Campus News Category
04.24.2012
It’s well known that World War II dramatically altered life at NC State, as students left school to join the military.
One of the biggest changes on campus was an influx of female students, whose numbers had been sparse up to that point. But on this day in 1942, there were urgent appeals made to young women to enroll at NC State.
“In an effort to obtain employment in traditionally male-dominated professions now facing labor shortages because of the war, women enrolled at State in ever-increasing numbers after 1942,” Alice Elizabeth Reagan wrote in North Carolina State University: A Narrative History.
Instructor Peele Johnson works with two students studying engineering in 1942 as Pratt-Whitney Fellows. (Photo courtesy of Historical State.)
Young women were particularly encouraged to study engineering, and NC State eventually became the only university in the south to offer Pratt-Whitney Fellowships to women to help them study engineering, according to Reagan’s book.
The 48-week course enabled the women to be hired as engineering aides at the company’s plant in Connecticut.
Once the war was over, though, the number of women at NC State dropped. It was not until the late 1950s that the number of female students at NC State began to rise again.
04.19.2012
The first football game played in Riddick Stadium, in the heart of NC State’s campus, took place in 1907. NC State beat Randolph-Macon, 20-0.
NC State had played football for years before that, either in Pullen Park or at the State Fairgrounds. But alumni and faculty members raised money to build the university its own stadium, complete with wooden bleachers and a grandstand.
In 1912, students voted to name the new stadium for Wallace Carl Riddick, who in addition to being NC State’s first football coach, was at various times a professor of civil engineering, dean of the School of Engineering and president of the university.
As any modern sports fan knows, stadiums are built to be replaced by bigger and fancier stadiums later. So, on this day in 1968, much of Riddick Stadium was demolished to make room for more parking on campus. Yes, parking.
The destruction was handled by The Rike Company of Winston-Salem for $18,000. The demolition was not without incident, as workers one day discovered what appeared to be a body in some of the rubble. It turned out to be a fake torso and legs, complete with blood-red paint, that was presumably placed there by some students, according to an account in Historical State, an archive maintained by NCSU Libraries.
University officials check out "the body" found in Riddick Stadium rubble
A new stadium to replace Riddick was built with funds raised by the Wolfpack Club and through the sale of bonds. The initial donations came from brothers Nick and Harry Carter, while the single largest donation came from A.E. Finley, according to an account in Alice Elizabeth Reagan’s North Carolina State University: A Narrative History.
And, thus, Carter-Finley Stadium was born, opening in time for the 1966 football season.
The demolition of Riddick was not completed for years, with the West Stands staying up until 2005 to make room for a building for mathematics and statistics.
04.10.2012
Elizabeth Ann Emery, an All-American swimmer for NC State in the early 1980s who went on to win a gold medal in the World University Games in 1983, died Thursday. She was 50.
Beth Emery was one of seven NC State swimmers to be named in 2002 to the Atlantic Coast Conference’s 50th Anniversary team of the best female swimmers and divers in conference history.
Emery earned All-American honors every season from 1980-83, and won five ACC championships, in the 100, 200 and 500 freestyle. She still owns three all-time top 10 marks at NC State. In 1983, Emery won the Willis Casey Award as the NC State student-athlete of the year.
Braden Holloway ‘01, the head coach of swimming and diving at NC State, says he sometimes mentions Emery and her accomplishments when he’s trying to help current Wolfpack swimmers appreciate the team’s history and tradition.
“She was one of the best swimmers to come through here,” Holloway says. “She was a vital piece of the success of the women’s program.”
After graduating from NC State in 1983 with a bachelor’s degree in horticulture, Emery went on to earn a master’s degree from Ohio State University. She was finishing a doctorate in sports humanities from Ohio State.
Emery initially worked as a land development planner in North Carolina and California before returning home to Ohio. She worked at Mills-James Productions for more than 19 years, most recently as a producer and director.
Beth Emery at NC State
Emery stayed connected to swimming after leaving NC State, setting three Master’s swimming world records in 2002 and volunteering with the undergraduate and Master’s swimming programs at Ohio State. She was inducted into the Ashland County Sports Hall of Fame in 1987.
Family will receive friends Thursday from 5-8 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church, 508 Center Street, Ashland, Ohio. Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Friday at Trinity Lutheran Church, reception to follow.
Memorial contributions may be made to NC State Swimming, Weisiger Brown Building, 2500 Warren Carroll Dr., Campus Box 8502, Raleigh, NC 27695; the Cat Welfare Association, 741 Wetmore Road, Columbus, Ohio, 43214; the Ashland YMCA, 207 Miller Street, Ashland, Ohio, 44805; or Ohio State Swimming, 1847 Neil Avenue, Columbus, Ohio, 43210.
04.02.2012
A cupcake given out at NC State's 125th birthday party.
Students, alumni, faculty and staff gathered this afternoon at Reynolds Coliseum to celebrate NC State’s 125th birthday. The party is one of several events planned for the yearlong celebration of the university’s anniversary.
“It’s always great to see students, but I look out and see faculty and staff,” said Liana Fryer, who works for NC State in the Office of Research and Innovation. “It’s a unifying experience.”
