NC State
NC State announcer Gary Hahn bids farewell after 34 years
Gary Hahn has been the voice of the NC State Wolfpack for 34 years. As he prepares to retire at the end of this basketball season, we reflect on his unparalleled career behind the mic.
Family. It's time for a true look at your world. Let's get hooked up for Pack Therapy. Here's your host, Tim Donnelly and Graham Hill. Welcome back, Pack Therapy, the podcast. Uh You can find it everywhere. Podcasts can be found. Please like and subscribe and you're gonna want to bookmark this one because we have a pretty darn impressive and, and, and uh we're very excited for our next guest, Gary Hahn, Voice of the NC State Wolfpack. You can follow him on Twitter at Pack Radio. Uh Gary, thank you for, for taking the time. Um I'm gonna give a quick back story for those that, that maybe are jumping on the bandwagon late. Uh It's public knowledge that, that your decades plus long run as the, the voice of the, the, the wolf pack is coming to a close uh after this run is over and that's become a pretty fun tracking point for this run by NC state. So, uh in addition to, to starting with our appreciation for you joining us here on Pack Therapy myself and Graham Hill, I, I'll add this. Uh Do you have like a thank you speech written that you just, like, fold up at the end of every, every second half and go, not today and put it back in the pocket. No. Well, I did have some, uh, some bullet points that I put on my phone. You know, you got that little notepad that you can put on your iphone. And, uh, so I've, I've had that and I, I put it in there since, um, I guess it was right after the Louisville game. I don't think I had it for that one. Uh, I really thought NC State had a chance to beat Louisville, but after that, I wasn't sure. And if anybody tells you and has come up to you now and said, well, I knew on, uh, on Sunday before the AC C tournament that the Wolf Pack was gonna win five games in five days, they're lying because nobody did. I mean, the only people that even remotely believed it were in the NC State locker room, it was the players and the coaches and, uh, I, I'm, I'm sure they did because you've got to believe, to pull off what they, what they did and, uh, to, to win, what is it now, nine straight games and hopefully 10 on Saturday. I, is there anything superstitious that you've done? Are, are, are you, are you wearing the same, the same gear? The same anything? No, but Coach Keats is real superstitious. In fact, uh, uh, I, I'll, I'll tell you a little story. Um, when, uh, my mother had a P A fall, I was a Clemson and I was her caregiver for, for two years after she suffered a stroke and she was living with me and, uh, uh, she fell and I had to get back to, uh, to Raleigh and she died eight days later. But, um, I, I couldn't do that game. I had to get back. In fact, the medical people said you better be back here by seven o'clock. Uh, because, uh, you know, we don't think your mom is gonna live any longer than that. So I hustled back best I could and then she died eight days later. But, uh, uh, it was just, um, it's just been, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, kind of a surreal type thing, but I'll tell you a little bit about Coach Keys, uh, coach because Tony Haines was there by himself and had to do the game. I gave him all of my prep work and I told him, uh, you know, you're gonna have to do it. Here's everything you need, just, uh, memorize and, and book and, and do whatever you have to do because he was there pretty much by himself. He had to do the whole broadcast, pre game, half time, post game. And, uh, so Coach Keats normally would do the pre game interview when you got to the arena when he gets off the bus. You better follow him into the locker room, you sit down, you start to do the, uh, the two segments and then when you're done you get up and leave. Well, uh, he coach Keith said, uh, Tony le le let's do it at the hotel because I know you're under a whole lot of pressure and this will make it a lot easier on you. Well, NC State ends up winning that game. Well, for the rest of the season, we continue to do the, uh, uh, pre game, uh, at just when he gets to the arena, like, like always because that's the heaps. That's the way he does it. Well, at the AC C tournament, I mentioned to him, I, I said, uh, you know, it'd be a whole lot easier if we did this thing at the, at the hotel and you wanna know. And so we started to do it at the last shoot around. Uh, every time NC State would have a shoot around, uh, right before the, the game or several hours before the game. That's when we sit down and do the interview, we get to Washington DC. We're, uh, working out in this, uh, high school gym, uh Episcopal High in Arlington, Virginia. Every, every morning, the bus leaves at 930 right after the shoot around, uh, on game day. Well, every day was a game day. Uh, we sat down and, and did that, uh, that did that pre game one C State keeps winning. So coach, coach is not going to give it up and we've been doing it the same way all the way through, uh, uh, Dallas Texas and now we're gonna be doing it the same way in Phoenix, but that's how superstitious he is. Well, I, I think I speak for all of Wolf Wolfpack nation. I say you do it the exact same way. Ok. Oh, I've got to, I've gotta be on that bus or I'm gonna get unloaded on. I mean, there's no, there's no way that, you know, no, no two ways about it. So, yeah, we're gonna keep doing it