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Written by Eric Strow
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Thursday, 02 November 2006 |
 Halloween has come and gone already? Well, that means it is week five of this twelve part series, bringing us to the No. 8 mascot among the ACC teams, after ranking the bottom third of the pack. Speaking of “pack” (already creating the giveaway), I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed watching Cavman defeat the pack of wolves before the football game this past Saturday, one in which UVA defeated NC State 14-7. Now, it is time for the unveiling of the No. 8 mascot. Without any more delay, as if you could not tell already from the hints above, I give you the North Carolina State University Wolfpack.
The North Carolina State University Wolfpack are the only team with that nickname; however, the University of Nevada-Reno’s mascot is the Wolf Pack. Note the grammatical difference. To me, this is a technicality; they are the same nickname. That being said, still there are only two packs of wolves in the NCAA. However, NC State wasn’t always the Wolfpack. According to the athletics website, “The nicknames have changed over the years, with the school’s athletics teams being called the Farmer & Mechanics, the Aggies, the Techs and the Red Terrors. In 1922, a disgruntled football fan wrote in the school paper that the school’s football players “acted like a wolfpack,” and would never be a winner. The name stuck to the football team for a quarter century and was eventually adopted by all athletics teams in 1947.”
This nickname ranks as a 3 of 5, because of the assumed nature of the name-change-inspiring football team. In order to be described as a “wolfpack,” a team would probably be doing something completely uncalled for as human beings…aka, something that is applauded of football players. The intent of the fan who gave rise to the name was obviously to condemn the team and players, probably for acting inappropriately off the field.
The intent of the fan who gave rise to the name was obviously to condemn the team and players, probably for acting inappropriately off the field. 
I am not a fan of letting athletes slide in terms of actions – see the numbers of arrests in today’s college athletes – but I still think that it is a creative nickname. Plus, compared to the previous nicknames – Farmer & Mechanics!?!?!?! – the Wolfpack is a tremendous upgrade.
Next, I have to point out that the mascot’s name is Mr. Wuf, according to his bio in the Capital One Bowl (www.capitalonebowl.com), in which fans vote for their favorite mascot. I looked at the videos that all 12 mascots submitted, and I must say Mr. Wuf has the best dance moves of all the candidates. It is no surprise, therefore, that he is in first place with a 5-2 record after seven weeks of head-to-head voting “battles” against the other contestants. Aside from this competition, however, there is not much to be said about the wolf mascot in the way of unique features or accomplishments. After all, his “signature move” is just a wolf howl. Not even cartwheels? That’s unimpressive. Therefore, the “coolness” rating is a mere 2 of 5, based on quality dance moves but little else.
On an unrelated note, scouring the athletics website led me to this quote which I think is completely biased, egocentric, and untrue: “[The school] has produced college basketball’s greatest player, David Thompson.” How can they lay claim to this feat?
On an unrelated note, scouring the athletics website led me to this quote which I think is completely biased, egocentric, and untrue: “[The school] has produced college basketball’s greatest player, David Thompson.” How can they lay claim to this feat?
First of all, Thompson probably made them better, not the other way around. Second of all, and more importantly, how can they say Thompson is better than, say, LSU’s “Pistol” Pete Maravich (the best college scorer of all-time with a 44.2 points per game average) or UCLA’s Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabaar, with his three NCAA championships in three years)? Or even UVA’s Ralph Sampson? Alright, I shouldn’t get carried away. I am not biased. Like I said, this is unrelated, but their claim is worthy of a short rant.
The points total for NC State is 5 out of 10, which ties them with Maryland; however, the tiebreaker is the nickname’s relevance to the school. While neither of the names are obviously related to their school’s history, the nickname Terrapins has less to do with Maryland than the Wolfpack does with NC State…actually, the name “Terrapins” has nothing at all to do with UMD-CP (see last week’s post). Therefore, finishing at No. 8 in these ACC mascot rankings, is the North Carolina State Wolfpack. It is a bad week for NC State: their mascot doesn’t fare well among its peers, and the football team loses to the not-so-sterling UVa. Go Wahoos! (There is still no bias in these rankings, I promise.)
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Eric Strow |
| About the author: |
| The first thing I should say is that nobody should let me write my own biography.
I am a die hard Cubs fan from New Jersey…already you are thinking two things: 1) Sucks to be him and 2) How the heck did that happen? To make matters worse, I am a Titans fan. At least I have one thing to look forward to every year: next year.
I think Virginia is the best school in America because of the combination of top academics and top athletics, not to mention gorgeous Grounds. It’s great to be a Cavalier/Wahoo. To be honest, I never wore orange before coming to UVA. Now I wear a lot of orange.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 06 September 2007 )
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