On March 25, 1974, NC State won its first team national championship in school history, with the 1973-74 men’s basketball team defeating the Marquette Golden Eagles just over an hour away at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex.
Two days later, Technician’s front-page headline read: “Marquette falls; Wolfpack reigns over all the land” (see p. 42). Under that headline was a picture of legendary guard Morris Rivers cutting down the net in celebration, and a story by Sports Editor Jim Pomeranz.
But Pomeranz’s story wasn’t a typical game recap; everyone in the country already knew what happened two days prior. Pomeranz and Technician’s editor at the time, Beverly Privette, had already sat down prior to the national championship game and discussed the format of the story and what angle Pomeranz was going to have to take.
“So we win on Monday night against Marquette to win the national title, and the story’s not until Wednesday’s paper,” Pomeranz said. “So it’s completely different, it’s a whole different approach. It’s not a game story — it was a feeling.”
And a feeling it was. Pomeranz expertly wove a story guided by the game’s participants, coaches and players alike, detailing how they felt and what they saw. It was a collection of commentary and quotes from players and coaches experiencing the raw emotion of having just won the national championship. Or, in the case of former Marquette head coach Al McGuire, having just lost the national championship.
“Everybody in the world will have seen the game on TV and read the paper,” Pomeranz said. “So what you print for the student paper … it’s got to be different.”
Without the luxury of the internet or a daily printing service, Pomeranz was given an opportunity to write a story with almost 24 hours to reflect. Today content is key, and game stories are typically up within minutes of a game’s conclusion.
It was much of the same in 1983 when the infamous “Cardiac Pack” went on miraculous ACC Tournament and NCAA Tournament runs, emerging as champions of both and securing NC State’s most recent team sport national championship.
After head coach Jim Valvano’s Wolfpack took down the 31-2 “Phi Slama Jama” Houston Cougars 54-52 to win the NCAA championship, it came time to write the story for Technician’s front page. Sports Editor William Terry Kelley had a whole 24 hours to workshop his story before it had to meet deadline for Wednesday’s paper. Kelley took a different approach from Pomeranz, beautifully crafting a traditional game story, one that highlighted the main themes of the game.
The 1973-74 and 1982-83 men’s basketball teams are two of the most historic teams in school history. The ‘83 championship team even had an ESPN “30 for 30″ documentary made about it, released 30 years after the run in 2013. Titled “Survive and Advance,” the film immortalized Valvano, who died of cancer in 1993, and was executive produced by ’83 captain and guard Dereck Whittenberg.
