I've always been a State fan, I grew up in NC and my grandfather gravitated towards State and had season tickets from the early 1970's until my parents took them over. My dad is from North Carolina and my mom was born and raised in blue collar part of Louisville.
My parents both are State fans too and adopted NC State as their own. I grew up going to games at Carter-Finley and games (while eating lots of peanuts) at Reynolds.
Both my mom and dad went to the University of Louisville when it was a smaller school. They were there at the beginning of the Denny Crum era and while Lee Corso coached there. My dad knew Tom Jackson of ESPN fame. My parents met at UofL and they got married in Louisville their senior year before my dad went on to serve our country.
So while I preferred State as my local team, naturally, I gravitated towards the school my mom and dad were a part of and that I had such a large family connection. I was also a Louisville fan. I wore Louisville stuff to school, got teased for supporting a school that nobody heard of, they had a mascot that looked like a rooster, and sounded too much like 'Loserville'. They had a coach with a bad combover and football team that would sneak a big bowl win and then have a losing season at the hands of Memphis, Tulane, and Tulsa. They played in a hideous minor league baseball stadium.
In fact, my father overtly discouraged me in a way from rooting for Louisville. He would ask me, laughing, "why the hell would you support a team 500+ miles away that only gets the leftover players that State and Carolina don't want? Just because your parents went there? Son, we nearly dropped football after I graduated. Denny Crum is on his way out. NC State is a local team and a better school, why don't you give them your full support and just forget about Louisville?" And so I did, I still liked Louisville, but I went on support State #1 and eventually chose to go to school at State.
Now, he was right... and don't get me wrong- he always pulled for Louisville and went to their bowl games and rooted for them against everyone- he went to school there and had Louisville stickers on our cars growing up (plus WPC stickers). But in the early 1990's, Louisville wasn't a prime athletic school and its academics were 'okay'. UofL was mediocre and constantly in the shadow of its own "Big Brother" in Lexington, even though they won two basketball titles in the 1980's. Louisville was plagued with lackluster fundraising, was playing football in a gross rented MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL STADIUM, had a campus that was dilapidated and they couldn't get into a big conference.
In many respects, Louisville was a lot like NC State. Located in the middle of its state's urban political and cultural epicenter. Engineering school. Red colors. Urban campus. And in the shadows of a blue-clad snotty in-state rival- and in that regard Louisville had it worse.
Fast forward twenty-four years from when I was 10 years old in 1991 to today. Since then, Louisville has emerged and athletic power and one of the most profitable athletic programs. Louisville's endowment and academics have improved dramatically in that time too. Several BCS bowl wins, several Final Four appearances, a national championship, winning non-revenue titles, and having a national namebrand. Gone from independent to C-USA to Big East to the ACC. In that time, Jimmy V was thrown under the bus, Dick Sheridan left and never came back to coaching, and Todd Turner happened. Larry Monteith downplayed athletics. Lee Fowler happened. Decades of complacency and ineptitude and ho-hum results.In many ways, it came from all the way at the top of the food chain.
In 1997, Louisville hired a guy from Colorado State named Tom Jurich to be their athletic director. Before Jurich, it was Bill Olsen, who brought in Howard Schnellenberger and got a stadium built. Jurich, Olsen, and their university relied on what they could to make money- merchandising rights and selling beer at games. Jurich got UofL on national TV by being willing to play anyone, anytime- Thursday nights became their shtick. Sometimes Friday nights. Any exposure they could.
Now, the point of this story is not to bash NC State, complain about NC State, or berate NC State. Quite the contrary. NC State is a far better school in a far better location and with far better resources within reach. NC State got nailed by the anti-V mob in the early 90's and State and didn't have the leadership Louisville had in that time to rebuild afterwards. We have had to overcome A LOT as an athletic program.
For the first time in forever, State has a visionary chancellor and university leadership. An aggressive AD. Coach Gott is our guy and he's got the 'it' factor, no matter what he armchair coaches want to say. Dave Doeren is the same story. Aggressive recruiting and more exuberant personalities running the show now. Could we have said that all around in the last 20 years? Nope. State could very well be a nationally respected athletic powerhouse and namebrand in 20 years. Maybe just 10 years. Maybe only 5 years? But in my time as an NC State fan, from the 1980's to now, I see things getting much better in Raleigh. All the way from the chancellor's office to the field and court.
I really wish we could shake this contagious doomsday mentality plaguing so many fans on this board and I wish that more people could recognize the culture change going on at State. The 'glory days' of Sloan, Jimmy V, Holtz, Sheridan... and even Amato Rivers are long gone and were only short-lived.... The cards are in place now. I know "you gotta have more patience" isn't what we want to hear after the last 20+ years of disappointment. But this is NOT 'more of the same'.