that way because uh uh that, that's the way coach wants to do it, you know, he's in charge, whatever he says goes, Gary Hind voice of the NC State Wolfpack join us on pack therapy alongside Tim Donnelly. I'm Graham Hill. Gary. The way I see this interview going is I'm gonna let Tim kind of ask you the Xs and Os of NC State's running the tournament. I want to ask more questions about just your career in sports radio because from a very young age I knew I wanted to work in sports radio, whether it was play by play commentary. Now here, fortunate enough be at the fan. And one of the reasons is because of you and Tony Haines growing up going to NC State football and basketball games and you might not remember this, but in 2018. I had the privilege of sitting beside you at the Wolfpack coaches caravan tour at the Kenston Country Club. And I knew when you wrote your email on the back of a name tag that it would come up big one day. So, thank you for doing this. I just want to ask you, Gary, when did you know that you wanted to have a career in sports radio as a play by play commentator? Well, I grew up in western Pennsylvania about uh 3540 miles north west of Pittsburgh. And uh uh the Beaver Falls, New Brighton Chippewa township area. And uh I started about age six, I guess it was to listen to the Pittsburgh Pirates and they had two Hall of Fame broadcasters. One was a straight man. One was a wild man. The wild man was Bob Prince. The straight man was Jim Woods and they had so much fun together out of the air. I thought, man, this is the job. This is it because all of my relatives worked in factories. They either worked in a, like my dad did in a uh in a zinc smelting plant or they worked in a steel mill or they work someplace like that. And that didn't appeal to me too much. And so I started to get the bug uh at a very early age and by age probably 12 or 13, I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to be the voice of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Well, that never worked out. But, uh, I thought, well, the next best thing would be to, uh, be the voice of a major college, uh, uh, team. And so I kind of set my sights on that. But if, uh, you to see me as a high school senior and listen to me, you'd have just laughed at me. You thought you're, you're crazy, you know, with the kind of voice you do. I talk through my nose. Uh, I had a Western Pennsylvania accent. It was terrible. And, uh, somehow I got into Butler University in the radio department. But I guess they felt sorry for me or they had a quota or something. But I got in there and, um, you know, the Lord gave me some talent and he helped me develop that talent. And, uh, I was sold out to, to, uh, change my voice. I was sold out to, uh, learn how to speak and talk from the, the diaphragm and all of that, I took singing lessons. I took speech, I took everything I could do to try and develop my voice. And, uh, the Lord's opened up a lot of doors for me. He opened up an incredible door for me to come to NC State. But before that, he opened up some incredible doors as well. But coming to NC State's been the biggest blessing in my, uh broadcasting career. And I just, uh you know, I'm, I'm grateful to the Lord Jesus Christ for everything he's done in my life. There's a reminder to sit up straight to him. That's what I was gonna say. I just started thinking about where I'm talking from. It better be the diaphragm. Uh, and I'll use a basketball term. I think they saw potential. Right? You're saying they felt sorry for you. I think that they knew something was in there and, and obviously they were right. Um which actually leads me to this, right? You've, you've been in the game for a while and, and if we go back to, to when you were six years old, you've seen, you know, every different kind of player. Have you seen anything like the, the phenomenon that is DJ burns over the last 20 days? Yeah, just once, uh only uh only one other time. And that was when I was at the University of Louisville and I was the analyst and the engineer, uh for the uh 1979 1980 University of Louisville basketball team that won the national championship. They had a, uh this team, NC State team doesn't have it, but they had a mega leader in the name of uh Darryl Griffith. And then they had some wonderful talent around him. Derek Smith, Wiley Brown, Roger Bergman, Jerry Eves and I could go on and on, but uh these guys ended up winning it all and that was the most together group of people that I've ever seen. And if Darryl Griffith told you to do something, you know, you would go over there and stand on your head and spit quarters, everybody would have done it. But, uh, you know, that's the kind of leader he was, and he was a tremendous player. Went on to play many, many years in the NBA and he was a skywalker. I mean, other than David Thompson, I've never seen anybody be able to elevate like, uh, like Darrell Griffith. But that team had, uh, togetherness, these guys loved each other. They would do anything for each other. Uh, they were, uh, connected. Uh, this, this team is the closest I've seen to that. Now, this NC State team doesn't have a mega leader, but it's got a whole bunch of veterans and these guys have played basketball for a long time. They're hungry and, uh, all of a sudden at the end of the year, uh, you know, things weren't going very good but they weren't that bad. I mean, they lost four straight games going into the AC C tournament, but they were