Former Wolfpack football coach Dick Sheridan elected to College Football Hall of Fame

The official announcement that former N.C. State football coach Dick Sheridan has been selected by the National Football Foundation for the College Football Hall of Fame was low-key. Though not intended, the understated declaration was somewhat a reflection of the inductee.

An ESPN2 SportsCenter anchor on March 11 during the 12 noon broadcast offered few details of the HOF selection of 17 former college players and of two coaches, including Sheridan, on the day of the second round of the Atlantic Coast Conference basketball tournament game between Clemson and Miami showing on ESPN.

Wolfpack Coach Dick Sheridan, 1986-92

College football fans may have been paying more attention to coronavirus and the gradual shutdown of athletic events across the nation and around the world, even today pondering if the 2020 season will be canceled. Sporting event-stoppage escalated the following day. The HOF announcement took a back seat to nearly everything else.

As the message of the Sheridan’s inclusion crept across ESPN’s “Bottom Line,” I did a double-take. For some reason, I thought he had made it years ago to one of the pinnacles of the college coaching profession. “Well, it’s about time,” I thought as I looked for more information through Google searches.

Thank goodness for gopack.com which pretty much reprinted the news release from the National Football Foundation but with an N.C. State lead and details about Sheridan’s college coaching career, his head position at Furman and then at N.C. State.

No reason to review his stellar accomplishments here. But, how about a few extra notes of insight:

In the history of NC State football, Sheridan, who coached in Raleigh for seven seasons, 1986-92, stands out as one of the best, if not THE best football coach the Wolfpack has ever had. His teams were 52-29-3 overall and, better yet, 31-18-1 (62% wins) in conference games, a true test of his and any ACC coaching ability.

His winning percentage against ACC teams ranks third best among the 12 coaches the Wolfpack has had since the conference was established in 1953. His coaching was consistently good; his Wolfpack teams won 61 percent of its games against non-conference teams.

To put that into perspective, Lou Holtz coached N.C. State four seasons, 1972-75, and won nearly 70 percent of his ACC games and 68 percent of his non-conference games. Bo Rein, 1976-79, won over 65 percent of ACC games and 52 percent of non-league contests.

If either Holtz or Rein had coached at N.C. State for seven seasons, either one could have been lauded as the Wolfpack’s best-ever coach. All three—Holtz, Rein, and Sheridan—were good for the program.

There are many things about Sheridan stand out to me. I was Publications Editor for the NCSU Department of Athletics, 1977-87, writing, editing, and producing the football media guide and game programs. I had one season to work with Sheridan, his first, 1986. Our first “encounter” was about the Wolfpack’s logo.

Traditional Block "S" logo

Despite popular belief, Sheridan didn’t dislike the Wolfpack’s traditional “Block S” logo displayed on uniforms, fields, and courts. He preferred a diamond shaped logo as he had at Furman. Even when inserting the “N” and “C” into the traditional “Block S,” Sheridan wanted the diamond shape with a large “S” in the middle with a smaller “N” and “C” flanking the “S.”

Sheridan's "Diamond" Wolfpack logo

“I’m really not a traditionalist, but I understand why you and others prefer the block S,” he told me shortly after taking the job at State. “The diamond shape is more luxurious and appealing. It will help in recruiting.” He drew a rough version of his design but what he didn’t know is that the Wolfpack Marching Band regularly used that formation in its halftime routine for many years and before Sheridan thought of it.

With his diamond-shaped logo in hand, he inherited a program coming off six straight losing seasons and turned it into a winning program. Sheridan’s journey to N.C. State is just as interesting as his success in Raleigh. 

From my best recollections, here’s a little background on the coaching selections after Rein went to LSU after the 1979 season and through Sheridan’s hiring.

Prior to the 1980 season, Monte Kiffin was hired from Arkansas where he was assistant head coach and defensive coordinator for Lou Holtz, who pushed hard to get Kiffin the Wolfpack job. 

Others in that search mix were: George Welsh, who was head coach at Navy and who in 1982 became Virginia’s head coach for 19 seasons; and, Pat Dye, who was coming off a sixth season at East Carolina with an overall record of 48-18-1 and who was leaving ECU because of a difference with the Chancellor who was “telling us how to do our jobs,” Dye explained years later.

After the 1982 N.C. State season and three straight losing seasons, it’s no secret Wolfpack Athletics Director Willis Casey pursued Sheridan to replace Kiffin. John Cooper, then head coach at Tulsa and later at Ohio State was also being considered, but, as it turned out, in name only. 