Go State!
My parents both are State fans too and adopted NC State as their own. I grew up going to games at Carter-Finley and games (while eating lots of peanuts) at Reynolds.
Both my mom and dad went to the University of Louisville when it was a smaller school. They were there at the beginning of the Denny Crum era and while Lee Corso coached there. My dad knew Tom Jackson of ESPN fame. My parents met at UofL and they got married in Louisville their senior year before my dad went on to serve our country.
So while I preferred State as my local team, naturally, I gravitated towards the school my mom and dad were a part of and that I had such a large family connection. I was also a Louisville fan. I wore Louisville stuff to school, got teased for supporting a school that nobody heard of, they had a mascot that looked like a rooster, and sounded too much like 'Loserville'. They had a coach with a bad combover and football team that would sneak a big bowl win and then have a losing season at the hands of Memphis, Tulane, and Tulsa. They played in a hideous minor league baseball stadium.
In fact, my father overtly discouraged me in a way from rooting for Louisville. He would ask me, laughing, "why the hell would you support a team 500+ miles away that only gets the leftover players that State and Carolina don't want? Just because your parents went there? Son, we nearly dropped football after I graduated. Denny Crum is on his way out. NC State is a local team and a better school, why don't you give them your full support and just forget about Louisville?" And so I did, I still liked Louisville, but I went on support State #1 and eventually chose to go to school at State.
Now, he was right... and don't get me wrong- he always pulled for Louisville and went to their bowl games and rooted for them against everyone- he went to school there and had Louisville stickers on our cars growing up (plus WPC stickers). But in the early 1990's, Louisville wasn't a prime athletic school and its academics were 'okay'. UofL was mediocre and constantly in the shadow of its own "Big Brother" in Lexington, even though they won two basketball titles in the 1980's. Louisville was plagued with lackluster fundraising, was playing football in a gross rented MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL STADIUM, had a campus that was dilapidated and they couldn't get into a big conference.
In many respects, Louisville was a lot like NC State. Located in the middle of its state's urban political and cultural epicenter. Engineering school. Red colors. Urban campus. And in the shadows of a blue-clad snotty in-state rival- and in that regard Louisville had it worse.
Fast forward twenty-four years from when I was 10 years old in 1991 to today. Since then, Louisville has emerged and athletic power and one of the most profitable athletic programs. Louisville's endowment and academics have improved dramatically in that time too. Several BCS bowl wins, several Final Four appearances, a national championship, winning non-revenue titles, and having a national namebrand. Gone from independent to C-USA to Big East to the ACC. In that time, Jimmy V was thrown under the bus, Dick Sheridan left and never came back to coaching, and Todd Turner happened. Larry Monteith downplayed athletics. Lee Fowler happened. Decades of complacency and ineptitude and ho-hum results.In many ways, it came from all the way at the top of the food chain.
In 1997, Louisville hired a guy from Colorado State named Tom Jurich to be their athletic director. Before Jurich, it was Bill Olsen, who brought in Howard Schnellenberger and got a stadium built. Jurich, Olsen, and their university relied on what they could to make money- merchandising rights and selling beer at games. Jurich got UofL on national TV by being willing to play anyone, anytime- Thursday nights became their shtick. Sometimes Friday nights. Any exposure they could.
Now, the point of this story is not to bash NC State, complain about NC State, or berate NC State. Quite the contrary. NC State is a far better school in a far better location and with far better resources within reach. NC State got nailed by the anti-V mob in the early 90's and State and didn't have the leadership Louisville had in that time to rebuild afterwards. We have had to overcome A LOT as an athletic program.
For the first time in forever, State has a visionary chancellor and university leadership. An aggressive AD. Coach Gott is our guy and he's got the 'it' factor, no matter what he armchair coaches want to say. Dave Doeren is the same story. Aggressive recruiting and more exuberant personalities running the show now. Could we have said that all around in the last 20 years? Nope. State could very well be a nationally respected athletic powerhouse and namebrand in 20 years. Maybe just 10 years. Maybe only 5 years? But in my time as an NC State fan, from the 1980's to now, I see things getting much better in Raleigh. All the way from the chancellor's office to the field and court.
I really wish we could shake this contagious doomsday mentality plaguing so many fans on this board and I wish that more people could recognize the culture change going on at State. The 'glory days' of Sloan, Jimmy V, Holtz, Sheridan... and even Amato Rivers are long gone and were only short-lived.... The cards are in place now. I know "you gotta have more patience" isn't what we want to hear after the last 20+ years of disappointment. But this is NOT 'more of the same'.
Go State!
