1973-74 NC State basketball team selected for Hall of Fame

It was especially pleasing to me to hear Wednesday that the 1973-74 NC State Wolfpack basketball team that won the NCAA Championship will be inducted into the NC State Athletic Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2016. The ceremony will be held the fall of 2016 in a renovated Reynolds Coliseum which will include State’s Walk of Fame and History.

Being sports editor of the school’s student newspaper, Technician, that spring gave me the feeling of being a part of that historic team. Coverage was not just written by me as several other writers for the newspaper took part. We were careful to write about the games and the players and not about player activities away from the court. We were friends and students first and reporters second, though the coverage was pretty good.

If you want to read an account of the season from our point-of view, if you want to read the actual stories from the newspaper that year, purchase a copy of my book: 1973-74 Reliving the NC State Wolfpack’s Title Run. The chronicle includes every story about the team that was published that year in the Technician. Additionally, there’s a little of my own commentary as well as additional articles that will give you a good sense of the time and place we lived then. Also, there’s an extensive interview with David Thompson that was done by me for the first ACC Basketball Handbook, published by State alum Ivan Mothershead for the 1974-75 season. In other words, you will be reading stories from then not reconstructed memories from now.

In previous classes of the Hall of Fame, players David Thompson and Tommy Burleson and Coach Norman Sloan have already been inducted. So congratulations to the other players and coaches being added as a group. It was a great group of players and a friendly coaching staff that year as State compiled a 30-1 record, defeating North Carolina three times and Maryland three times, beating UCLA in the semifinals and Marquette on the finals.

If interested in purchasing the book, look for it on Amazon books or at Lulu.com, or, for additional information, visit the publisher website: CaryTownPress. For an excellent book review, go to The Unofficial Scorer.

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