The Cardiac Pack

With football season just around the corner, I have already begun to plan out red and white attire for the first few NC State football games. Since I was young, my father and his brothers (all NC State Alum) have been teaching me the 'ABC's' (Anybody But Carolina) along with the 'NCSU Alma Mater' ("Where the winds of Dixie softly blow..."). It does not come as a big surprise that my sister and I also graduated from NC State. Soon after my sister's graduation, my father and brother-in-law made the decision to invest in NCSU Football tickets. Prior to the arrival of each season's initial kickoff, I can hardly bare the anticipation of hearing the wolf howling over the Carter Finley Stadium speakers.

 Nothing quite compares to a fall college football Saturday in Raleigh, NC. Red and white tents are dispersed throughout the stadium's surrounding fields, woods, and parking lots. Music echos from the tailgates and games of corn hole and ladder ball keep spectators entertained as they await the announcement of the pack onto the field. Smells of burgers grilling and liquors flowing spread through the air.  The ladies patiently wait outside the porter potties wearing their cowgirl boots, as the fellas make their way into the wooded areas for a more "naturalistic" bathroom break. Eventually, the reved-up crowd of woofies make their way from the trucks and tents to all gather as one in Carter Finley. The crowds cheers, "WOLF! ---- PACK!"  from alternating sides of the stadium. Smoke fires off and high fives are exchanged when the red and white jerseys make their way into the end zone. It is college sports-spectating at its finest.

Just a few days back, as I was contemplating various ways I could prepare myself for the upcoming season, Idecided there was no better way to do it then to add a new Wolfpack T-shirt to my collection of game day gear. I searched the web and local NCSU bookstores only to find nothing which seemed to fit the bill. I really had set my mind on some sort of vintage-inspired shirt, something unique. After intense Internet searching, I came across the perfect tee that was designed with inspiration derived from the year 1983... a year that all woofies know well.

http://www.homage.com/store/college/nstate

On April 4th, 1983 North Carolina State University Men's Basketball Team won the NCAA National Basketball Championship with the infamous Jimmy V as their pack leader. Just as the buzzer sounded, the players managed to pass the ball from 30 feet down the court and slam it into the basket- bringing the score to a victorious 54-52. The team was known that year as "Cardiac Pack." At this time in Henderson history, my father was a recent NCSU alum, and, although I was nothing but a sparkle in his eye, the wolfpack red was surely running through my veins when I was born the following year in 1984...

Whether it be football or basketball, I was born into the NC State pack and will forever love the sound of the howling wolf echoing across Trinity Road or throughout the walls of the RBC Center.  For the next few weeks I will eagerly await the season's first home game kickoff on September 4th. In the meantime? I will just have to hang my new tee up in a special place- somewhere that I can easily catch a glimpse each day of the wolves howling at the moon, and to myself I will think... "Our hearts ever hold you, NC State, in the folds of our love and pride."