In 1964, George Robert Armstrong, a traveling salesman for three companies, brought home a briefcase, filled to the brim with tough-looking cartoon character sketches and decals, to his children and wife, Nola Armstrong. In frequent contact with NC State and the Student Supply Store, now known as the NC State Bookstore, he was in dire need to fulfill NC State’s main request: create a tougher and more sellable wolf image for the University.
“[North Carolina State University] had that wimpy, long-legged black wolf, running or something,” Nola said when she saw the current University’s mascot for the first time in 1964, according to Rick Armstrong, her son.
Although Nola was more of an abstract artist, she was up for the challenge and wanted to help her husband.
It was on this night that Nola picked up her pen and sketched the first version of what NC State students may know as the “strutting wolf image,” Rick said. In the sketch, the wolf stood upright and wore a cap and a sweater decorated with a block-shaped “S” and “NC” in smaller lettering within.
George then sent her sketches to one of the businesses he represented at the time, Collegiate Manufacturing Company, which created university decals, parking permits and stickers in Ames, Iowa. According to Rick, it is believed that Nola’s sketch was later handed to Angelus-Pacific Co., another business George represented in Fullerton, California, which mainly produced window decals, stickers and parking permits for universities or other businesses.
At Angelus-Paficic, it is likely that the lead artist, Arthur Evans, who Rick and others deem “the most famous artist you’ve never heard of,” took Nola’s image and standardized it so it would fit among the other mascots he created for other universities, such as University of Florida’s gator and Mississippi State’s bulldog, Rick said.
It was then Evans’s polished wolf sketch inspired from Nola’s that was cherished and used by the Wolfpack community, according to Rick.
However, neither Nola nor Evans are not given credit for their drawings and sketches. According to NC State’s Trademark Licensing website, the “strutting wolf” image “appeared” in the early 1960s; the University has not attributed the drawing to a singular artist.
“With everything NC State knows currently, there are a lot of puzzle pieces missing,” Rick said. “Hopefully, what I am providing now, are the rest of those pieces.”
According to Rick, Nola watched NC State’s wolf logo evolve throughout the years, stating it wasn’t quite the same wolf she drew, but it was very similar. Her original wolf did not have stripes on the sweater, which was sometimes drawn on the new image.
Gregg Zarnstorff, director of trademarks and brand protection and strategic brand management at NC State, stated that the “strutting wolf” image most likely derived over time and through several revisions. The University is continually looking for any materials on the image, but like Rick stated, the University has limited timelines.
“We do know the wolf head trademark (the one with the bean pot style hat and NCS lettering), most likely emerged post WWII,” Zarnstorff stated over email. “It could be that during the mid-1960s that commercial interests wanted a full body version of the hat wearing wolf-head and perhaps that’s when Nola Armstrong, Arthur Evans, and Angelus Pacific added the wolf head.”
Due to the success of the new logo given to NC State by George, he was hired as the assistant manager of the NC State Student Supply Store in 1965, Rick said, and was later promoted to general manager after his predecessor retired.
Of course, Nola could not resist continuing to make an impact; she had to get involved and create.
After NC State’s iconic 1974 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship victory, Nola would tirelessly cut out vinyl images of basketball players, like David Thompson, and press them onto T-shirts, banners and more, using the Student Supply Store’s machine, Rick said.
Nola also started her own business called Orange Door Art in the late 1970s, which often centered around NC State merchandise, Rick said. For example, she produced a variety of needlepoint kits that were sold at the Student Supply Store. These kits depicted NC State’s wolf in that same strutting pose she had sketched five years earlier.
Amid her multiple NC State creations, Rick said Nola also created an op art painting called “Gem Star,” which was on display in the North Carolina Museum of Art in the late ‘60s.
According to Rick, those that hired George at the Student Supply Store knew of Nola’s artistic ability and the plethora of contributions she made to NC State.
“They knew about her, and he was proud of her,” Rick said.
This year, on Aug. 15, Nola died at the age of 86. She is survived by five of her six children, 16 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
“My mom loved getting other people involved,” Rick said. “She loved teaching art, she loved being taught the right techniques… That really filled her life, to be involved with creating things, painting, all of her children proudly have hanging pictures she had or created.”
According to Rick, Nola’s creative gene got spread throughout her family.
“That gene got spread into the rest of us in different ways, via photography, videography, like me, editing and news editing and all that creative work,” Rick said. “My brother is into woodwork, which are artists in their own rights. We are passing that onto our own children. I have children who love painting and drawing and all the kinds of stuff.”
While the Armstrong family can remember and honor Nola by admiring the “Gem Star” painting, which is hanging in one of their homes, and through the pursuit of their own artistic abilities, the NC State community can honor Nola’s legacy as well.
Every time you see the “strutting wolf” image on an NC State T-shirt, sweater mug and more, you can remember Nola’s creativity, altruism and passion for NC State that filled the NC State Student Supply Store and continues to represent the University today.
“Her passion has always been to create beautiful things — and with as much joy, she often gave beautiful things away,” Rick said in his own article on Nola. “Tuffy [the wolf], beautiful in his own way, is one of those gifts.”
Nola Armstrong holds one of her needlepoint kit designs that were sold in the NC State Student Supply Store in the 1970s.
