The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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86 ■ THE WOLFPACKER BY TIM PEELER W hen Vic Bubas died April 16 at the age of 91, he was re- membered primarily as the first head coach to make Duke basket- ball nationally relevant, a Blue Devil pioneer who won four ACC regular- season and tournament titles, and took his team to three Final Fours. What was missing from the story, though, was Bubas' roots. The son of a Yugoslavian immi- grant, Bubas saw basketball as his way out of his hometown of Gary, Ind. He came to Raleigh in 1947 to learn from NC State head coach Everett Case. "In my conversations with Coach Case, I told him that, more than any- thing else, I wanted to be a basket- ball coach," Bubas once told sports- writer Dick Herbert. "I told him that I would sacrifice a chance to join my father's prosperous hardware store if I could coach. "He told me to enter State, achieve good grades, act as a gentleman at all times and fight hard on the bas- ketball court. He said if I did that, he would fight just as hard to help me land a coaching job." Bubas always fought hard. He fought to get the opening tap in the first game played at Reynolds Coliseum, fought to get the rebounds after missing the first two shots ever taken at the new arena and, finally, fought to get the ball in the basket for the first points in the building that completely changed the mindset of southern fans about the game of college basketball. Twice named All-Southern Conference during his career, Bubas was a starter on Case's most successful team, the 1950 squad that finished third in the NCAA Championship. When Bubas finished his playing career, Case hired him immediately to be the Wolf- pack's freshman coach, a position he held for four seasons in addition to duties as the varsity squad's second assistant coach. When Butter Anderson left NC State in 1955 to enter private business, Bubas became Case's top assistant, in charge of recruiting. "Vic was always a keener student of the game than most," Case once said of his coaching prodigy. "He studied basketball with the idea in mind that someday he would coach it. You could always trust his judgment." A pair of stories illustrated Bubas' re- cruiting acumen. First, Bubas read a story in the Chicago paper about a 17-year-old high school star that had been named the most valuable player in the nation's biggest AAU Tourna- ment, playing for a Denver YMCA squad that was only invited to the event because it needed a team from the host city. "Maybe this kid is worth a look," Bubas told Case. "We're never going to get anybody from Denver,'' said Case, who had a vast net- work of bird-dogging scouts in basketball hotbeds. "I don't even know anybody in Denver." "We won't get him if we don't try," Bubas countered. So Bubas tried, going out to the Rocky Mountains to see for himself. His name was Ronnie Shavlik, and he became the fledgling Atlantic Coast Confer- ence's first All-America player, lead- ing the Wolfpack to the first three ACC titles from 1954-56. Another time, Bubas was scouting the Philadelphia area and happened to be watching a game featuring the Philadelphia School for the Blind and Deaf when he noticed the point guard from Temple Prep, a postsec- ondary school associated with the university. This kid had never started as a high school player, had gone to prep school in his hometown only be- cause he needed to learn Spanish to enroll in college and was playing against scrub competition. In addi- tion, he was small and played the flashy kind of passing game that Case, quite frankly, couldn't stand. When Bubas called back to Ra- leigh, he told Case that the small, hot-dogging player who had just rolled over the competition was the Wolfpack's point guard of the future. "Vic," Case asked, "have you been drinking?" He had not, and Case gave him permission to offer a scholarship to Lou Pucillo, who was both the 1959 ACC Player and Athlete of the Year. Hired in 1959 to run the Duke program, Bubas led the Blue Devils to unprecedented heights, just as Case had done with NC State. Bubas' record with the Blue Devils was re- markable: 213-67 overall and 128-38 against ACC competition. Three times, he was named ACC Coach of the Year. However, his tenure only lasted a de- cade. Bubas retired from coaching at the age of 42 and spent the next five decades as one of the game's great ambassadors. He worked for Duke's administration and as the inaugural commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference. Named to the College Basketball, Indi- ana Basketball and North Carolina Sports Halls of Fame, Bubas was more than just a coach who turned Duke's program around. He was a pioneering icon who learned his craft at the feet of Case, the Father of ACC Basketball. ■ ■ PACK PERSPECTIVE Legendary Duke Coach Vic Bubas Got His Start At NC State Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker. and can be reached at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu. The Wolfpacker is a publication of: Coman Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 2331, Durham, N.C. 27702. Offices are located at 905 West Main St., Ste. 24F, Durham, N.C. 27701. (919) 688-0218. The Wolfpacker (ISSN 0273-8945) is published bimonthly. A subscription is $39.95 for six issues. For advertising or subscription information, call (800) 421-7751 or write The Wolfpacker. Postmaster: Send address changes to: The Wolfpacker, P.O. Box 2331, Durham, N.C. 27702. Periodical mail postage paid at Durham, N.C. 27702 and additional offices. First-class postage is $14 extra per year. E-mail: thewolfpacker@comanpub.com • Web site: www.thewolfpacker.com Bubas played and coached at NC State under Everett Case before taking the head coaching job at Duke. In 10 seasons, he led the Blue Devils to four regular-season ACC titles, four ACC Tourna- ment championships and three Final Fours. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE MEDIA RELATIONS