Pack Me Like a Hurricane

Hurricane Florence (9/11/2018)

© Tim Peeler, 2018

NOTE: If you enjoy reading "One Brick Back" and would like to help offset research expenses for stories such as this, please make a small donation to the cause and help keep these posts free of ads.

On the radio the other day, as massive Hurricane Florence began its swirling journey towards the North Carolina coast, someone suggested that I needed a better hobby than cataloguing the Atlantic hurricanes that have affected NC State's football games through the years.

Eh, you have to do something in life, and it seems there have been many opportunities to write about the confluence of natural disasters and Wolfpack football.

Here's a comprehensive list, to the best of my researching abilities, of all the home games NC State has hosted within two days before and after a hurricane or tropical storm landfall. Admittedly, some of the games, like the 1989 NC State-UNC game two days after Hugo swept through the middle of the state, were hurricane- or storm-adjacent.

Not all of them had the massive wind and rain like Matthew dumped in the middle of State-Notre Dame game on Oct. 8, 2016, as the school celebrated the 50th anniversary of Carter-Finley Stadium.

Take Doria, for example.

It made landfall on the North Carolina-Virginia coast on Sept. 16, 1967, the same day the only day-night doubleheader in ACC history was played at what was then called Carter Stadium. In the day portion, NC State beat North Carolina, 13-7, while Duke beat Wake Forest 31-13 in the nightcap, the first college night game played at the two-year-old stadium. (The Chicago Bears beat the Washington Redskins in a night game two weeks earlier in the first of four consecutive NFL exhibition games hosted by the Raleigh Junior Chamber of Commerce.)

No rain was recorded on Big Four Day or the next in the Research Triangle region, but wind gusts of up to 20 miles an hour surely had something to do with the three missed field goals in the two games. NC State's Gerald Warren, however, was a perfect 2-for-2, putting points on the board from 44 and 47 yards.

Here's my list of NC State home games affected by hurricanes. (I've amended an earlier version of this after further research to remove a 1933 tie between NC State and Florida at Riddick Stadium. Turns out, as a dedicated meteorologist pointed out, that game was on Oct. 14 and the famous Outer Banks hurricane that came over Raleigh that year was on Sept. 15.)

Included below and above are recaps from each of the 17 hurricane home games, plus one fascinating road game, with links to some stories I've written through the years about those games or memories of those hurricanes.

Like snakebites, North Carolinians have to endure more than their share of these dangerous events than the rest of the country.


Nov. 7, 1942: Eleven months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, NC State traveled by train to face Miami in a Friday night non-conference game (this is the only road game mentioned here and is not on the above list.) Decimated by the loss of conscientious-objecting brothers Peanut and Chick Doak, the Wolfpack managed to squeak out the only 2-0 victory in school history on a rain-soaked Burdine Stadium field, which had been saturated by a late-season, unnamed Florida hurricane the day before.

Oct. 21, 1944: On the day Gen. Douglas MacArthur returned to the Philippines, an unnamed Atlantic hurricane that had already destroyed a third of the Florida citrus crop made landfall near Sullivan's Island, South Carolina. Remnants of that storm lingered over NC State's Riddick Stadium when unbeaten Wake Forest came to town for an important Southern Conference showdown. The Deacons improved to 5-0 on the season with a 21-7 Saturday night victory, en route to an 8-1 overall record and the best season winning percentage in school history.

Oct. 16, 1954: NC State and Florida State not only played less than 24 hours after Hurricane Hazel, the worst natural disaster in state history and the only Category 4 hurricane--so far--to make landfall in North Carolina, ravaged the East Coast. Raleigh was directly in its path and NC State's campus suffered damage from the massive storm. Meanwhile, the Seminoles left the biggest polio outbreak in Florida history to face the Wolfpack in the nonconference contest. Everyone survived the twin disasters.