Reynolds did see some basketball, as the men’s team took the stage at the celebration. But the coliseum was mainly transformed from a basketball court into a dance floor as a the packed house “jumped around” to hip-hop beats. Some even hit the stage to dance, including Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Thomas H. Stafford Jr., who held a mask of Alexander Holladay, the university’s first president.
Chancellor Randy Woodson couldn’t be swayed. “The chancellor does not dance,” Woodson said.
Woodson did show off one of his talents when he took the stage with Old Man Whickutt, a North Carolina-based bluegrass and American roots band, and performed NC State’s fight song on guitar. After he performed, Woodson had advice for the crowd. “Plan on the future,” he told the audience. “Be bold in everything you do. And 125 years from now, we’ll be celebrating NC State.”
Old Man Whickutt also took the opportunity to perform its new song, “When Jesus Comes Back,” which celebrates State’s long-standing rivalry with UNC with such lines as: When Jesus comes back, I know that he will. He’ll save every city except Chapel Hill. When Jesus comes back, this is what he’s gonna do. He’ll paint the sky red, no more Carolina blue.
Jude Jackson, a sophomore from Jacksonville, N.C., said it was wonderful to be a part of the birthday bash and such an energetic salute to the university. “It’s just great to see NC State’s 125 years of history alive,” he said. “[NC State] is just a great place to be in a great city.”
But the event took time to reflect on NC State’s past and its commitment to the values as a land-grant institution. Instead of blowing out candles on a cake, the audience watched a video celebrating the university’s history and achievements.
The crowd gathers in Reynolds for NC State's 125th.
“I think of the mark of NC State and all of us graduates,” said Fryer, who earned her Ph.D. from NC State in 1996. She cited the roads that Wolfpack engineers have built and the innovations of textiles graduates. “Nobody wakes up in North Carolina without being touched by NC State in so many ways.”
03.22.2012
NC State’s Khayrallah Program for Lebanese-American Studies is holding a premiere of a new film Wednesday, March 28, at the North Carolina Museum of History that tells the story of Lebanese immigration to North Carolina. Cedars in the Pines marks the first project in a series that the program, which NC State magazine highlighted in the Summer 2011 issue, is using to research, document, preserve and publicize the history of the state’s Lebanese-American community.
The film traces the origin of Lebanese immigration to the 1890s, when Lebanese immigrants arrived in America’s eastern and southern ports. It also focuses on Lebanon’s civil war, which started in 1975 and served as a catalyst for another wave of immigration that would occur over the next 35 years. Many of the 16,000 who came to North Carolina contributed to the state’s history and cultural life.
“The Lebanese community in North Carolina embodies a resilient and unique identity that is both Middle Eastern and Southern,” says Akram Khater, director of the Khayrallah Program at NC State University. “They cherish the history of their ancestors as a vibrant connection to the past even as they embrace and enrich their new homeland.”
The film is directed by Danica Cullinan, who graduated in 2008 from CHASS with a master’s degree, and it is a collaborative effort with the Khayrallah Program, NC State’s Department of History and Department of English’s Language and Life Project.
03.14.2012
Three librarians from NCSU Libraries have been honored for using mobile technology to help students get acquainted with the wide variety of services and sources of information available at the library.
NC State librarians Anne Burke, Adrienne Lai and Adam Rogers were the 2012 recipients of the Association of College and Research Libraries College Libraries Section Pro Quest Innovation in College Librarianship Award for their work to develop the NCSU Libraries Mobile Scavenger Hunt. The award, from the American Library Association, honors members who have “demonstrated a capacity for innovation.”
Rather than follow a librarian on a traditional tour of the library or read a website in a computer lab, students can use the Mobile Scavenger Hunt to interact with the library, its staff and its websites. Teams of students played a fast-paced game that required them to take photos around the library and text information back to librarians.
Casie Fedukovich, associate director of the First-Year Writing Program at NC State, said the scavenger hunt engaged her students “on a level that led to increased understanding, deeper learning and almost complete recall of important library functions.”
03.13.2012
When it comes to community service, few schools can top NC State.
We’ve known that for years, but now it’s official. NC State is one of five universities to be recognized with the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for 2012.
The award was in recognition of the wide range of service activities that NC State students engage in. Almost 22,000 students at NC State spent a total of 330,000 hours doing community service work during the 2010-2011 academic year. The estimated “dollar value” of that effort was more than $7 million.
“North Carolina State University aims to transform lives, improve the human condition and create positive social change through partnerships with communities, business and government,” read the citation. “Community engagement partnership cultivation is an expectation of all college and university departments.”
The other institutions in the top five were Seattle University, University of Pennsylvania, Miami University and Carson Newman College.
03.07.2012
Happy Birthday, NC State!
It was on this day, 125 years ago, that Charles Dabney signed the legislation to create the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. That, of course, would later become what we now know as NC State.
Today also kicks off a yearlong celebration of the university’s 125th birthday. It will feature a birthday bash at Reynolds Coliseum on April 2, a bigger and better homecoming celebration this fall, the dedication of the Hunt Library on Centennial Campus and much more. There will even be a new flavor of Howling Cow ice cream.