Casey wanted Sheridan but N.C. State Chancellor Bruce Poulton, who had been on the job for about a year, preferred Cooper who was using the search at State to increase his contract and power at Tulsa. Cooper’s coaching quest eventually took him through Arizona State to his goal and prize of Ohio State. He had no intention of moving from Tulsa to N.C. State.

            While Poulton fiddled with Cooper, Sheridan took his name out of consideration, and the search to replace Kiffin landed at the next and lower tier of candidates which included Tom Reed who got the job.

            In the six seasons, 1980-1985, Kiffin (16-17 overall and 8-10 in the ACC) and Reed (9-24; 4-17) were a combined 25-41 overall and 12-27 in the league. Compare that to the previous eight seasons under Holtz (33-12-3; 16-5-2) and Rein (27-18-1; 15-8) with combined records of 60-30-4 overall and 31-13-2 in the ACC. The Wolfpack needed a new coach.

In addition to being Furman’s head football coach, Sheridan was named its Athletics Director in 1983. At Furman, Sheridan was 2-1 against N.C. State including wins in 1984 and 1985. 

When the Wolfpack job opened after the 1985 season, Sheridan had a change of heart. And thank goodness for that. He took over a program down in the dumps and made it more than respectable and winning.

In 1992, though, the Wolfpack nearly lost Sheridan prior to what, as it turned out, was going to be his final season. After the 1991 season, Georgia Tech was looking for a replacement for Bobby Ross who was leaving to be head coach of the NFL’s San Diego Chargers. 

Georgia Tech athletics director Homer Rice wanted Sheridan, but ACC Commissioner Gene Corrigan “encouraged” Rice not to hire Sheridan away from another conference school. Rice also liked East Carolina’s Bill Lewis. Rice hired Lewis.

Sheridan’s departure from N.C. State after the 1992 season remains today, 28 years later, a little bit of a mystery. He resigned due to health reasons, he said at the time. There’s no reason to question that. He was on a high trajectory and spent countless hours on the job. 

At the time, Sheridan gave no advance indication to then Director of Athletics Todd Turner that he wanted to resign, he made no financial or facilities demands of Turner, and he and Turner had a good working relationship, according to Turner. Maybe the job took its toll on Sheridan’s body, his mental health. He worked hard to be successful.

In late September 2001, in an interview with Tim Peeler of the Greensboro News & Record, Sheridan said he and athletics director Jim Valvano were trying to get department-wide facility improvements. When Valvano was forced out as basketball coach and athletics director, the athletics department wasn’t committed to the improvements, said Sheridan in the interview. There was a “total change in direction” to what Sheridan and Valvano were planning. This may have been the root of Sheridan’s health issues.

Sheridan won or shared six Southern Conference championships during his eight years, 1978-85, at Furman and captured the NCAA Division I-AA title in his last season there. His best ACC finishes were two second place ties (1986, 1991) and one second place finish alone (1992). Holtz in his second season (1973) and Rein in his last (1979) each won an ACC title, the last two ACC football championships at N.C. State.

            When inducted next December in the National Football Foundation’s College Football Hall of Fame, Sheridan will be the fifth inductee with an N.C. State coaching connection and history. The others are:

• Holtz was head coach at N.C. State (1972-75), Arkansas, Minnesota, Notre Dame and South Carolina. In his 33 years as a head coach, he compiled a 249-132-7 overall record and won the national title in 1988 at Notre Dame.
• Jim Donnan got his start in coaching as an assistant at N.C. State, 1969-71 and later was head coach at Marshall which played in four NCAA Division I-AA Championship games, winning one, in his six seasons, 1990-95. He also was head coach at Georgia.
• Darrell Royal got his coaching start as an assistant at N.C. State in 1950 and was head coach at Mississippi State and Washington before coaching Texas for 20 years, 1957-76. His overall record was 184-60-5.
• Buck Shaw was N.C. State’s head coach in 1924, was 2-6-2 overall, and 1-4-1 in the Southern Conference, good enough for 18th place in the league. His seven-seasons, 1926-42, at Santa Clara probably got him elected to the HOF. The independent Broncos were 47-10-4 and won two Sugar Bowl games under Shaw. Also, Shaw was head coach of the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles, 1958-60, defeating the Green Bay Packers for the NFL title in 1960.

Sheridan may not have won an ACC title while coaching N.C. State, but he was an excellent coach, taking high school position players who were not top-ranked recruits and molding them into teams that won lots of games, giving Sheridan a position among the best, and maybe THE best, to coach football at N.C. State. It’s too bad he couldn’t have stayed longer at N.C. State.

Like the announcement on March 11, Sheridan was a low-key football coach. He wasn’t after the spotlight; he was after winning football games and improving the lives of his players. He did both.

Congratulations, Dick Sheridan. It’s about time you made it to the College Football Hall of Fame.