Representing NC State

NC State Professor A.F. Greaves-Walker wrote to Frank P. Graham to express his unhappiness with the type of players on the 1936 football team.

Professor of Ceramic Engineering A.F. Greaves-Walker was among the faculty who expressed concern over the names of NC State football players. In a letter to Frank P. Graham, president of the University of North Carolina consolidated system, Greaves-Walker conveyed his “disgust” with “the type of football players the present staff has imported.” His use of the word “imported” clearly emphasized both the foreign nature of the players and the active role that the current football staff played in bringing them to campus. He went on to inform Graham that “nearly all of the faculty and most of the student body have a feeling of shame when they look over the names of our players. It is one thing to have the public assume that the players are ‘hired men’ but quite another to advertise the fact to them.” For Greaves-Walker, the NC State community could not take pride in being represented by a group of players whose names proved they were not locals. For many, this was because it contrasted with the inherent Southern nature of the school, but Greaves-Walker implied that it also reflected negatively on NC State in other ways. Having to rely on “hired men’ implied that North Carolinians were not talented enough to compete at the highest levels of football and that State’s coaches were not capable of developing their own strong group of players. For people like Greaves-Walker, there was little reason to take pride in such a team, even if it won.