The above video is a cool, short documentary from WolfTV, NC State’s student-run TV station, about the history of the university’s Grains of Time. The student a cappella group celebrated its 40th anniversary this past April with a reunion and special concert that featured many of the group’s members since its founding in the late ’60s. The film includes footage of the original members performing at the April concert, explains how the group got its name and has highlights of some of the members’ favorite songs. The documentary was made by students at NC State and Elon University.
Also check out Grains of Time’s YouTube channel, which has video of some of the group’s performances.
What a great spring for the Wolfpack! Golfer Matt Hill, a rising junior from Canada, won the NCAA Championship Thursday after three consecutive rounds of 69. Hill has been on a hot streak, winning eight of the last nine tournaments he has entered. He’s the first Pack golfer to win a national championship.
Hill’s national title is also the third for an NC State student-athlete this spring. On March 21, wrestler Darrion Caldwell won the 149-pound individual title and diver Kristin Davies ’09 won the national title in platform diving. It was the first time NC State student-athletes have won two national championships in the same day.
Our post on Hill earlier this week included links to stories about him. Look for more on Davies and Caldwell in the summer issue of NC State magazine.
It may be a little disheartening that the Pittsburgh Penguins knocked the Carolina Hurricanes out of the Stanley Cup playoffs last night, but the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review provides some good news in this somewhat amusing rundown of Bill Cowher’s stint as the “siren sounder” during last night’s game at the RBC Center, home to the Hurricanes and the Wolfpack men’s basketball team. Cowher, a 1979 graduate, played football at NC State and was the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1992 to 2006.
Cranking the Hurricanes’ warning siren with his right hand and grasping a white Carolina rally towel with his left hand — sans his Super Bowl XL ring — Bill Cowher no longer bleeds black and gold . . . .
Since Cowher moved to Raleigh two years ago, the North Carolina State graduate has taken a liking to the Hurricanes — and seemingly betrayed the Penguins. That gets sticky considering Cowher patrolled the Steelers sidelines for 15 seasons, won a Super Bowl in 2006 and had a street named after him in Crafton. . . .
“I don’t like it,” said Penguins fan Kyle Patton, of Johnstown. “We love Bill Cowher, but when you look at him, you think black and gold, not red.”
Also be sure to click to enlarge the Tribune-Review’s photo of him cranking the Hurricanes’ warning siren. It’s a great shot.
“He goes into every tournament thinking he has a chance to win,” his father says. “Golfers get in a groove, and he’s in one now.”
That’s for sure. The No. 2 amateur golfer in Canada, Hill has won an ACC-record seven tournaments this year, including six of his last seven. He’s the first Wolfpack golfer since current PGA Tour star Tim Clark ’98 to win medalist honors at an NCAA Regional. He also joins Clark as the only NC State golfers to be named ACC Player of the Year.
Hill is scheduled to tee off in Round 1 today at 2:05. Golfstat will carry live streaming audio and video, according to the Inverness Club.
Update: The N&O wrote about Hill in this morning’s paper.
Update 2: Hill is tied for the lead at the NCAA Championship after shooting a 2-under-par 69 in the opening round Tuesday. He opens the second round Wednesday at 8:55 a.m. Follow him live at Golfstat.
Update 3: Hill heads into the NCAA Championship’s final round Thursday two strokes off the lead. He matched his first round score of a 2-under-par 69 in the second round Wednesday. Follow Hill’s final round live on Golfstat.
A segment on tonight’s 60 Minutes looked at the “buy America” clause in the stimulus package through the lens of the steel industry. In the piece, Caterpillar CEO and chair Jim Owens ’68, ’70 MT, ’73 PHD talked about the challenges he believes his company and others could face:
“If we have a ‘buy America’ clause, other countries are going to have a ‘buy China,’ ‘buy Europe,’ ‘buy Brazil’ clause, and they’re going to discriminate against our exported products,” Owens predicted.
The segment, which is after the jump, originally aired in February.
Olympic gold medalist Cullen Jones ’06 is doing some great work around the country getting kids — especially minorities — involved in swimming. The Houston Chronicle today recounts Jones’ own experience as a 5-year-old who didn’t know how to swim:
Jones was 5 when he went cascading down a slide at a water park, clinging for dear life to an inner tube. The next thing he knew, he was asking his parents which ride he could go on next.
He doesn’t remember the mouth-to-mouth, CPR part of the story.
African-American kids drown at a rate 2.6 times higher than Caucasian kids and drowning is the second-leading cause of injury-related death for children ages 1-14 years. Almost 60 percent — six out of 10 — African American and Hispanic/Latino children cannot swim.
I was almost overwhelmed with emotions as I saw my son in this young man. . . . I agonized for a couple of days, feeling depressed and talking with family, friends, and my own therapist. What was my role here? Was I a university professor, mindful of students’ right to privacy and the need to keep my mouth shut? Did it even apply here? Or was I a bereaved parent who wanted to ignore the bureaucracy and try to squeeze some good from his child’s death?
“So is this the final curtain for the Color Wall? – perhaps the most significant work of 20th century public art in Raleigh. Is the Color Wall “off again” ? Or will we be able to switch it back on again? — and this time permanently.
Goodnight, Raleigh! provides all the background on the “Color Wall” and its significance. It’s an enlightening read.
If you spend any time at farmers markets, this video series produced by NC State’s Program for Value-Added and Alternative Agriculture at the N.C. Research Campus in Kannapolis might help you get the most out of what you buy. It features The Produce Lady (Brenda Sutton), who’s director of the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service in Rockingham County. She keeps a blog and has her own YouTube channel, where you can find videos on strawberries, eggplant, green beans and okra. She also makes occasional appearances on the Almanac Gardener on UNC-TV.
Tim Peeler ’87 is spending the summer with a student intern and a couple of NC State student-athletes going through the treasures (including this photo) that have been stored in the basement of Reynolds Coliseum. He’s getting some help, too, from Tor Ramsey ’90, a former manager for the basketball team who’s now a filmmaker. In today’s post, Tim tells of some of the great film Ramsey has turned up:
He found a film canister that contained the four-overtime game against Canisius in the 1956 NCAA Tournament, perhaps the most disappointing loss of [Everett] Case’s career.
He found a Pilot Life production of highlights from the 1970 ACC Championship game against South Carolina, and reports that Eddie Leftwich’s steal from Bobby Cremins – the pivotal defensive play of the contest – is in near-perfect condition.
Keep an eye out for Tim’s updates. He’s on Twitter. And if you know any of the folks in the picture above, tell us in the comments. Tim has already ID’d Case, Ronnie Shavlik ’60, Earle Edwards, Dick Christy ’61 and Vic Sorrell ’26.
What a great spring for the Wolfpack! Golfer Matt Hill, a rising junior from Canada, 
Rising junior 
Subscribe