RALEIGH — The grave sits perched on a hill in the historic 72-acre Oakwood Cemetery near downtown. It bears “Valvano” carved in large letters on polished black stone, honoring North Carolina State’s charismatic coach who sold big dreams and then lived them in an unforgettable run to the 1983 national championship.
Jimmy V has been gone more than three decades. Yet visitors are leaving fresh tributes: flowers, a bobblehead of the late men’s basketball coach, a large “Go Pack” foam No. 1 finger, a small red-and-white basketball bearing the “Tuffy” sailor hat-wearing mascot, a can of Wolfpack-branded beer sitting aside a themed bag of “Pack Snack” kettle chips.
Among those: a sticker bearing the “Why not us?” mantra defining the maddest of March moments here in decades.
The Wolfpack men have followed their first Atlantic Coast Conference championship since 1987 with an even more improbable Final Four appearance, the first since Valvano’s “Cardiac Pack” magic of ‘83. Even more magical: The women are in the Final Four, too, their first trip since 1998, which came under their own beloved late Hall of Famer, Kay Yow.
It’s all led to an emotional reconnection with past glory on Tobacco Road, including this time a generation that has never seen anything like this before.
“Thrilled for both programs, both coaches, our students,” athletic director Boo Corrigan said. “But the fan base that’s been with us, that’s been a part of this and believing year in and year out, … the excitement is really kind of the best part of it.”
It’s a thrill borne of built-up frustration. The feeling of having to do everything the hard way as a constant underdog. Even fighting against a Murphy’s Law-type jinx known around these parts as “N.C. State (Expletive).” Yet battered hope remains, for a women’s team that has been nationally relevant for numerous seasons and a men’s program that spent much of the post-Valvano era wandering in the wilderness.
Payoffs came Sunday with Final Four tickets. Now N.C. State owns a spotlight it often has to fight to share with nearby rivals Duke — the 11th-seeded Wolfpack men’s Elite Eight victim — and North Carolina.
Rod Brind’Amour, coach of the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, understands those dynamics. The Hurricanes share PNC Arena with the Wolfpack men and played their Stadium Series outdoor game last year in the school’s Carter-Finley Stadium football home. He also married the daughter of former N.C. State player and assistant coach Eddie Biedenbach.
“It’s been a long time,” Brind’Amour said. “Something good needed to happen there (for) all the loyal fans and stuff. It’s pretty special that both teams … are in it. I think that’s pretty cool. It’s nice to have all the buzz around.”
That explains why fans keep flocking to the red-lit Memorial Belltower after wins to celebrate a ride beginning with the men’s five-games-in-five-days run to the ACC title, the origin of coach Kevin Keatts’ ”Why not us?” message to his players.
By early Monday, fans were greeting one Final Four team in its campus homecoming, then the other about two hours later.
N.C. State is the 11th school to reach the men’s and women’s Final Four in the same season. UConn is the only school to do it multiple times, and the Huskies’ double clinched Monday night marks the first time that two schools have done it in the same year.
The Wolfpack women face No. 1 overall seed and unbeaten South Carolina on Friday in Cleveland. The men face top regional seed Purdue on Saturday in Glendale, Arizona. Title games are Sunday and Monday, respectively.
“It’s a special time, obviously,” women’s coach Wes Moore said. “Memories that will last you a lifetime.”
