Bench Wrestling

It was little known during those days in the 80s but the fact was that V and Tommie Abatemarco, his head recruiter, had not only been together for years---Iona, etc. but they had this thing where they, at often the most surprising and inappropriate times, liked to wrestle. They moved furniture back and wrestled at lunch time in Sam Esposito’s baseball office. Terry Gannon recalls team meetings when V would be holding forth with a pointer at a Video structuring a zone defense and just to annoy him, Tommy would click a pen. Suddenly V would throw his pointer down and pounce on Abatemarco and the State team would be treated to a wrestling match right in  the middle of a big game strategy session.

But one memorable WWE (V) event was at a huge nationally televised game in the Meadowlands.  The game came down to the final moments and just as it looked like the Wolfpack had the win, Abatemarco jumped up on the bench and started waving a towel over his head. “We won it, we won it!”
Now, Valvano had this rule and that was you never said it was, “Ova, until it was ova!”

So V loses it, runs down the bench and pounces on Abatemarco and down they go, suits and ties flying, wrestling on the floor there in front of the bench.

When Ed McClain, an assistant coach, remembered the story, he did so in wonderment. “How in the hell they got away with that right in front of the bench at the end of a nationally televised game, I’ll never know.”

Terry Gannon recalls that not only did this happen but they extended their bench brawl into the tunnel to the NC State locker room.  “Tommie couldn’t let it go and as soon as they get in the tunnel he comes up behind V and hollers, all I said was, “It’s over!”

And V jumped him and they went at it again, This time I swear, Rocco, V’s father, had to break them up.”