Oct. 19, 1968: On a field soaked by the heavy rains of Gladys, NC State defeated Virginia, of all teams, in a game that all but decided the 1968 ACC championship, the last of Earle Edwards' then-record five league football titles. The rebuilt Wolfpack defense, minus the white shoes of the previous season, held ACC Player and Athlete of the Year Frank Quayle to 67 yards on 20 carries and won its fourth consecutive ACC game. Of all the hurricane games NC State ever played, this might have been the most beneficial.[READ FULL STORY HERE}

Oct. 2, 1971: Ginger, the second-longest tropical cyclone in history, wandered in the Atlantic Ocean so long it should have been called Moses. It spent 28 days roiling seas from the Bahamas to Bermuda to parts of the east coast; it was a full-force hurricane for 20 of those days. It was the fourth (and final) hurricane that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tried to control by dropping silver iodide into the center of it, in an effort know as Project Stormfury. It had no impact on the severity of the storm. Neither did the quickly dissappating storm have much of an impact on the inland football game two days after it finally began breaking apart. The game began under cloudy and threatening skies, and it rained intermittently throughout. It didn't, however, slow down the 10 different ball carriers unbeaten North Carolina used to amass 297 rushing yards for its fourth victory of the season. Winless State's only score came on a 36-yard touchdown run by Charley Young.

Sept. 10, 1977: Following a last-minute loss to East Carolina the week before, the Wolfpack bounced back with a 14-0 win over Virginia, handing the Cavs their 20th loss in their last 23 ACC contests and giving Pack defensive coordinator Chuck Amato his first shutout. But it wasn't easy: The Wolfpack running backs in head coach Bo Rein's split veer offense fumbled the ball 11 times, committing a total of three turnovers on the wet surface. Hurricane Babe, a Gulf of Mexico weakling, made landfall in Louisiana and spent three days dumping water on the southeast before breaking up in North Carolina the day before the State-Virginia kickoff. It was the first of five straight wins for Rein's team, which went on to beat Iowa State in the Peach Bowl.

Sept. 15, 1984:Two days after Hurricane Diana, the first major hurricane to hit the East Coast in 20 years, landed as a Category 2 storm near Wilmington, the Wolfpack suffered another disaster when NCAA Division I-AA opponent Furman, coached by Dick Sheridan, came to Carter-Finley and beat Sheridan's future employer 34-30. The Paladins chewed up 302 wet rushing yards against the Wolfpack defense. It was the first of consecutive wins over NC State for a school that was once known as the Purple Hurricane.

Sept. 23, 1989: A personal recollection of the worst storm I ever lived through, the mighty Hugo, which devastated the South Carolina coast, then sneaked up I-85 through Charlotte and other areas of the Piedmont far from the beach. This blog post contains one of the greatest quotes that ever appeared in a story I helped with.

Oct. 6, 1990: In one of the most active, but least destructive Atlantic hurricane seasons on record, the combination of hurricanes Josephine-Klaus-Lili and tropical storm Marco covered the Southeast in rain in late September and early October. Marco was the last to blow through, but none of them substantially impacted an NC State home game, other than the softened turf in a 56-0 Homecoming victory over Appalachian State, which gave Dick Sheridan his 100th career victory as a head coach.

Sept. 6, 1996: The worst storm to ever hit the Triangle, Fran is the weather bellwether for Raleighites. You were either here for it, or you don't understand how amazing it is that NC State played less than 36 hours after landfall, with ABC needing multiple generators just to operate its equipment for the television broadcast. Georgia Tech won the game, but dedicated NC State staff members were the big winners that day.

Sept. 3, 1998: Twenty years ago, NC State opened its season in a rain-drenched and windy Thursday night contest against upset-minded Ohio in the aftermath of hurricanes Bonnie and Earl. The Bobcats led 31-17 just after halftime, but a 61-yard touchdown reception by Torry Holt and a 22-yard touchdown run by Ray Robinson over the next 10 minutes got the Wolfpack back in the game and awoke a soggy crowd. With two minutes remaining in the game, Ohio was called for a penalty on a punt and was forced to replay the down. On the rekick, Roderick Brown, broke through the line to block the punt and wide receiver Chris Coleman return on the ball for a game-winning, hurricane-helped touchdown. The next week, coach Mike O'Cain's team whipped No. 2 Florida State in the biggest home victory in program history.

