Wolfpack, Bulldogs have shared history

They were the coldest and most comfortable bowl games NC State ever played, and both times Mississippi State and the Cowbell Choir were the opponents.

So what will define the third postseason matchup between the Wolfpack and Bulldogs, a pair of like-minded universities that are about to become in-season rivals? We'll find out Dec. 30 when the two land-grant institutions square off in the Belk Bowl in Charlotte for the fifth meeting in this infrequent series.

This will be the third straight time they have met in a bowl game, going back to the 1963 Liberty Bowl in Philadelphia and the 1995 Peach Bowl in Atlanta. The teams have only played three times in the regular season, all before World War II. The Wolfpack won back-to-back shutouts in 1930 (14-0 in Raleigh) and '31 (6-0 in Starkville). The Bulldogs won 26-10 in Riddick in 1940.

Not long from now, however, the programs will become more familiar, thanks to a home-and-home series announced last year that will bring Mississippi State to Carter-Finley Stadium in 2020 and take the Wolfpack to Davis Wade Stadium in 2021.

"I think both schools have a tradition of what their programs are about," Wolfpack head coach Dave Doeren said on Tuesday. "It starts with the academic end of it, I think, when you go back to the beginning and when they were founded and what type of schools they were when they were founded. I have said a lot about what I think State stands for.

"They believe in those kind of values too."

The two previous bowl games were both down-to-the-wire affairs in vastly different atmospheres. The 1963 Liberty Bowl was played at 102,000-seat Municipal Stadium with just 8,309 fans in attendance on a blustery day that featured 19-degree temperatures and a 17 mile-per-hour wind. It was the last time the Liberty Bowl was played in the City of Brotherly Love, moving to Memphis, Tenn., after a one-year layover in Atlantic City, N.J.

The 1995 Peach Bowl was played in the climate-controlled comfort of the Georgia Dome, in front of the second largest crowd (at that time) to ever see a game there.

The '63 game was just the second bowl game in Wolfpack history. Under the guidance of Beattie Feathers, the Wolfpack traveled to the 1947 Gator Bowl to face Oklahoma, but suffered a 34-13 loss to the better-prepared Sooners.

The Pack's 1957 team, coached by NC State Athletic Hall of Fame selection Earle Edwards, won the school's first ACC championship and qualified for the league's spot in the Orange Bowl, but was left at home because of a four-year NCAA probation levied on the Wolfpack basketball program that prohibited postseason play in all sports.

So Wolfpack fans were eager to get another shot at postseason play after Edwards led his team to a share of its second ACC title (and the first of three in a row) in 1963. But it was the saddest of all the school's championships, since the Pack ended the regular season on the Friday night in November when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.

While most college football games that weekend were cancelled, the Wolfpack whipped Wake Forest 42-0 at Riddick Stadium just a few hours after Kennedy was pronounced dead.

Eventually, North Carolina won its postponed season-ending game against Duke to claim a share of the title and the ACC's automatic bid to the Gator Bowl. NC State was invited to play in the five-year-old Liberty Bowl, marking the first time in league history that the ACC sent two teams into the postseason.

The Pack was ranked No. 19 in the nation going into the contest, while the Bulldogs were No. 11. Mississippi State, using a blocked kick and a shanked punt, jumped out to a 13-point first-quarter lead, as the entire opening period was played in Wolfpack territory. They bumped the lead up to 16 points with an impressive field goal into the stiff wind in the second quarter, but Wolfpack quarterback Jim Rossi scored on a one-yard run just before halftime to close the gap to 16-6.

State's offense dominated play in the second half, but had trouble finding the windswept end zones at massive Municipal Stadium.

The Pack scored a second touchdown with 2:28 to play, when Rossi hit Ray Barlow with a five-yard touchdown pass. The two-point conversion failed, however, and the Pack did not get the ball again in a 16-12 loss.

Rossi earned the game's outstanding back award for rushing the ball 18 times for 67 yards and passing for 58 more. Mississippi State was led by Hoyle Granger, who carried 13 times for 94 yards.

The two teams met again in 31 seasons later in Atlanta, at the end of Mike O'Cain's second year as head coach of the Wolfpack. Junior quarterback Terry Harvey and freshman tailback Tremayne Stephens passed and carried the Wolfpack to a 28-24 victory on that New Year's night game.

Harvey's performance that night was clutch, even though the native of Lawrenceville, Ga., was pulled out from under center in the middle part of the game in favor of backup Geoff Bender. He returned with fourth-quarter heroics to lead the Pack to its first bowl win since 1990.

With the Bulldogs leading 21-13 and his team facing a third-and-10 on the Mississippi State 18-yard line, Harvey dropped back to pass, then took off up the middle for a 14-yard gain. Three plays later, he hit teammate Dallas Dickerson on a three-yard touchdown pass and ran for a two-point conversion to tie the game at 21.

On its next possession, Harvey hit receiver Jimmy Grissett on a 62-yard pass play down the sideline that put the Wolfpack inside the 10-yard line. Carlos King scored from eight yards away to put the Wolfpack in the lead for good.

The Pack's defense was outstanding. Mississippi State had the ball inside State's 21-yard line six times and inside the 14 four times, yet was unable to score a single touchdown, with two of the drives ending with interceptions and another ending on a fourth-down pass that fell incomplete in a crowded secondary.

The upcoming matchup will be played in the relative comforts of Bank of America Stadium, in front of a homestate crowd that will dwarf the total number of fans that saw the first postseason matchup between the two schools.

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