It would be worth your while to take a few minutes to visit the university’s website on the 125th anniversary. While you’re there, be sure to check out the video that captures NC State’s tradition of excellence and the transformative nature of the work being done here.
Here at RedandWhiteforLife.com, we’ll be marking the year with periodic reminders of important, or fun, dates in NC State’s history. Stay tuned.
03.06.2012
Photo courtesy of NC State Athletics.
When the Belk Bowl ended with NC State defeating Louisville, 31-24, in late December, senior linebacker Audie Cole walked off the collegiate field for the last time as an NC State player. Then he went home to Michigan for a few days to hunt, after which he started preparing for the NFL Combine, held in Indianapolis, Ind., last week.
“You get there and it’s long days,” Cole says of the event, where future NFL stars and yeomen gather to prove their mental and physical mettle for NFL scouts, coaches and general managers. “It’s kind of like they’re trying to wear you down and see what you’re made of.”
Cole says that despite everyone wanting to be the best, he was encouraged by how supportive the environment was. Even players from rival teams like North Carolina cheered him on as he went through the drills.
“Everyone’s trying to make it to the next level and do the same thing,” he says.
Players also underwent medical tests and had interviews with coaches. And even if Cole didn’t have a formal interview, he tried to talk to the linebacker coaches for all 32 teams.
Coaches asked Cole about the defensive schemes he played in at NC State, where he was the Wolfpack’s leading tackler the last two seasons. They also tried to get to know him. Cole says he just tried to be himself.
“They know all the answers. They know everything,” he says. “They know skeletons in your closet,” but they just want the players to be honest.
Now Cole must wait until the NFL Draft gets underway April 27-28. His pro day, where he will work out for teams, will be at NC State on March 21.
03.05.2012
Alex Webster, a bruising football player at NC State who went on to a stellar career as a fullback and coach for the New York Giants, died Saturday in Port St. Lucie, Fla. He was 80.
Webster was known as “Big Red” primarily because of his reddish hair, but he was also a big man who wore down opponents. At NC State, Webster played single-wing tailback, returned kicks and played in the secondary on defense for what was then known as State College. Webster still has the fifth longest punt return in school history — 86 yards against Wake Forest in 1951.
“He was a very good, very tough football player,” one of his teammates, Leon Simon, told gopack.com in 2010.
Webster, from Kearny, N.J., played at NC State from 1949-53, an era very different from today’s big stadiums, expansive locker rooms and state-of-the-art training facilities. Webster played at Riddick Stadium, where many players had rooms beneath the stands. Players wore leather helmets without face masks.
“I suffered a broken nose six times; it was just part of the game back then,” Webster told gopack.com. He said he didn’t get a face mask until his third year in the pros.
Only one of the four teams Webster played on at NC State had a winning record. Team stats were not kept during his first two seasons, but Webster rushed for 634 yards in 1951 and 459 yards in 1952.
Despite not being named an All-American or all-conference player, Webster was drafted by the Washington Redskins. After being cut by the Redskins, Webster played for two years in what was then known as Canada’s Big Four Football Union (including one in which he led the league in rushing and scoring) before signing with the New York Giants.
Webster rushed for 928 yards in 1961 and 743 yards in 1962 as a fullback for the Giants. He ran for 4,638 yards and 39 touchdowns during a 10-year career that included one NFL championship and two selections to the Pro Bowl. Webster’s rushing statistics still rank in the top five all-time for the Giants, according to The New York Times.
“He was so strong at 230-plus pounds that it was impossible to arm-tackle him,” former Giants star Frank Gifford noted in his memoir. “People either bounced off him or he ran over them. Every time he got the ball, he turned into a grinding machine.”
After his playing days, Webster worked as an assistant coach for the Giants for two years before becoming the team’s head coach in 1969. He was named National Football Conference coach of the year in 1970. Webster was inducted into the Giants’ Ring of Honor last year.
“Great days, and great teams,” Webster told The News & Observer in 1981.
Webster in 1966 photo
Webster resigned in 1973 when the Giants finished with one of the worst records in the NFL. “I’ve always been a winner,” Webster said at the time. “When you pull the pieces together like we thought we had this year, when you think you have something, it’s tough to accept losing.”
Webster fondly recalled his four years at NC State, where he met his wife, Louise, who died in 2010. When a reporter for The N&O caught up with Webster in 1981, after his playing and coaching days were over, Webster used the occasion to check on the Wolfpack.
“Hey, tell me about NC State,” he said. “I hear that the Pack’s undefeated. How do they look?”
Webster is survived by his daughter, Debbie Moberg of Point Pleasant, N.J.; his son, James Webster of Hobe Sound, Fla.; his brother, James Webster of Grand Rapids, Mich.; four grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
Memorial contributions may be made to Harbor Place, 3700 SE Jennings Road, Port St. Lucie, Fla., 34952.
Visitation will be on Wednesday, March 7, from 10-11 a.m. in the chapel of Martin Funeral Home, Stuart, Fla., with a Celebration Service to begin at 11 a.m.
Subscribe