competitive in all of them. And what you, what you'd find was that there was a stretch of about five minutes or seven minutes in the game. It either came in the first half, most of the time it came in the second half in the last 10 minutes or a couple of things would happen. There'd either be a bunch of breakdowns defensively or there would be, uh, a period where NC State just couldn't put the ball in the basket. And that's all it takes when you're playing. I'll tell you when you're playing AC C games, there's a fine line between winning and losing and that's all it takes. And these guys weren't that bad. So, uh, the, the amazing thing is how quickly they turned it around. Coach Keats told him, you know, this is what you gotta do. You guys told me before the, uh, the season started, you want to win the AC C championship where you're gonna have to win five games to do it. And if you do these things, this is what will happen. And all of a sudden guards weren't blown by NC stayed defensively. The ball screen defense was better. You got complimentary scoring. Some guys stepped up big time like Michael o'connell and Mo Diarra, but the to Moe's defense, I mean, he was, uh, he was already playing pretty well even during those four games. But, uh, you've got to have guys step up, Ben Middlebrooks. I mean, you can go on and on and on. Everybody just stepped up and if they weren't contributing offensively like a Jaden Taylor, uh, he had 28 at Pitt in the last regular season game, but he hadn't given NC State much offensively, uh, uh, and he had a ankle issue during the AC C tournament, but he's done, uh, uh, great things on defense. He's a great on ball defender and he's embraced that role and that's, that's, that's what you gotta have. And that's, that's how NC State turned it around, but I still marvel at how quickly, uh, they were able to do it. What about the off the court stuff, uh, was, was that Louisville team or anything like DJ BURNS? I saw, he, he and DJ Horn were at Applebee's and not only did they pack out the Applebee's the parking lot. The, the, the line wrapped around however long looked like there was a parade in town and it was fans wanted to, to see and, and interact with them. Ha. Have you seen the, the, I, I don't know, like the, it felt like David Cassidy from back in the day or something like did, did, did, have they hit the, uh, the celebrity before in anything you've seen? No, even the 1980 Louisville team. Now, when it came back to Louisville, I mean, there was, it was a big deal, uh, they packed freedom Hall and, uh, there were parades and all of that sort of stuff. But, uh, no, nothing, nothing like this. In fact, I just found this out. I was out, I got up at 6 a.m. to, to do some yard work because a big tree limit fallen down in my yard while I was gone. I had to get rid of that and uh, so I was out there and neighbor came out. Did you see what happened? I only live about a mile away from that Applebee's. And, uh, they were, she was telling me about, uh, uh, DJ, uh, Burns was there and there was a big crowd that was circling the restaurant and I said, no, I didn't know about that because I've been too busy getting ready for, uh, you know, three different teams here in the, in the final four to, to, to call a ball game. But, uh, that just blew my mind, but this is a good group of guys. I mean, it really is, these are some really neat personalities, some character people and, uh, DJ burns while he's very, very physical on the court and is a tremendous competitor, uh, off the court, he's just a big fur ball. I mean, he's just the, uh, ni nicest, softest, uh, most humble, uh, engaging, uh, sweet kind of guy that you'd ever want to meet Gary through going to NC state media availability, media availability this past football season. Obviously, I see you do your one on one pregame interviews with Dave Dorn. It reminds me that you work, work really closely with these coaches, both professionally and personally, I'm curious, what does Kevin Keats mean to you as a, as a friend, as a colleague? And also do you have any unique stories that you would mind sharing with us about Kevin Keats? Just as a person, as you've gotten to know him throughout your career and his career here at NC State. Well, I could tell you, Kevin Keats is the same guy during a four game losing streak and he's the same guy now during a nine game winning streak. That's the amazing thing about Kevin Keats. I think he's got some, uh, uh, deep inter faith and everything is gonna work out for him and everything is gonna work out for what he's trying to do. And, uh, you know, there've been, there've been a couple of co of rough years, but, uh, you know, he's bounced back and, uh, he's the same guy and I have a lot of respect for that. And just to, to give you some idea about coach Keats as a person when my, uh, when my mom died and I was trying to get a car out of Clemson and get back to, uh, to Raleigh. He was talking to me on the telephone and, uh, I mean, he cares, he cares about people and, uh, he said you keep me updated on what's going on. So I did and we texted back and forth during the, uh, the eight days. But, um, uh, the, uh, weekend of the last regular season game, uh, the family plot is up there about 35 miles northwest of Pittsburgh and my mom wanted to be buried. She didn't wanna be cremated. So, basically I flew up on uh Thursday on my own. I, uh, did her, uh, conducted her, uh, graveside service on Friday. I took the