John Dunlap returns to place of heroics vs. Boston College

Last weekend, as former NC State football players from all over the country returned to Carter-Finley Stadium for the 30-22 Homecoming victory over Wake Forest, a talented wide receiver who hadn’t been back since the final game of his senior season took his family down on the field before the game to show them a small piece of real estate. His name — John Dunlap.

“Baby, this is where daddy made his mark,” John Dunlap told his 8-year-old daughter Laila, while he pointed to the east side of the field’s north end zone.

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She squealed with delight to see the exact spot where her father made back-to-back game-winning catches against Boston College and Florida State, respectively, in 2006, his junior season with the Wolfpack. They were the last two wins of the Chuck Amato head-coaching era.

Quarterback Daniel Evans deserves some of the credit for mapping out Dunlap’s piece of real estate. Making the first two starts of his career, Evans threw both scoring passes to lead the Wolfpack to a 17-15 win over No. 20 Boston College and a 24-20 win over No. 17 Florida State.

The first of those was a 34-yard lob with 8.5 seconds remaining on the clock, while the second was a 12-yard catch to put the Wolfpack ahead to stay early in the fourth quarter.

“We’re going to start calling that part of the stadium ‘Dunlap’s Corner,’” Amato said after the win over the Seminoles.

While the stadium itself is named for donors, the playing surface is named for donor Wayne Day and all the auxiliary facilities — the Murphy Center, TowneBank Center (formerly Vaughn Towers), the Dail Practice Fields, Close-King Indoor Practice Facility and Finley Fieldhouse — bear the names of supporters who gave to the university, the Wolfpack Club and the football program.

Dunlap has the venue’s only spot unofficially named for a player’s performance on the field.

“In my eyes, Chuck is a marketing genius,” the receiver said recently, laughing.

For Dunlap, that bit of painted grass represents a great legacy for both his football and academic careers.

 After a brief opportunity in the NFL as an undrafted free agent in 2008, Dunlap returned to NC State to complete his degree in criminology in 2009.

Now 36, Dunlap owns a small transportation company, Papa John Trucking, in his hometown of Hollywood, Florida. It’s named for his late grandfather, but represents four generations in his family, including 18-month-old John Dunlap III, the youngest child of John and his wife Bianca.

It’s a business he started after five years of teaching high school history and seven years of working for the city of Miami Beach, Florida. He spends a lot of time on the road, but the process of growing his small business is rewarding.

“I took a leap,” explained the high-jumping receiver, “and it has been one of the best things I’ve ever done.”

Dunlap’s playing career was also built from the ground up after he suffered a knee injury prior to his sophomore season, limiting him to just 4 receptions in 7 games.

His final 2 seasons, however, he was the team’s designated big-play receiver, with a total of 7 touchdown catches, even though he never felt as sure-footed as he was before the injury

“When you tear your ACL, it never feels quite the same,” Dunlap noted. “You have to do some things to change your game and the way you play.

“I was able to come back, but I don’t know that I ever reached my potential after the injury.”

His heroics against Boston College — who the Pack faces Saturday at 3:30 p.m. in the final home game of the 2022 season — had another impact on the Wolfpack’s program. The electric atmosphere in that Saturday night game made the ears of Eagles’ head coach Tom O’Brien perk up in BC’s first-ever visit to Carter-Finley.

When Amato was let go following the 2006 season, O’Brien showed interest in the job, specifically pointing to the excitement he felt in the stadium that night. In six seasons, O’Brien led the Wolfpack to a 45-30 record with a 2-1 postseason mark from 2007-12.

“I have taken teams to State College and beaten Penn State there before 100,000 people,” O’Brien said shortly after he was hired. “I have taken a team to Notre Dame when they were ranked No. 3 in the country and came out in the green jerseys.

“The excitement of that fateful night I was here in September [in 2006], was as good as any place as I have ever been.”

Dunlap’s visit last weekend was his first game since his senior-night game against Maryland in 2007, but he hopes to be back more often, to visit with former teammates, to see more exciting victories and to make sure his little patch of grass in the north end zone is well cared for.

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