Four-Sport Star Dave Robertson

1917 National League champion New York Giants

Most Wolfpack fans have never heard of Dave Robertson, one of new six inductees into the NC State Athletic Hall of Fame announced on Wednesday. Maybe that's because he was born the year the school opened its doors in 1889 and died more than 45 years ago. Also, the soft-spoken former Virginia state game warden didn't talk much about his athletic accomplishments, even to his family.

At the North Carolina School for Agriculture and Mechanic Arts from 1909-12, Robertson was a four-sport standout, excelling at football, baseball and track. For good measure, he was on A&M's first basketball team, which played a pair of games against Wake Forest, a school where Robertson attended for one year before moving south a few miles to Raleigh, in 1911.

I first discovered and wrote the following story about Robertson's place as NC State's first significant professional athlete in the book NC State Basketball: 100 Years of Innovation. Here's what made Robertson a hall of famer.
 

NC A&M pitcher and third baseman Dave Robertson.

One of the two reserves on the first basketball team was Dave Robertson, a sophomore from Norfolk, Va. Robertson played only a few moments as a backup center in the two games against Wake Forest’s Baptists, but he eventually became the first accomplished professional athlete in the early history of North Carolina A&M.

Davis Aydelotte Robertson (b. Sept. 25, 1889–d. Nov. 5, 1970) was a four-sport letterman during his college days, whose speed in football, basketball and baseball was rivaled only by teammate Harry Hartsell. On the track, he excelled at the 100-yard dash, the broad jump and the high hurdles.

It was on the baseball diamond, where he played third base and pitched, that Robertson was a superstar, paving the way for future NC State multi-sport stars like Roman Gabriel, Tim Stoddard, Andrew Brackman and Russell Wilson.

Robertson was a terror at the plate and he and future football and basketball coach Tal Stafford gave the Farmers a 1-2 pitching punch that was second to none in the southeast. In Robertson’s final year, A&M lost only two games all season.

His greatest achievement in college came on April 15, 1911, when the sophomore lefthander struck out 23 batters in a 5-2 victory over Guilford College at Riddick Field. The Agromeck breathlessly proclaimed it to be “the world’s college strike-out record” and “the greatest performance of its kind ever to fall to the lot of an amateur pitcher.” In fact, it is a record that no individual NC State pitcher has matched in the 100 years since. It wasn’t until the spring of 2009, in an 18-inning game against Akron, that a Wolfpack team surpassed Robertson’s single-game total, as the staff combined to strike out 31 batters in the longest game in NC State baseball history.

A local scout who saw the game against the Quakers recommended Robertson to legendary New York Giants manager John McGraw, whose team was in the midst of winning three consecutive National League pennants. McGraw agreed to sign the young pitcher if he promised not to play football the following fall. Robertson, the team's top halfback and kick returner, talked the crusty manager into letting him play in three games for the Farmers during the 1911 season.

Football halfback

Against Bucknell in the season’s second game, however, Robertson suffered a career-altering shoulder injury in a mass pileup of players.

“He had the shoulder strapped up and went back into the game. But he was speedily put out of commission with another damaged shoulder, and as that exhausted his supply of shoulders, he quit,” said a 1916 story in The Baseball Magazine. “Later it came to light that both shoulders were broken, although he didn’t realize it in the heat of battle.”

The football injuries cost Robertson his pinpoint control on the mound, but not McGraw’s commitment to signing him to a professional contract. He became an excellent outfielder, known for his combination of speed and power that earned him the nickname "The National League's Ty Cobb."

Less than three months after leaving A&M (and only seven weeks after the Titanic sank), Robertson made his major league debut for McGraw on June 5, 1912 in a 22-10 blowout against the Cincinnati Reds. The Giants, en route to an NL-leading 103 wins and 828 runs, didn’t really need Robertson’s power and speed that season, so he played in only three games.

He spent all of 1913 with the Mobile (Alabama) Sea Gulls in the South Atlantic League, where he batted .335 and smacked a whooping (during the dead-ball era) 11 home runs. He returned to the Giants in 1914 as a utility player. In 1915 and ’16, Robertson tied for the National League home run championship, with 12 in each season.

Robertson loved to tell the story of how one of his homers in 1915 cost him the unheard of sum of $100.

“We were playing the Chicago Cubs in the Polo Grounds in 1915. We had a man on base and John McGraw instructed me to bunt,” Robertson once told the Virginian Pilot newspaper. “A fat pitch came over and I couldn’t resist. I slammed the ball into the right field bleachers for a homer, winning the game 3-2.

