Tim Peeler: A look at the history of the Virginia-NC State football series

The NC State-Virginia football series is one of historic relevance, which will continue this week when the two teams face each other as non-conference foes for the first time since 1948.

Dating back to 1904, the two schools played each other on a regular basis, as did North Carolina and Virginia Tech. However, Virginia migrated its interstate rivalry to be primarily with the Tar Heels, while State and Virginia Tech played much more frequently until the creation of the Atlantic Coast Conference, which the Hokies were considered for but were ultimately left out of until the league expanded in 2004.

NC State and Virginia were Southern Conference rivals at one point, until the Cavaliers dropped out in 1936 but played on several occasions when Virginia was independent (1937-53).

The last time the two teams played as non-conference foes was in 1948, a 21-14 Virginia win at Riddick Stadium. State was still in the Southern, while Virginia was independent. 

The schools began a regular series after the Cavaliers were added as the league’s first expansion team in the winter of 1953. Virginia did not compete in the ACC’s inaugural season of 1953. It took another five years for the teams to meet in a conference game, with head coach Earle Edwards’ team taking a 26-14 victory over the Cavaliers in Charlottesville.

Those were really the dark days of Virginia football, which spent nearly two decades to find a successful coach after Art Guepe, who was 47-17-2 from 1946-52 until he left for Vanderbilt.

Three successive coaches were unable to win football games. and the Cavs won just 12 games in eight seasons. The Cavs were underfunded in scholarships and facilities, undertalented in players and underwhelming in almost every respect.

When the Cavaliers came to Raleigh in 1960 — the first time they faced State in Riddick Stadium as an ACC foe — they were mired in what became the longest losing streak in NCAA history. In all, head coach Dick Voris lost 28 consecutive games, matching Kansas State’s streak from 1945 to ‘48.

Many wondered if the Cavaliers even belonged in the newly formed league.

“Virginia has not been doing its part…” wrote Dick Herbert in the News & Observer. “Membership in the conference is worth at least $30,000 a year. Virginia has been getting that without contributing much to its football program.”

Visiting ACC teams were guaranteed about $10,000 per game and the school received about $20,000 from Duke’s trip to the 1961 Cotton Bowl.

“There is some obligation to field representative teams,” Herbert wrote. “If conditions at a member school do not permit it, then the school should relinquish its membership in the ACC.”

There was really even no hope for the Cavaliers to field a competitive team at that time, when, in successive years, Virginia’s varsity squad lost to and then tied its alumni squad at the annual spring game.

“If we were to break even for the season, I would do a back flip with joy,” Voris said going into the 1960 season. “I would say two or three victories would be a good season for us, but I know we are much, much better than we were a year ago.”

That did not seem evident on Oct. 1, 1960, when Virginia came to face the Wolfpack and its dangerous junior quarterback Roman Gabriel, who was named to United Press International’s backfield of the week and went on to win the 1960 ACC Player of the Year honor.

Gabriel was responsible for all four of the Wolfpack’s touchdowns in the 26-7 victory at Riddick Stadium, running for two and passing for two more.

At the end of the season, Virginia cleaned house. Voris resigned after going 1-29 in his tenure. Athletics director Gus Tebell, who won Southern Conference titles in both football and basketball at NC State in the 1920s, retired a year early from his position.

Voris’s replacement, Bill Elias, broke the losing streak in his first game at the school and returned the program to respectability. When Elias took his inaugural team to a 4-6 overall and 2-4 league record, he was named ACC Coach of the Year.

NC State won 21 of 22 games in the series from 1958 to ’82, with the only loss being during Al Michaels’ interim season as head coach in 1971. Edwards (12-0) never lost to the Cavs during his tenure, and the three coaches who followed Michaels were also undefeated (Lou Holtz 3-0, Bo Rein 3-0 and Monte Kiffin 3-0).

The Cavs’ long road to recovery reached its zenith under Hall of Fame coach George Welsh. The Cavs were ranked No. 1 in the nation in October 1990 and handed coach Dick Sheridan’s Wolfpack a 31-0 whipping in Charlottesville. For all of his success at State, Sheridan lost six consecutive games to the Cavaliers, including two losses that took the Pack out of contention for an ACC championship.

In the 28 NC State-Virginia games since 1982, the series has been much more balanced with the Cavaliers recording 16 wins and the Wolfpack taking 12.

NC State has won all three games of the Dave Doeren era.

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