NC State Establishes Athletics Hall Of Fame

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.

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39 Responses to NC State Establishes Athletics Hall Of Fame

  1. Wufpacker 05/30/2012 at 11:45 AM #

    In addition to those named above, at least one more no brainer IMHO, Ted Brown

  2. Alpha Wolf 05/30/2012 at 12:49 PM #

    All of the names on that list should be in and eventually will be. Why not just start with it and add Ted Brown.

  3. WV Wolf 05/30/2012 at 1:03 PM #

    Ted Brown was #11 on my list. There is the other option of just going with the most famous despite the sport and then Ted Brown and Torry Holt would definitely go in the 1st class.

  4. NCSU84 05/30/2012 at 1:42 PM #

    Jim Ritcher

    – Outland Trophy winner
    – First-team All-American
    – Started in 4 Super Bowls
    – Two time Pro Bowl selection
    – 16 NFL seasons
    – College Football Hall of Fame

  5. 61Packer 05/30/2012 at 1:48 PM #

    Did anyone notice the glaring omission from Tudor’s Top 10 in today’s paper?

  6. logarithm 05/30/2012 at 1:49 PM #

    Torry Holt is the greatest example of an athlete succeeding at the college level AND professional level after spending ALL of his time at State. We know because his football career’s over and he’s still doing a fine charity work with Terrence through the Holt Foundation.

    David Thompson is the greatest example of greatness at the college level. Outclassing everybody else you’ll ever step onto the floor against is a rare thing. He was the largest mover in putting State on the national map when we had been regionally relevant thanks to Everett Case. Greatest college basketball player of all time and he did it here.

    Everett Case was the greatest force behind the ACC becoming a power conference and ever being considered the elite basketball conference in the country. He is the most important figure in North Carolina and ACC sports ever. Everybody who achieved anything in college basketball in the ACC only did it because of Everett Case. Those basketball achievements pulled everything else up with it.

    Kay Yow is a no-brainer. That woman was so much more than basketball, and so much more than sports and we were lucky she did it all in Raleigh.

    I think we should limit the class sizes to far less than 10 to maintain the relevance of future classes.

  7. Prowling Woofie 05/30/2012 at 1:58 PM #

    “I think we should limit the class sizes to far less than 10 to maintain the relevance of future classes.”

    I agree, logarithm. Not intending to knock or belittle any of the other names listed, but my inaugural class would be:

    Everett Case
    David Thompson
    Kay Yow
    Ron Shavlik
    Ted Brown

    Subsequent classes could have more inductees, but the inaugural class should be limited, so as to emphasize their importance to NC State’s athletic history.

  8. WV Wolf 05/30/2012 at 2:00 PM #

    The first 3 classes can have up to 10, after that the max is 6 per year.

  9. 61Packer 05/30/2012 at 2:27 PM #

    I think State’s history is too storied to limit an initial class to only 5; I’d vote for 10. Case, Thompson and Yow are no-brainers, and Ron Shavlik and Ted Brown would be on my list too, but not ahead of Philip Rivers and Jim Valvano.

  10. PackerInRussia 05/30/2012 at 2:57 PM #

    Is this the chance for an “official” restoration/honoring of Jim Valvano that many here have called for?

  11. apexpacker 05/30/2012 at 3:20 PM #

    It would be nice to eventually honor Frank Weedon.

    Also seems that Frank Thompson should be in the first or second class.

  12. Old MacDonald 05/30/2012 at 4:08 PM #

    Cullen Jones in the charter class? No way. If he is in then Joan Benoit has to be in, and anyone else who has won an Olympic gold medal. Jones’ medal wasn’t even for an individual event iirc.

  13. wolfbuff 05/30/2012 at 4:09 PM #

    We have to honor the guy who announced all 50 years the Pack played in Reynolds (plus, as I recall, some at Thompson and one at what was then the ESA). Sorry, forgot his name.

    Also, no disrespect to Jimmy V, but I would put in Norm Sloan before him. In addition to the natty as a coach, he was a 3-sport letterman at State.

    As for football players, you could go along the walk of champions outside the stadium and start ranking them. They should all go in. The list of basketball players has to start with those hanging in the rafters.

  14. Dr. BadgerPack 05/30/2012 at 4:53 PM #

    Sam Esposito ought to be in too.

    And, not in the first few certainly, but I’d eventually like to see Terry Harvey.

  15. coach13 05/30/2012 at 4:58 PM #

    tommyburleson maybe round2

  16. NCSUknappster 05/30/2012 at 7:02 PM #

    For Olympic sports look at Tab Ramos as well. He’s arguably the greatest US soccer player of all time.

    4 time all-ACC and 3 time all-American in college. Played in both the Olympics and three World Cups. Plus was a first ballot US soccer hall of famer.

  17. lizardnc86 05/30/2012 at 7:29 PM #

    Team National Champion qualifies…….
    1983 NCAA Basketball Champions

  18. WV Wolf 05/30/2012 at 8:25 PM #

    Good call on Tab Ramos, I had forgotten about him.

    As far as my list, I threw that together pretty quick without much research just to get the conversation started.

  19. StandUpAndHowl 05/30/2012 at 8:45 PM #

    Your list is impressive, but State had some pretty good swimmers long before Cullen Jones. Jones certainly deserves eventual induction, but what about Steve Rerych? Led the Pack to 3 ACC swimming titles, 1966, 1967, and 1968, won 9 individual ACC titles as well, and won two gold medals at the 1968 Olympics.

  20. TheCOWDOG 05/30/2012 at 9:19 PM #

    With a new HOF, there is a protocol that I believe in. You sprinkle it with the obscure, and include a couple of this and that generations for the first class.

    It’s important to provide some jazz to each class.

    1-2 : Leave it to the hard researchers.

    3. Everette Case

    4. Ronnie Shavlick

    5. Dick Christy

    6. Alex Webster

    7. Earl Edwards

    8. Roman Gabriel

    9. Kay Yow

    10. The one and only…DT

  21. 61Packer 05/30/2012 at 9:37 PM #

    The Olympic and World Cup stuff is nice, but to me the accomplishments that merit induction should all be what that person did at STATE, not someplace else.

    David Thompson, the late Everett Case and the late Kay Yow should head this initial class of 10. Then, in no particular order, Philip Rivers, Ted Brown, the late Ron Shavlik, the late Dick Christy, Tommy Burleson, Roman Gabriel and the late Jim Valvano.

    There are others who weren’t players or coaches who made a tremendous contribution to Wolfpack sports, the best-known being 50-year PA announcer C.A. Dillon Jr. There were also the late Bill Jackson, the late Wally Ausley, and the late Garry Dornburg from the radio booth.

    All in all, this is another hit-it-out-of-the-park idea from our new AD.

  22. highstick 05/30/2012 at 9:37 PM #

    Others to consider in other classes and in no particular order:

    Joe Scarpati(football)
    Mike Quick(football)
    John Sadri(tennis)
    Pete Fogarasy(swimming)
    Elizabeth Ann Emery(swimming)

  23. timberwolf 05/30/2012 at 9:46 PM #

    Brown. No question.

  24. gotohe11carolina 05/30/2012 at 10:59 PM #

    can’t forget bill yoest in football
    corchiani makes my ball list
    and could we get a pass for Dr. Jerry punch
    tab has to be in the first class

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