On
Tuesday night, February 21, 2012, before the basketball game against the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill the 1989 men's basketball team was
honored with The “Wolfpack Unlimited” Award. According to NC State Director of Athletics Deborah A. Yow the inaugural "Wolfpack Unlimited" Award will recognize individuals and teams that refuse to accept
the status quo and exhibit the "Never Give Up" spirit of the Wolfpack. The
1989 men’s basketball coached by legendary head coach Jim Valvano included
players Tom Gugliotta, Brian Howard, Brian D'Amico, Mickey Hinnant, Jamie Knox,
David Lee, Avie Lester, Kenny Poston, Kelsey Weems and Roland Whitley, Rodney
Monroe (all time scoring leader), Chris Corchiani (all time assist leader), and
Chucky Brown who was named first-team All-ACC honors that season.
The
decision to honor the 1989 men’s basketball team came after an incident
involving two of the players at the Florida State game on February 18, 2012.
With 6:40 remaining in game official Karl Hess stopped the ballgame, and
ejected Wolfpack legends Chris Corchiani and Tom Gugliotta from the game.
According to Corchiani the two former players who were sitting behind the scorer’s
table had been vocally questioning calls all night just as the other 17.000
plus in attendance in the RBC Center. An officer from the Raleigh Police
Department escorted Gugliotta and Corchiani out to loud applause from the RBC
crowd. The only explanation the former players could come up with is maybe
because the two were so close they got under Hess's skin questioning the
officiating of the game. On Monday February 20, 2012 the Atlantic Coast
Conference reprimanded official Karl Hess for not following the ACC’s in game
management protocol, but not for the actual ejection of the two players. To
have them removed according to the ACC Hess should have gone to the home team
management staff to handle the ejections. Despite the circumstances all the
former were happy to back in front of the Wolfpack faithful and honored to receive
the award.
