And as usual as a single golfer, the starter sent me off with a pair. Turns out one of the pair was a former Wishbone quarterback at East Carolina in the mid-70s, Jim Southerland, and he played against Lou Holtz’s last NC State team and Bo Rein’s first two NCS teams. Rein was the offensive coordinator on our '75 Cotton Bowl team and NC State hired him to replace Holtz when Granny went to the Jets.
He told me he had walked up to Holtz at a banquet and asked about walking on at NCS as a linebacker, and Holtz told him he was too small. Two years later he was playing quarterback against Holtz. ECU won the games against Rein in 1976 and 1977. He showed me a photo on his phone from that '75 game against Holtz. So of course I had to tell him the story about getting kicked out of Holtz’s office in Fayetteville one Sunday afternoon.
His coach at ECU? Pat Dye.
As you may remember, LSU hired Rein away from NCSU after the '79 season, but he died flying back from a recruiting trip and never coached a game at LSU.
Jim may have been a college QB, but he was a lousy golfer. I beat him easily and I didn’t play very well either.