NC State Wolfpack
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50 free NC State Wolfpack trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
NC State has a habit of winning when nobody expects it. The Wolfpack's men's basketball championships came against heavily favored opponents, its football program has sent quarterbacks, pass rushers and receivers on to long NFL careers, and its fans have lived through some famously close finishes. This quiz covers Wolfpack sports from every side: the title runs of the 1970s and 1980s and the surprise postseason of 2024, the coaches who shaped the program, football stars and draft picks, the mascots, logo, fight song and home venues, and the rivalries with neighbors down the road. It also reaches past the two biggest sports to Olympians, baseball standouts and champions from the women's programs. It is written for NC State students, alumni and fans, and it suits a tailgate, a watch party or a trivia night. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you can play straight through or print the questions for a group.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01NC State's first football team wore which two colors in 1892, before the switch to red and white?
Pink and blue
Pink and blue were the colors of the 1892 Aggies, who won their first game 12–6 at what is now Pullen Park. Red and white uniforms did not arrive until 1895.
Q 02Which NC State forward dunked a teammate's air ball at the buzzer to win the 1983 national title?
Lorenzo Charles
Lorenzo Charles caught Dereck Whittenburg's desperation shot from nearly 30 feet and dunked it to beat Houston 54–52. His coach then ran around the court looking for someone to hug.
Q 03Which coach of NC State's 1983 champions gave a famous 1993 ESPY Awards speech while dying of cancer?
Jim Valvano
Jim Valvano used the speech to announce the V Foundation for Cancer Research. He died less than two months later, at 47, and the ESPYs later created a Jimmy V Award in his honor.
Q 04Which NC State star, nicknamed Skywalker, did Michael Jordan pick to present him at the Hall of Fame?
David Thompson
David Thompson introduced Jordan at the 2009 induction, and Jordan has said the whole idea of the vertical leap began with him. His 44 is the only men's basketball number NC State has retired.
Q 05Which victory ritual did NC State's Everett Case bring to college basketball from Indiana high schools?
Cutting down the nets
Cutting down the nets was how Case and his players marked the 1947 Southern Conference title, their first in 18 years. The custom soon spread to champions nationwide.
Q 06NC State's fight song is a sped-up version of the official song of which U.S. military branch?
The Army
The Army tune was composed in 1908 by Edmund Gruber and began life as The Caisson Song. Hardy Ray, an NC State graduate of 1926, wrote the words that fans sing to it.
Q 07Which NC State quarterback started 51 straight games before a draft-day trade sent him to the Chargers?
Philip Rivers
Philip Rivers was picked fourth in 2004 by the New York Giants, who swapped him to San Diego for Eli Manning. NC State retired his number before his final home game.
Q 08Which 5-foot-7 former NC State point guard won the NBA Slam Dunk Contest in 1986?
Spud Webb
Spud Webb, the shortest player ever to enter the contest, beat Atlanta teammate and defending champion Dominique Wilkins with two perfect scores in the final round.
Q 09Which future NBA star planned to play for his father at NC State but failed to qualify academically?
Pete Maravich
Pete Maravich took a scholarship to LSU instead, and his father, Press, quit as NC State's head coach after the 1965–66 season to follow him there.
Q 10NC State mascots Mr. and Ms. Wuf were married at halftime in 1981 by which rival school's mascot?
Wake Forest
Wake Forest sent its Demon Deacon, a fitting officiant, to preside over the wedding at halftime of a basketball game between the two schools that February.
Q 11NC State's Monte Towe and a teammate are credited with inventing which now-common basketball play?
The alley-oop
The alley-oop suited an era when college rules outlawed the dunk. The 5-foot-7 Towe lobbed the ball toward the rim for a teammate with a 44-inch vertical leap to catch in mid-air.
Q 12NC State's double-overtime semifinal win in 1974 ended which school's run of seven straight titles?
UCLA
UCLA had handed the Wolfpack its only loss in two seasons, 84–66, earlier that winter. The rematch in Greensboro ended 80–77 after NC State wiped out a seven-point deficit in the second overtime.
Q 13NC State men's basketball finished 27–0 in 1973 but was barred from postseason play for what reason?
Recruiting violations
Q 21Which visiting team did NC State beat 10–3 in Raleigh in 2016 while Hurricane Matthew soaked the field?
Notre Dame
Notre Dame failed to score a touchdown in the driving rain, just as it had in the teams' only earlier meeting, a 28–6 NC State win in the Gator Bowl after the 2002 season.
