BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. – Collice Moore’s primary responsibility as an offensive lineman at NC State was to protect the team’s most valuable asset – All-America quarterback Roman Gabriel.
Now, nearly 50 years after they played together under coach Earle Edwards, Moore and several of Gabriel’s friends and former teammates are making sure that the former NFL Player of the Year’s legacy will be maintained in perpetuity – at the Lonnie Poole Golf Course.
They raised the $150,000 for the right to name, pending NC State Board of Trustees approval, the 18th hole on the course in honor of Gabriel, whose No. 18 jersey was long ago retired by the football program.
“If there ever was anyone deserving of having No. 18 recognized in his honor, it’s Roman Gabriel,” Moore said Friday afternoon. “Playing together at NC State was a time in my life that I will never forget. I have so many memories of the time we spent working, playing and studying together. It’s also an opportunity to give something back to the university and the people of NC State College.”
Forgive Moore, a Greenville real estate developer and appraiser, for slipping back what the university was called when he and Gabriel played football together. Some habits, like old friendships, are hard to shake.
“I am so appreciative for what my former teammates and my friends have done,” said Gabriel, who joined golf legend Arnold Palmer and some 150 patrons of the Lonnie Poole Golf Course for a fund-raiser Friday afternoon in downtown Raleigh.
Palmer, the former Wake Forest All-America golfer who designed the par-71, 7,100-yard course, is a long-time friend of Gabriel’s who is proud to have the Wilmington native’s name on one of his most anticipated projects. The course, currently under construction on NC State’s Centennial Campus, is slated to open in the spring of 2009.
“It’s great to know that that will always be the Roman Gabriel hole,” Palmer said during the informal social and silent auction that raised more than $50,000. “We have been buddies for a long time. We just went to different schools together.”
Earlier in the day, Palmer toured the construction site for the first time since he hit the first shot into the uncut woods on July 9, along with Poole and PGA Tour professional Carl Pettersson. He was joined by several of his top architects, including NC State graduates Erik Larsen and Brandon Johnson. They are still tweaking some of the finer points of the design, including a road that interferes with Palmer’s plans for two holes on the front side.
“If we get that done, I just may re-enroll at NC State,” Palmer told the group of patrons attending the afternoon social and silent auction at Amra’s in downtown Raleigh.
Generally, however, Palmer is pleased with the progress of the construction, which is still running ahead of schedule.
“We have a word that we think everyone will use when they see what we have done at the course – Wow!” Palmer shouted into the microphone. “It’s something you will all be proud of.”
As is Poole, the NC State graduate and chairman of the board of Waste Industries Inc., who donated $3 million to the $11.4 million project to secure the course’s naming rights.
“It still amazes me how great it all looks now that we have cut down some trees and gotten rid of all the kudzu,” Poole said. “They have taken what was essentially a tired piece of land and created something wonderful with it.”
“It’s really coming along.”
Fundraising for the project is still on-going. For more information, contact NC State’s University Development at (919) 513-4412.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
Courtesy: Roger W. Winstead/NC State Creative Services
