BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. – In its first 99 years of participating in intercollegiate basketball, NC State has enjoyed exciting victories, suffered devastating defeats and had all manner of games in between.
But one of the most substantial and important wins in school history came against a school that will visit the RBC Center Wednesday night, the Holy Cross Crusaders. Though the Worcester, Mass., college has faded from the national scene in terms of basketball prowess, the Crusaders were a mainstay in the Top 10 polls right after World War II.
Now a member of the Patriot League, the Crusaders haven't won an NCAA Tournament game since 1953, though they have made four appearances in the last 10 years by winning the Patriot tournament.
Back in 1946-47, the Crusaders became one of the best teams in the country, behind big man George Kaftan and guard Joe Mullaney and first-year head coach Alvin "Doggie" Julian. They also had a reserve freshman point guard on the squad named Bob Cousy, who would go on to change the game of basketball with his flashy passing and ball-handling during this days with the Boston Celtics.
At NC State, first-year coach Everett Case wanted badly to show off his collection former Indiana high school standouts back in his home state, in the hopes of finding more recruits in what was then the hotbed of basketball talent.
The coach's first four games at his new school were little more than semi-pro games against teams made up of former college players representing the Marines from Cherry Point and textile-league teams sponsored by Hanes Hosiery in Winston-Salem and McCrary Hosiery in Asheboro.
Case had so many Indiana boys on his team – including a guard from Indianapolis named Norm Sloan – that the team was dubbed the "Hoosier Hotshots." And the coach was looking for some real competition.
Case, the only coach at the time to have won four Indiana high school championships, scheduled a pair of pre-Christmas games against Tulane in Indianapolis and at Anderson (Ind.) College and a pair of post-Christmas games against Franklin College in Shelbyville, Ind., on Dec. 28.
Two nights later, the Terrors met undefeated Holy Cross as part of a college basketball doubleheader in Indianapolis, matching Case against Julian in a battle of first-year coaches who would go on to earn enshrinement in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
The Terrors built a surprising 30-22 lead in the first half, but Holy Cross forced turnovers in the second half that made the game close. The Crusaders trailed by just two points with five minutes to play. But Case, who wanted to make a statement in front of the hometown crowd, poured on the fast break he made famous at Frankfort High School and the Terrors outscored the stunned Crusaders 18-4 in the final five minutes for a 58-42 victory.
Indiana natives Dick Dickey –NC State's only four-time all-conference performer – and Pete Negley led the Terrors offensively. Dickey scored a game-high 17 points and Negley added 14.
The Crusaders, who lost three of their first seven games that season, went on to win 23 in a row after that to claim its only NCAA Basketball championship. Kaftan, who was held in check by the Wolfpack, scored 30 points in a semifinal game against the City College of New York and 18 points in the championship game against Oklahoma to earn Most Outstanding Player honors for the tournament.
Case and his team continued on its barnstorming tour after the win over Holy Cross. On New Year's Day, 1947, the Terrors won at Akron and beat Georgetown a day later. They won their first two games, both on the road, against Southern Conference opponents and finally returned to Raleigh on Jan. 15 to face Clemson for the second time. They owned an 11-2 record, with losses to the Cherry Point Marines and to Hanes Hosiery.
By that time, though, Case and his Hotshots had set off a basketball furor on the campus of NC State College, where enrollment had swelled to more than 4,500 students, thanks to returning World War II veterans and the G.I. Bill. Decrepit old Thompson Gymnasium only seated 2,500 fans, though standing-room-only crowds sometimes exceeded capacity by 1,000.
Case's team was so popular that students demanded more tickets than Thompson could accomodate; sometimes not one faculty, staff or general admission ticket could be distributed for NC State home games.
By the end of the regular season, interest was so high for the late February rematch with North Carolina – which had gone to the NCAA Championship game the year before and was beaten in overtime 48-46 in the season's first meeting, in Chapel Hill – that students poured in from every unprotected entrance of Thompson Gym, including the windows of the basement bathrooms.
Raleigh fire marshal W.R. Butts heard about the crowd and rushed to the gym, where he saw some 4,500 spectators standing in every open space around the court, in the aisles, in the exits and on the upper-level balcony that lined the perimeter of the gym. Butts cancelled the game on the spot, and the fans – who a year earlier had no idea they even liked basketball – were furious that a game against the school's biggest rival had been taken away.
The Red Terrors rolled to the 1947 Southern Conference Tournament, which had to be moved from the Raleigh's 3,200-seat Memorial Coliseum to the Duke Indoor Stadium, which could seat up to 9,000 fans. Case and his team won the school's first conference title since 1929 in front of sell-out crowds and earned a bid into the more prestigious National Invitation Tournament, where it lost to Adolph Rupp-coached Kentucky.
A year later, Thompson Gym was condemned by the Raleigh city building inspector because of insufficient exits and the cagey Case – who never lost a game played at Thompson – had the perfect motivation to get school administrators to finish the long-dormant construction of a 12,000-seat arena that was eventually named Reynolds Coliseum. Girders had been constructed prior to the war, but funding dried up and the coliseum was nothing more than a concrete foundation and a steel skeleton for more than seven years.
Once the doors of Reynolds opened, no one could contain the excitement for college basketball and Case built a powerhouse at NC State College.
NC State and Holy Cross met again the next season in New Orleans in the Sugar Bowl Tournament. That game went to overtime, thanks to Ranzino's 14 points in the first 10 minutes of the second half. But it ended in controversial fashion. With the game tied, both teams went scrambling for a loose ball. The game official pointed in State's direction, but handed the ball to a Holy Cross player, who threw it inbounds to a teammate for an easy basket. The official admitted his error, but never told the official scorer and the disallowed basket was never removed from the scorebook.
When Case protested, he was told he was too late, and State lost 54-50.
Two years later, the Wolfpack and Crusaders met again at New York's Madison Square Garden in the NC State's first ever trip to the NCAA Tournament. By then, Cousy was a senior All-America and probably the best basketball player in the country. But he was smothered by Wolfpack senior guard Vic Bubas. Cousy scored 24 points, but he made only 11 of 38 field goal attempts
Sammy Ranzino personally offset Cousy's scoring with 32 points and Dick Dickey added 24. The 87-74 victory was important, earning the Wolfpack its first trip to the national semi-finals (long before it was known as the Final Four).
But it was also costly. Bubas sprained an ankle covering Cousy and was hampered during the Wolfpack's 78-73 loss to eventual national champion CCNY.
Holy Cross made two visits to Reynolds to participate in Case's Dixie Classic, the premier holiday basketball tournament of its time. The Wolfpack beat the Crusaders in the finals of the 1952 Classic, but lost on a last-second shot by Dave Slattery in the second round of the 1959 Classic.
It was the last time they have played each other in the regular season. The Wolfpack, with 24 points and 10 rebounds from Kenny Carr, beat the Crusaders in the first round of the 1976 National Invitation Tournament.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
Courtesy: NC State
