NC State honors its first African-American athlete

When Irwin Holmes and Manuel Crockett ran in the 600-yard run in a freshman indoor track meet again UNC-Chapel Hill on Feb. 11, 1957, they weren’t chasing pioneer status. They were just trying to win a race.

“We didn’t perceive it to be that big of a deal at the time,” Holmes said. “We were probably worried about passing a math exam or something. So it wasn’t that meaningful at that moment. We thought maybe someday, when we were old men, someone might make a big deal about it.

“We didn’t do it for that purpose. We did it for the same purpose as everyone else: to have fun.”

It was, however, a big deal. Their middle-distance run at the State Fair (now Dorton) Arena in Raleigh was the first time any black athletes competed in an Atlantic Coast Conference-sponsored athletic event. They broke the unwritten barrier that kept the schools in the conference from providing scholarship and athletic opportunity for all.

At the age of 79, Holmes is in his later years, but he has spent considerable time lately reliving that one freshman race and the entirety of his NC State athletics career, which included one year on the freshman tennis team and three years as a member of the varsity tennis team.

Holmes became the first black athlete to earn a varsity letter at an ACC school and was the first elected co-captain of a varsity team.

On May 29, 1960, Holmes walked across the stage of Reynolds Coliseum to receive his diploma in electrical engineering, becoming the first African-American undergraduate to receive a degree from NC State.

Crockett and the other two black undergraduates who enrolled in the fall of 1956, Walter Holmes (no relation to Irwin) and Ed Carson, spent time at other institutions or graduated later than Irwin Holmes. Walter Holmes helped integrate both the NC State marching band and the varsity soccer team.

Thursday, thanks to a nomination from the NC State College of Engineering and a strong push from Chancellor Randy Woodson, an existing building on campus, previously called University College Commons, will be rededicated as Holmes Hall in a 1 p.m. ceremony.

The building overlooks the recreational tennis courts adjacent to Carmichael Gym, which are on the same general location as where Holmes played varsity tennis for the Wolfpack.

His academic and athletic careers were not perfect. There was a math instructor who refused to teach a black student (she was reassigned). There was an intramural opponent who tried to hurt him (he left the next play with a possible broken leg, payback from an offended teammate). There was a diner in Chapel Hill that refused to serve him (Holmes’ teammates chose to leave their hot meals uneaten and unpaid for).

There were, however, opportunities. One of Holmes engineering professors recommended him for a job with RCA. Based on his grades and accomplishments, he was invited to join an engineering honors society, one of his proudest achievements. He had an outstanding career with multiple companies, including Research Triangle stalwart IBM before he retired.

Holmes, a 1956 graduate of Durham’s Hillside High School, has lived in his hometown since 1979 with his wife Meredythe. They have three children and three grandchildren, all of whom will be on hand for Thursday’s dedication, along with Woodson, athletics director Debbie Yow, College of Engineering Dean Louie Martin Vega and multiple members of university leadership.

Holmes Hall will be the second building on campus named for an influential African American. The first was Witherspoon Hall, the school’s auxiliary student union, named for Augustus “Pops” Witherspoon, the first black professor in school history and a longtime advocate of African-American affairs on campus as an assistant dean, associate dean, acting dean and a university administrator. Witherspoon is home, among other things, to the African American Cultural Center.

Holmes Hall is also one of the rare buildings on campus named in honor of a former Wolfpack athlete. Only one other building, Thompson Theatre, is named specifically for someone who was known primarily as an athlete, Frank Martin Thompson, a Raleigh native who starred in both football and baseball in the early 1910s. He later was an NC State baseball coach who enlisted in the U.S. Army at the age of 33 and was killed in the latter days of World War I.

When the school built its first gym in 1925, it was named in memory of Thompson. It was converted to a theater and craft center after Reynolds Coliseum opened in 1949.

There are several prominent alumni who were athletes during their college days, but were better known for other accomplishments, like N.C. Governor O. Max Gardner (Gardner Hall), Maj. Gen. William C. Lee (Lee Residence Hall), Sydenham Alexander (Alexander Residence Hall), Cleveland Welch (Welch Hall) and Charles Williams (Williams Hall), just to name a few.

Holmes Hall, however, will be unique. It is a place where all freshmen go during their first year and a place where they will engage with other programs and classrooms during their academic career.

That means a lot to its namesake, someone who endured much while he was at NC State, but spent his professional lifetime proving that the school made the right choice when it integrated its classrooms, playing courts and athletic fields.

“It is very special to me that the school decided to do this,” Holmes said. “I didn’t expect it. What I appreciate is that they did the right things long ago to allow them to honor the school in this way. They have earned the right to honor themselves.”

Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu.