MCLAMB: The Reggie Gallaspy Game; A Sequel That Held its Own
It was a few weeks after Southern Guilford's 2014 varsity football season ended that the high school held a ceremony for its best player.
Reggie Gallaspy II was signing to play college football at NC State. The wide array of college team hats, now a staple at most signing day events, were nowhere to be found. There was no pretense. The Greensboro native was going to Raleigh, and most everyone knew it.
It was a wonderful ceremony conducted by a school and football coaching staff that was grateful to see Gallaspy achieve his dream.
As Gallaspy took the pen to sign, there was a brief, fleeting second where the gravity of the situation dawned on him. It was literally only a second, or perhaps two. He then gathered himself and signed his name to the paper. His mother, sitting directly to his left, looked directly at his face the entire time, while also wearing a beautiful grin of her own, in a wise attempt to etch the memory of the moment in her own mind forever.
Afterward, Gallaspy's father, who was to his right, stood up and lifted a shirt to reveal an NC State shirt underneath. Both of his parents posed for photos with their son following the signing. The students and staff present seemed genuinely thrilled for his success.
Flash forward four years and about 60 miles east of Southern Guilford High School to Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill.
Sequels are almost never as good as the original, but no NC State fan is complaining about any of Dave Doeren's first three trips to Chapel Hill.
After the first win at North Carolina -- like Gallaspy's signing day, also in 2014 -- Doeren uttered his famous 'hands in the dirt" speech that is one of the positive moments of his tenure. It was a statement worthy of a plaque in the Murphy Center. The words established NC State's identity – or at least articulated it so that people would grasp what he sought to build in Raleigh.
Perhaps Doeren's running game manifesto of "We throw to score, but you run to win..." after Saturday's victory should be considered a worthy sequel, as well. It should be placed on par with what he said four years earlier. In 2014, he told the world what NC State would be. In 2018, he described what his own philosophy is.
The hands-in-the-dirt school will center its offensive focus on the trenches and handing the ball off, and then they will build around it.
NC State was stubborn with its running game Saturday. There was no separation in the game early despite a bevy of North Carolina three-and-outs, but the Wolfpack rallied to grind out a tough win without straying from its principles.
When Gallapsy scored his fifth touchdown of the game to seal NC State's overtime win, pandamonium ensued – with some of it occurring right in the end zone where he ended the game.
Once the fracas was over, the Wolfpack players meandered over to their faithful. Gallaspy made a point to give high-fives to NC State supporters. He posed for photos. He engaged and was gracious with his time. He shared his special day with those around him.
The same warm look Gallaspy's mother gave him in his waning days as a high school student was seen again in Kenan Stadium.
Wolfpack fans -- those not completely delirious with joy -- all had a fixed gaze of happiness at the hero of Saturday's win as he exited the playing field. The sense was that most were as thrilled for him as they were for their favorite team, knowing that his five touchdowns and game-winning score in overtime against the Tar Heels meant he would have a permanent place in NC State football lexicon.
It was “The Reggie Gallaspy Game."
The 2014 signing ceremony at Southern Guilford ran for around 30 minutes. NC State's win Saturday at North Carolina was three hours and 40 minutes from start to finish.
That is roughly four hours of Gallaspy's life. It took years of work for the happiness felt from those four hours, but it is improbable that he would consider it anything but a meaningful use of his time. Such is the life of an athlete. They grind endlessly for moments of glory that occur quickly in real time but are there to draw back on for their entire lives. Then they reboot and go to work in search of the next one.
Gallaspy now has another special memory. It is the one he was searching for when he composed himself in order to sign the paper at Southern Guilford High School on that sunny day four years ago. The sequel in Chapel Hill was as good as the one four years earlier in Greensboro.
NC State, by consequence, now also has another special memory. Gallaspy's work ethic, demeanor, and heroics in Chapel Hill are the visual manifestation of what Doeren wants NC State's football program to be.
The Wolfpack would be wise to repeat this process, as it appears it is a story that will never grow old.
