Athletics

Harry Hartsell was hired as General Manager of Athletics and oversaw coaching of the basketball, football, track, and baseball teams.

The monogram showing the letter "S" in block style with the letters "N" and "C" nestled within the spaces first appeared in the Agromeck.

Tal Stafford served as Athletics General Manager. He was appointed general manager again in 1927.

The Athletics Council made a decision to award sweaters to athletes who receive monograms ("letters") for their athletic accomplishments. The first letter sweaters appeared on campus shortly thereafter.

NC State became a charter member of the Southern Intercollegiate Conference for athletics. This organization later changed its name to the Southern Conference.

The college first offered physical education classes and established the Department of Physical Education, which was originally housed in the Frank Thompson Gymnasium. Athletics was included in the Department of Physical Education, and all coaches were teaching faculty.

John Miller was appointed general manager of qthletics.

Class of 1923 alumni Alvin M. Fountain and Bonnie Frank Norris composed the Alma Mater song. They were both in the university's ROTC program. The alma mater used more recently was an abridged version, arranged by former music department chair Dr. Robert A. Barnes in the early 1960s.

The Athletics Committee created academic guidelines and declared students must maintain a passing grade of 60% in their classes to play in collegiate athletic events.

Dr. R. R. Sermon was appointed as the first Athletics Director, replacing the position of general manager as administrative agent of intercollegiate sports.

Fred Waring, prominent national band leader, agreed to write a new fight song for NC State. He aired it during his March 8, 1940, radio program.

Chancellor J. W. Harrelson asked students to suggest a new name for the sports teams. He disliked the term Wolfpack because of connotations with World War II German U-boat formations. Student voted overwhelmingly, however, to keep the name.

Mechanical engineering student Ira Helms Jr. created a robot-like Wolfpack mascot costume (see Technician, Vol. 27 No. 10, November 29, 1946 for photograph) worn to football games during the 1946 season. One student wore the costume while another walked behind with a "remote control" that appeared to control the robot's movements.

Students brought a live timber wolf to football games to roam the sidelines. UPI called the animal a "sniping and snarling bundle of fur." It was eventually sold to a traveling animal show.

All NC State athletics teams adopted Wolfpack as the official name. Previously, only the football team was called the Wolfpack, and other sports teams were called the Red Terrors and a variety of other names.

Roy Clogston was Athletics Director from 1948 to 1969 and Director of Reynolds Coliseum from 1956 to 1969.

After the introduction of women's athletics to NC State, costumes were created for a woman version of the wolf mascot.

Mr. Wolf and Ms. Wolf were married in a mock wedding ceremony by the Wake Forest Demon Deacon mascot during halftime of a Men's Basketball game at Reynolds Coliseum. The two were joined in "canis matrimonium," and Chancellor Joab Thomas gave the bride away.

The mascots’ names changed to “Wuf” when the male mascot, Scott Joseph, debuted a new body costume made by his mother. When she began sewing his name on the back of the jersey, she didn’t have enough room to spell “Wolf,” so she shortened it.

Nora Lynn Finch, Associate Athletics Director, was inducted into the Women's Sports Hall of Fame. Finch was the ACC's first women's athletics director and the inaugural chair of the NCAA Division I Women's basketball committee from 1981-1988.

134 NC State athletes were named to the ACC's 50th Anniversary Teams in twenty-one sports.

A Tamaskan dog named Tuffy became the new live mascot for football games. This breed of dog resembled the wolf-like Siberian husky.

The NC State Board of Trustees approved removing the word “Dixie” from the NC State Alma Mater and adding the word “Southern.”