NC State could match school record for home wins in a row

Few things shook up the Atlantic Coast Conference in the early fall of 1975 as much as Wake Forest’s 30-22 upset of No. 15 NC State. Coming into the game, Wolfpack head coach Lou Holtz had never lost a home game in his four years at the helm, but he hadn’t won them all either.

In his first game at the erector set by the NC State Fairgrounds known then as Carter Stadium, the Wolfpack fashioned a 24-24 tie against Maryland, a veritable win for a NC State team that had gone 3-8 the previous season under interim head coach Al Michaels.

After that, however, the Wolfpack reeled off a school-record 16 consecutive victories on its home field.

That record still stands, nearly five decades later. However, the Wolfpack is currently on a 15-game home-winning streak, heading into an 8 p.m. matchup with Wake Forest on Saturday night at Carter-Finley Stadium.

The teams are both ranked in the top 25 and fairly evenly matched, even though the Wolfpack has a 9-2 advantage in games played at Carter-Finley since 2001.

That was not the case when third-year coach Chuck Mills brought his Demon Deacons to Raleigh on Sept. 13, 1975. The coach had yet to notch his first league victory, and the ACC media had unanimously picked the Deacons to finish last in the conference race.

Mills injected some new talent on his team with a pair of transfers from Lees-McRae Junior College in Banner Elk, quarterback Jerry McManus and running back Clark Gaines, to try to upend a Holtz squad that included talented senior twins Dave and Don Buckey and an experienced squad that had gone to three bowl games in Holtz’s first three years.

The Buckeys connected on a 48-yard touchdown pass that tied the game 14-14 in the second quarter.

However, Gaines rushed 33 times for 123 yards, while McManus, who began his career at Florida State before going to Lees-McRae, ran for one touchdown and threw for two more. The Deacons never trailed in the game that ended the longest home-winning streak in Wolfpack history.

NC State made costly mistakes in the game, losing a tipped pass to an interception and fumbling the ball away in the first half.

“I never think about losing,” Holtz said after the game. “It’s difficult to lose at home, though. It’s difficult on the family.

“Losing is very distasteful. I get a sick, hollow feeling inside. But if you’re in this game long enough, you’re going to have some of those days.

“Defeat is a bitter, painful thing, make no mistake about that.”

Holtz’s team regrouped after the loss — thanks in part to the elevation of freshman running back Ted Brown into the starting lineup after the offense fumbled the ball nine times at Michigan State — and won home games against Florida, Indiana, North Carolina and South Carolina, leaving the setback against Wake Forest as the only home blemish on the coach’s four-year tenure with the Wolfpack.

And while those 16 games remain the most consecutive home wins in school history, there was a time when State College football was unbeatable on its home fields.

From 1904-1911, the North Carolina College for Agriculture and Mechanic Arts did not lose a home game. With two wins at the end of 1903 and two at the beginning of 1912, A&M went 36 straight games without losing in Raleigh.

The streak included 28 victories and seven ties. It spanned six different head coaches (Art Devlin, W.S. Kienholz, George Whitney, Willie Heston, Mickey Whitehurst and Eddie Green), three home venues and two undefeated seasons (6-0-1 in 1907 and 4-0-2 in 1910).

Early on, A&M played at the Athletic Field (now known as Red Diamond Field) at modern-day Pullen Park. In 1907, it moved to the school’s first home field, which was initially called New Athletic Field and later Riddick Field.

 It also played a handful of games across Hillsboro Street at the old North Carolina State Fairgrounds.

Included in the streak is the Nov. 19, 1910, victory over the Demon Deacons that began the current consecutive meeting streak between the two programs, which is the second-longest continuous rivalry in college football.

Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at [email protected].

Date	Score
Sept. 16, 1972	NC State 43, Syracuse 20
Oct. 7, 1972	NC State 17, Duke 0
Oct. 21, 1972	NC State 38, East Carolina 16
Oct. 28, 1972	NC State 42, South Carolina 24
Nov. 18, 1972	NC State 42, Clemson 17
Sept. 8, 1973	NC State 57, East Carolina 8
Sept. 15, 1973	NC State 43, Virginia 23
Oct. 6, 1973	NC State 28, North Carolina 26
Oct. 13, 1973	NC State 24, Maryland 22
Nov. 24, 1973	NC State 52, Wake Forest 13
Sept. 14, 1974	NC State 35, Duke 21
Sept. 21, 1974	NC State 31, Clemson 10
Oct. 5, 1974	NC State 24, East Carolina 20
Nov. 2, 1974	NC State 42, South Carolina 27
Nov. 9, 1974	NC State 12, No. 7 Penn State 7
Sept. 16, 1975	NC State 26, East Carolina 3