether it’s business, coaching, whatever the case may be. You have to allow yourself grace to learn what it is that you need to learn in order to move into that new space. It’s not football anymore.”
“The skills and tools that we learned from football are transferable, but you still have to learn that business. You still have to learn how to communicate. You still have to learn an elevator pitch.”
“You still have to be able to explain your business and what you do. Learning all those things post-career took time. You’ve got to allow yourself the grace to learn and give yourself the tools to be successful beyond the field.”
If you are going to give a spooky walking tour of NC State's campus, it should be under the cover of ghostly clouds, by the light of a full moon. – at Cary, NC
This is the play that was in the back of @terrygannon83's mind when Clyde Drexler was on a breakaway late in the first half of the 1983 national championship game against Houston. Gannon stood his ground, wrapped his arms around Drexler and waited for the official to call a charge. "I sure as sh*t wasn't going to let him jump over me like he did Andre Turner."
Unquestionably the best tackle in NC State men's basketball history.
Unbeknownst to Cougar coach Guy Lewis, it was Drexler's fourth foul and perhaps the biggest play of the game until Lorenzo Charles' dunk in the final seconds.
The two head coaches in this game took a hard turn a year after they played. – at Cary, NC
NC State and App State will meet for the first time in 20 years tonight. But did you know the first matchup between these two programs was in 1932?
@PackTimPeeler sets the scene of this historic in-state series: on3.com/teams/nc-state-wolfp…
Phil was a sweet guy with a poet's heart... – at Cary, NC
Phil Spence was vital in helping NC State win its first national championship in 1974. He died Monday at 72.
@PackTimPeeler reflects on Spence's career, life and the "trophies" along the way: on3.com/teams/nc-state-wolfp…
I'm doing my part to help during this Cary water crisis by eating all the ice cream in the freezer. #service #community – at Cary, NC
Join me and university landscape architect Tom Skolnicki as we explore and explain the new features of @ncstate's reopened University Plaza (the Brickyard). Meet us Tuesday at 4 p.m. in front of the Atrium at Hill Library. We'll spend about an hour talking about everything: the 435,000 new bricks, the Listening Ears, memories of Harrelson Hall and hopes for the not-quite-complete Woodson Hall.
It's all free. Details are here:
calendar.ncsu.edu/event/expl…
This is who Norm was:
Driving recruits on campus, Coach Sloan would often see speed bumps approaching. Most people would hit the brake. Not Norm.
"Me and Dereck were in the back seat on our recruiting trip and coach was driving us to Reynolds," Sidney Lowe once said. "He hit the speed bump going over the speed limit. We were flying all over the place.
"Coach said, 'Can't let 'em intimidate you.'"
That's who Coach Sloan was. – at Cary, NC