With the Giants, Robertson played right field.

“But instead of receiving congratulations for my feat, McGraw said the homer would cost me $100 for disobeying orders.”

He was the starting rightfielder for the Giants in the 1917 World Series against “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and the Chicago White Sox. Robertson had 11 hits in 22 at-bats against the White Sox, becoming the first player in baseball history to get a hit in every championship game. His .500 batting average also set a record that stood for 36 years until it was broken by New York Yankees outfielder Billy Martin.

He after stints with the Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates, Robertson returned to the Giants in 1922, but did not play in the only fall classic played in one stadium, the Polo Grounds, which both the Giants and the Yankees called home at the time.

His major league career ended because of a knee injury after nine seasons.

Robertson served as state game warden for 28 years after his baseball career ended and successfully operated a sporting goods store. He died at the age of 89 on Nov. 5, 1970 in Virginia Beach, Va.

  

Five Fun Facts

• The opposing pitcher in Robertson’s recording-setting game against Guilford was future major leaguer Ernie Shore, longtime sheriff of Forsyth County and the namesake for Winston-Salem's minor league ball park. Shore was famous for pitching a perfect game in the majors after replacing Red Sox pitcher Babe Ruth, who was ejected after arguing with the umpire when he walked the first batter of the game.
• In one of his biggest brushes with fame, Robertson was sent in to replace Jim Thorpe in right field in Game 5 of the 1917 World Series, the only major league game Thorpe ever played.
• On Aug. 30, 1921, Robertson became just the 29^th player of the modern baseball era (44^th overall) to hit for the cycle.
•   In 1953, Robertson received one vote for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
• After his major league career ended, Robertson continued to play and manage in the minor leagues, primarily for the Richmond Colts and Norfolk Tars in his home state of Virginia. In 1926, he hit a career-high 35 home runs in a 140-game season for the Tars. He was second in the league in both homers and batting average (.385). He retired to Norfolk in 1931.

Case's Final Gift To His Players

The late Dean Smith made news last week when his will revealed that the Hall of Fame coach left about $35,000 of his final estate to former UNC-Chapel Hill players, an extremely generous and kind gift that mimicked what NC State Hall of Fame coach Everett Case did for 57 of his former Wolfpack players nearly a half century ago.

Smith sent about 180 former Tar Heel players a check for $200 and told them to have a nice dinner on him. It was the perfect gesture from the coach, who always treated his players to the best hotels, the best restaurants, the best modes of travel when his team was on the road. It was always a bit of a letdown when they made it to the NCAA Tournament and had to stay at, eat at and travel by NCAA-selected vendors.

Smith always considered treating his teams to the finest things one of the few perks he could give to players who made so much money for the school and for the NCAA.

Case, a lifetime bachelor who died of cancer in 1966 with only one living relative, set aside for his players a third of his substantial estate of more than $200,000, which he acquired from his coaching salary, his multiple business ventures (including an Indiana drive-in restaurant) and many wise investments.

Dean Smith, Vic Bubas, Everett Case, Bones McKinney

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When Case died of multiple myeloma on April 30, 1966, his estate was worth about $1.5 million in current value. Two-thirds of his estate was left for the care of his unmarried sister, Blanche Etta Case, who lived with him at his house in Raleigh’s Cameron Village.

The rest was divided into 103 shares that were doled out to 57 of his former players. Some players got as many as three shares. Some got a half a share. Each was free to spend it however they wished.

All-Americans Dick Dickey, Ronnie Shavlik, Sammy Ranzino, Bobby Speight and Vic Molodet were among those who received three shares, as did aspiring coaches Norman Sloan, Vic Bubas, Mel Thompson and Bucky Waters.

“He said his players were responsible for the reputation he had attained in coaching and he wanted to show his appreciation,” Fred H. Jones, one of the executors of Case’s will, told Whitey Bell of the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer when details were made public a few weeks after Case’s death. “Everett said he was having trouble trying to decide how to divide the estate because some of his players helped more than others, but that all of them were close to his heart.

“Everett was meticulous in preparing his list,” Jones said. “He went through pictures of all his teams at State and listed the names of those he wanted to remember in his will. Then he decided his unit share. It must have taken him a long time.

“I don’t think the general public knows just how much his boys meant to Case. His was more a father-son relationship than it was a coach.”

