Mike Nall has the game ball at his house in Akron, Ohio, something to gaze at from time to time, conjuring up memories of N.C. State’s last ACC football championship.
“It’s a little old and deflated,” Nall said this week, laughing.
There’s nothing deflating about seeing the score written on the football: N.C. State 16, Clemson 13. Or recalling that late-October day in 1979.
N.C. State believed it could win the ACC championship that year. Standing in the way: Clemson’s Tigers.
The Pack’s victory — that year, in Death Valley — didn’t clinch the 1979 ACC title.