In just a couple of months, March Madness will be in full swing and for Wolfpack fans, this season marks the 25th anniversary of State’s magical run to the 1983 National Championship. Whether this season’s edition of NC State basketball can achieve such greatness remains to be seen but if this year’s team has any questions about how the ’83 team did it, they need only ask their coach, Sidney Lowe. Lowe was the point guard for Jim Valvano’s squad that year and a big reason the Pack won it all.
While most fans aren’t able to sit and take a trip down memory lane with Coach Lowe, the school’s athletic website is allowing fans to relive every game of the ’82-’83 campaign by printing game articles from that season written by Tim Peeler in the present day. Twenty-five years to the day that each game was played, the website runs another game article giving fans a sense of how the season played out.
Many may remember Peeler from his time at the Greensboro News and Record. Today, Peeler is the managing editor of GoPack.com and writer of the new book “When March Went Mad” which chronicles the 1983 championship and what happened to all the players in the 25 years since.
Peeler came up with the idea to write the game articles for the website while doing research for his book. Peeler used many of the same resources he used for the book such as old boxscores, game stories and clips found on file in the basement of Reynolds Coliseum. “I had all this stuff at my fingertips and I wanted to find a way to use them”, Peeler says.
Peeler thinks that the game stories on the website and his book compliment each other. “The two sort of go hand-in-hand, since the book looks back on that season with 25 years of hindsight, while the stories on the website are written as if they are happening right now.”
Peeler feels that his articles can serve as a online historical record of the ’83 season. “(I) want to have an accurate record of that season for posterity. There is so much minutia on the internet — just about everything circa 1993 until now — and basically nothing from before then. So this is a way to let people relive one of the most entertaining seasons in college basketball history,” Peeler says.
So what was Peeler doing back in 1983? He was a high school senior, still months away from attending NC State. Once in Raleigh, Peeler would go on to work on both the Technician (the student newspaper) and the Agromeck (yearbook) and would get a chance to be around Jimmy V and the Wolfpack basketball team. It was that interaction with Valvano that would lead Peeler to choose his current career. “I thought it was always going to be that much fun to be around an accessible, loquacious and funny coach,” Peeler told GreensboroSports.com. “That’s not really the case, but I have enjoyed my career decision nonetheless.”
To check out Peeler’s articles visit GoPack and look under the heading “1983 Basketball”. If you are a Pack fan or just a nostalgic college basketball lover, you’ll be glad you did.
If you would like a copy of Tim’s new book, “When March Went Mad”, they can be purchased at book stores throughout the region or by visiting GoPack.com.