Everett Case

Notably missing from the list were all the players from the 1964-65 ACC championship team. Case stepped down two games into that season 50 years ago, handing the club over to his hand-picked successor, Press Maravich. Those were the ones who lifted Case up to cut down the nets one final time after the Wolfpack beat Duke in the ACC title game at Reynolds Coliseum, a nod to Case introducing that Indiana high school basketball tradition to the college game.

They had not graduated by the time Case’s will was read. However, they all served as the pallbearers at the coach’s funeral, an honor that still fills each of them with pride.

It wasn’t just superstars who received the most shares. Waters, who became head coach at West Virginia and Duke before going on to a long career in broadcasting, got three shares, even though he was a three-year reserve for the Wolfpack.

For him and his family, that gift meant more than just being remembered by his former coach. It may have helped save his young son, who had a severe milk allergy and relied on a special kind of formula for sustenance.

"I was making about $5,000 a year and that stuff was 70 cents a can, and he was using three cans a day,” Waters said. “So it didn't go into a convertible or anything like that.

“It was a godsend."

Former guard Joe Harand, the last remaining member of Case’s first team, has a daily reminder of how he used the money from his half-share. He bought his first color television with the money and with the few dollars he had left over bought a gold-plated sign for his television stand that reads “Through the generosity of Everett N. Case.”

The television is long gone, but the sign remains in Harand’s home in Shelby, along with the affection he’s always felt for the coach that brought big-time basketball to North Carolina.

The late Paul Brandenburg, who played for Case in the early 1950s, used his three shares to make improvements on the house he bought in 1970 in Greensboro, North Carolina. He extended the driveway at his new home so he could install a basketball goal for his seven children—one small step in fulfilling Case’s dream of seeing a basketball goal at every home he drove by in his big red Cadillac.

Paul Brandenburg

“Dad always invited his teammates over to the house for a big party during ACC tournament weekend when it was here in Greensboro,” said Paul’s son, Brien Brandenburg. “There would be 30 or more former players and their wives come over. Many years, we could get them to go out back and start shooting 40-foot two-hand set shots and all kinds of trick shots in the backyard on that goal that Everett Case paid for.

“My youngest sister still lives in that house, and her two sons play basketball there to this day, as do all of his other grandkids when we all go over there for family get-togethers.”

Here are the players who received shares from Case’s will:

Norman Sloan
Dick Dickey
Warren Cartier
Sam Ranzino
Vic Bubas
Lee Terrill
Bobby Holt
Eddie Morris
George Pickett
Paul Brandenburg
Bobby Speight
Vic Molodet
Ronnie Shavlik
Bucky Waters
George Stepanovich
Lou Pucillo
Dan Englehardt
Dan Wherry
Jack McComas
Leo Katkaveck
Eddie Bartels
Bill Kukoy
Dick Tyler
Mel Thompson
Ronnie Scheffel
Phil DiNardo
Whitey Bell
Nick Pond
Bob MacGillivray
John Richter
Smedes York
Ron Gossell
Bob Cook
Pete Jackmouski
Joe Stoll
Jim Stevenson
Bob Seitz
Tom Hopper
Ken Clark
Denny Lutz
Jim Whitfield
Paul Horvath
Joe Harand
Charlie Adams
Doug Kincaid
Herb Applebaum
Bernie Yurin
Lou Dickman
Marvin Kessler
Harold Atkins
Bob McCann
Bruce Hoadley
Bob DiStefano
John Key
Pete Auksel
Don Grenier
Les Robinson

Pack, 'Cats Have Met Before in NCAAs

NC State and Villanova will meet Saturday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in Pittsburgh. It's the second time the old rivals have faced each other in the postseason. The first meeting was 64 years ago on Friday at the end of a season that was positively Kukoy.

 
©  Tim Peeler, 2015

Sixty-four years ago today, at the end of a most unusual 1950-51 season, NC State and Villanova squared off against each other for the third time in three months.

The two college powerhouses were frequent opponents back then, often playing twice a season. NC State Hall of Fame coach Everett Case loved playing Philadelphia schools because of the city’s basketball tradition, its recruiting opportunities and the chance to play at the 10,000-seat Palestra. He often scheduled home-and-home game with Villanova and other Big Five schools LaSalle and Temple.

Among those who made the trip South to play for Case during that era were future All-Americans John Richter and Lou Pucillo of Philadelphia, as well as other area stars like Bob Seitz, Bucky Waters, Phil DiNardo and John Maglio.