Sept. 4, 1999: Perhaps the wettest game ever played at Carter-Finley Stadium was in a season opener against South Carolina, led by former Wolfpack coach Lou Holtz. In a soupy quagmire on Carter-Finley's crowned surface caused by Tropical Storm Dennis, the Wolfpack put a damper on Holtz's return to the stadium where he lost only one home game in four years. Nearly three inches of inches of rain on the field during the course of the game, forcing Holtz to go through seven rain jackets and causing the Gamecocks to fumble eight times. “There was only one other time I can remember worse conditions than these, back  when I was at William & Mary,” Holtz said. “Other than that, it was by far the worst conditions ever. I never saw it rain like this when I was [at NC State, from 1972-75]. And we never got to practice for this game in the rain. Every time we had some rain, we had lightning, too, and we aren't quick enough to practice in lightning.” The Wolfpack won the game despite gaining only 96 yards in total offense, thanks to a fourth-quarter blocked punt by defensive back Brian Williams that wide receiver Koren Robinson recovered for a touchdown. Otherwise, both teams were stymied in their attempts to move the ball.

Sept. 14, 2002: The Wolfpack began the ACC portion of its most successful season in school history with yet another rainy win, its third in four contests. This time, the renmants of gulf coast tropical storm Hanna caused the wet weather as it passed through Georgia and the Carolinas. Freshman T.A. McLendon returned from a shoulder injury to score two touchdowns in the 32-13 win while Rivers passes for 233 yards. Safety Terrence Holt blocked the 12th kick of his career to set the ACC record. It was the fourth victory in a school-record 9-0 start to the season under third-year head coach Chuck Amato. 

Rolling up Carter-Finley's tarp.

Sept. 6, 2008: Hurricane Hanna dumped five inches of rain on Raleigh about 12 hours before the Wolfpack's home opener against William & Mary game. For the first time in the stadium’s history, a tarp was rolled out to protect the playing surface and by game time the storm had passed. The Pack managed to hold on for a 34-24 victory in what was supposed to be redshirt freshman Russell Wilson’s home debut. However, he missed the game because of a concussion he suffered at South Carolina the week before, and the Pack relied on Harrison Beck to come off the bench for the win.
  

Oct. 2, 2015: Pregame worries about Hurricane Joaquin, which took a sudden turn north the day before Louisville played the Wolfpack at Carter-Finley Stadium, proved to be unfounded and certainly didn't slow down Cardinal freshman quarterback Lamar Jackson, who rushed for 121 yards and threw for 103 more. Jackson opened the game with a 68-yard sprint for a touchdown before heavy rains from Joaquin's outer bands began to fall, as both teams slogged through the second half.

Sept. 1, 2016: Hurricane Hermine was lingering off the coast of Wilmington the day before the 2016 season opener, with few indications of which direction it would go. Rain from outer bands dampened the field, but had little impact on quarterback Ryan Finley's first start for the Pack. Matt Dayes and Jaylen Samuels combined for five rushing touchdowns in the 48-14 victory. Hermine made landfall the next day near Wilmington, but was a distant No. 2 when it came to hurricanes of note that season.

Oct. 6, 2016: It was supposed to be a 50th-anniversary celebration of the first game ever played at Carter Stadium and the first time Notre Dame ever played in Raleigh. Instead, it became an extended scene from "Bull Durham," as players slid, unintentionally for the most part, all over the field in a 10-3 nationally televised Wolfpack win.

Sept. 15, 2018: The NC State-West Virginia contest scheduled for this week has been postponed because of the impending arrival of massive Category 5 Hurricane Florence, which weather-trackers say will head towards Raleigh after making landfall on the North Carolina coast on Thursday/Friday. In its place, NC State scheduled a home game against East Carolina, which had its game against North Carolina cancelled because of the same storm. The two in-state rivals met each other on Dec. 1 at Carter-Finley Stadium, with the Wolfpack winning 58-3.