Q 22Which NC State center, a transfer from Winthrop, was named MVP of the 2024 ACC Tournament?
DJ Burns
DJ Burns was then named the South Region's most outstanding player as 11th-seeded NC State reached the national semifinals for the first time since 1983.
Q 23Which venue has been NC State football's home since 1966 and hosted an outdoor NHL game in 2023?
Carter–Finley Stadium
Recruiting violations in the signing of the team's biggest star brought NCAA sanctions. Once they were lifted, the Wolfpack went 30–1 and won the 1974 national championship.
Q 14Which nickname did the dunk-happy Houston team carry into its 1983 title-game loss to NC State?
Phi Slama Jama
Phi Slama Jama starred future NBA greats Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon and was heavily favored over the sixth-seeded Wolfpack.
Q 15Which nickname did NC State's 1983 men's basketball team earn for its string of narrow postseason wins?
The Cardiac Pack
The Cardiac Pack survived double overtime against Pepperdine and then one-point games against UNLV and Virginia on the way to the national semifinals.
Q 16After three seasons as NC State's quarterback, Russell Wilson transferred to which school for 2011?
Wisconsin
Wisconsin got one season from Wilson, who set the FBS single-season record for passer rating and led the Badgers to a Big Ten title and the Rose Bowl.
Q 17Which NC State defensive end did the Houston Texans draft first overall in 2006, ahead of Reggie Bush?
Mario Williams
Mario Williams was a surprise choice, since analysts expected Houston to take the Heisman-winning running back. He answered with four Pro Bowl selections.
Q 18Which NC State receiver joined the Rams' Greatest Show on Turf and won Super Bowl XXXIV as a rookie?
Torry Holt
Torry Holt caught 88 passes for 1,604 yards and 16 touchdowns for the Wolfpack in 1998, and NC State retired his number 81 the following year.
Q 19Which future Super Bowl-winning head coach was a three-year starting linebacker for NC State in the 1970s?
Bill Cowher
Bill Cowher coached the Pittsburgh Steelers for 15 seasons and won Super Bowl XL. He chose NC State because it was one of the few schools to offer the undersized linebacker a scholarship.
Q 20Which NC State women's basketball coach led Team USA to 1988 Olympic gold after a breast cancer diagnosis?
Kay Yow
Kay Yow won more than 700 games and, after her diagnosis, raised money and awareness to fight the disease. NC State renamed its women's home court for her in 2007.
Carter–Finley Stadium opened as Carter Stadium and added the name of donor Albert E. Finley in 1979. A crowd of 56,961 watched the Carolina Hurricanes beat Washington there in 2023.
Q 24Which arena, opened in 1949, housed NC State men's basketball for 50 years and still hosts the women?
Reynolds Coliseum
Reynolds Coliseum sat unfinished for years because of World War II, and coach Everett Case had its plans enlarged to 12,400 seats so it would outdo Duke's arena.
Q 25NC State's strutting wolf logo, known to fans as Tuffy, wears which item on its head?
A sailor cap
A sailor cap sits on the strutting wolf, which shares the name Tuffy with the school's live dog mascot. The costumed mascots, Mr. and Ms. Wuf, are separate characters.
Q 26Before a 1948 campus vote made every NC State team the Wolfpack, most went by which nickname?
Red Terrors
Red Terrors came from the bright red road uniforms the basketball team adopted in 1923 and from the play of Rochelle "Red" Johnson. Football had been the Wolfpack since 1921.
Q 27NC State's football rivalry with Clemson takes which name from an industry both schools teach?
The Textile Bowl
The Textile Bowl has carried the name since 1981, because the two universities run two of the largest textile schools in the world.
Q 28Which Thanksgiving-week football opponent do most NC State fans consider their biggest rival?
North Carolina
North Carolina leads the football series, but coach Everett Case's basketball teams once beat the Tar Heels 15 times in a row, starting in 1947.
Q 29Which NC State swimmer won 2008 Olympic gold on a world-record 4×100-meter freestyle relay?
Cullen Jones
Cullen Jones swam for the Wolfpack from 2003 to 2006 and became the first African-American swimmer to hold a world record.
Q 30Tuffy, the live mascot at NC State home football games since 2010, belongs to which wolf-like dog breed?
Tamaskan
Tamaskan dogs look enough like wolves to suit a school that had gone years without a live mascot. Tuffy made his debut on the sideline against Cincinnati in September 2010.