In 1949-50, Villanova handed State a loss in the regular-season finale, but the Wolfpack went on to win the Southern Conference championship and advanced to the NCAA semifinals (the Final Four, in today’s terms).

The Main Liners won the first two games in 1950-51, the first in Raleigh in December at Reynolds Coliseum and the second at Philadelphia’s Palestra in mid-January. Coached by Jack Severance, Villanova was the first opponent to beat an Everett Case-coached team twice in the same season, extending Villanova’s winning streak against the Wolfpack to four in a row.

State’s 1951 team, despite the losses to Villanova, was one of Case’s best, with seniors Sammy Ranzino, Vic Bubas and Paul Horvath. Averaging 78.9 points a game, the Pack was the nation’s top scoring team and Ranzino was one of the top 10 individual scorers in the country, though he lost the Southern Conference scoring title by a fraction of a point to Duke’s Dick Groat.

But there was trouble afoot. The NCAA had relaxed its eligibility requirements during World War II to allow freshmen to compete in intercollegiate athletics. When it established its Sanity Code for Eligibility in 1947, it rescinded the freshman eligibility rule. The Southern Conference, however, did not, allowing freshmen—including Ranzino, Bubas and Horvath—to compete in 1947-48.

Just before the start of the 1951 Southern Conference tournament, the NCAA notified Case that his three seniors, who had all played as freshmen, would not be eligible for the NCAA Tournament, should the Pack qualify. The NCAA denied State’s final appeal on the day the Wolfpack beat South Carolina on the opening day of the Southern Conference tournament.

State beat Duke in the semifinals and Maryland in the title game and became one of a handful of schools during that time that received and accepted bids into both the more prominent National Invitation Tournament and the lesser NCAA, which had expanded from eight to 16 teams.

Ranzino, Bubas and Horvath were eligible to play in the NIT, which was bigger because it was held at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Seeded No. 2 in the tournament, Case and his team thought they had a good chance to win both events, just as the City College of New York had done the year before.

However, just before the Wolfpack left for the Big Apple, news of the first big point-shaving scandals to hit college basketball broke and a New York tabloid owned by William Randolph Hearst implicated NC State. The Charlotte office of the FBI verified that none of the implicated players were from NC State. Case took no chances, though, sequestering his team in the Downtown Athletic Club overlooking Central Park for the week and forcing them to take mid-term exams to avoid any chance of running into Big Apple gamblers.

In a foul mood, the Wolfpack laid an egg in opening round and lost to little-known Seton Hall, 71-59, after shooting just 18 percent from the field in the second half. It continued Case’s string of hard-luck appearances in Madison Square Garden.

The dejected Wolfpack returned to Raleigh to play in the first-ever NCAA Tournament game in Reynolds Coliseum, knowing it would not have its three seniors.

Making matters worse, Case’s team drew familiar-foe Villanova, which had defeated the Pack twice already that season. Not even a pregame ceremony in which the Wolfpack Club presented Case and his only assistant Carl “Butter” Anderson bright-red Cadillacs for winning their fifth consecutive Southern Conference title could cheer up the players.

Billy Kukoy

In one of the more remarkable NCAA tournament games in school history, sophomores Billy “Bowlegs” Kukoy, Bernie Yurin and Bobby Goss stepped into the starting lineup for the Wolfpack and were inspired by a raucous home crowd.

Case, known for his full-court man-to-man defense and high scoring offense, threw a zone at Nova’s driving offense. The Wildcats led 38-32 at the half and it looked like the losing streak might continue.

Kukoy, stepping in for Ranzino, scored State’s first 11 points of the second half, however, and finished with a career-high 27 points for the game, hitting 12 of his 31 shots on the night.

The Pack took a 67-62 victory, ending the Wildcats’ four-game winning streak over NC State. (BOXSCORE)

Kukoy eventually graduated from NC State, received a master’s degree from Purdue and was a longtime basketball coach in his hometown of Gary, Indiana. He died on Dec. 2, 2007, at the age of 80.

Case and his team had to return to Madison Square Garden two nights later to face Illinois in the second round. Kukoy suffered a dislocated shoulder early in the first half. Now down four regular players, the Pack’s lack of depth was too much to overcome in an 84-70 loss to the Illini. The next day, State lost to Frank McGuire-coached St. John’s in the regional consolation game, 71-59.

“I think one of the games that stands out most in my memory,” Case said years later, “and the game so many State fans have said they remember the most, was the win over Villanova.”