rent a car back to the airport. Went to, to the, uh, I met the team bus when they landed at the, uh Pittsburgh airport in the charter uh terminal and, uh, rode the bus down into, uh Pittsburgh did the game the next night, flew back with the team. My fiance also went with me. Uh, she was right there by the bedside when my mom died and, um, he made that all possible. Uh, he, he made it so that she could, she could fly back with me and, uh, there aren't too many coaches. I, I don't think they would do that but he did and that, uh, that just shows you the kind of person he is. And, um, uh, it was, uh, there was definitely a, uh, a different kind of weekend that weekend, but I'll always be grateful to him for working that all out because, um, if, uh, uh, Rhonda and I would have had, uh, regular, uh, airfare, uh, both ways from, uh, Pittsburgh to Raleigh, I think it was gonna end up costing us something like 1200 bucks. And, uh, that was, that was just ridiculous. So he, he made that happen and, uh, that's, uh, that's, I think a pretty good example of what you, what you get with Kevin Keats. Well, I know we, we said as much on air and the station, uh, did, did a bunch when it, when all of that took place. But by having you here, II, I would like to pass along the condolences and thoughts and prayers on the passing of your mom and, and because she's, she's popped up a few times and in the conversation and it's obvious, uh, you know, how much she meant to you. So, so we want to make sure we, we take the time to do that. Well, I had my mom for almost 72 years. Not a lot of people can say that my mom was pushing 95 years old when the Lord took her home. And uh you know, I still have periods of, of where I'll just break down and start, start crying here at the house. But uh it's getting, it's getting better and it'll continue to get better as uh as, as I go along. But I think, you know, I, I truly believe that go uh God orchestrates everything. He, he, he holds everything together and everything happens on his timetable. And uh I just thank him for the blessing that uh that this run to the final four has been because it's, it's helped me not uh it, it's, it's been a distraction for me away from my mom and it's been a wonderful distraction because uh when you're calling games on radio and all the prep you have to do to get ready for it, it takes up a lot of time and that's about all you can think about. You're focused on all of that and I think that's been good for me. Well, we'll, we'll play into that distraction a bit here and ask the, the, the next one. Um, obviously with your prep Zack, he has to come up in it occasionally. It is. You've been poring over the numbers. What, what, what, what is the key to, to making that guy not look like the all American that he is on Saturday. Well, I think the first thing you gotta do is you gotta make sure if he catches it, you try to limit his touches with great, uh, ball pressure. But, uh, you know, he's gonna touch the ball. Uh, there's just no, you know, no way around that, but if he touches it, he better touch it outside the lane because if he touches it in deep, it's all over. I mean, uh, it's either gonna be a layup or a dunk or if he misses a shot, he's gonna tip it back in or dunk it back in. So you've gotta be able to do that. So the ball pressure defensively has to be very good. And, uh, you've gotta be physical with him, which I think DJ burns will be, but you've gotta be physical with him without fouling. And again, you gotta make sure you kind of root him out so that he doesn't catch it deep because I've, I've been watching games, I've watched about four of them. I've got, uh, this thing, basketball is giving me called the Synergy Video Express. I get to, I get to kind of get in on it with them and, uh, I can pull down any game after it's played. It doesn't matter if it's NBA game, women, men. Uh, did you name it? I could pull it down. So I pulled some, uh, Purdue games down and been watching and the teams that have let the Ed catch it deep, uh, they don't win and, uh, there, of course, you know, they haven't been many losses for Purdue anyway. They've only lost four games but, uh, they're the only, and the only theme I could find in the four was just poor shooting, uh, 28% from the field and the four losses and then they, they haven't been to the foul line as much. Normally they get to the foul line about 25 times a game. And so if you could limit their guard without fouling, keep him off the free throw line, keep Ed, uh, outside the lane and make him work for, uh, what he gets, uh, that, I think that's the best scenario for, for NC State, but if you try to double him, which I'm sure the pack will try to do at times. Uh, Wisconsin a few times, triple team that triple teamed him and then they ended up beating Purdue in the big 10, uh, uh, tournament 7675 but since then produced 14 straight. But, uh, if you double ZD, the problem, that, or Ed, I'm sorry, uh, the problem that you have is that you've got, uh, the dead eye three point shooters all around the perimeter because Perdue shoots 41% of the team and that's second best in America. And so, um, you know, is no dummy, he can pass and, uh, he's, he's gonna, he's gonna get the open man. So that's kind of sort of a pick your poison type thing. And, uh, we'll see what, uh, what vile NC State decides to, to grab on Saturday, Gary Hahn, voice of the Wolf pack joined us on pack therapy. Gary where there's a batman, there's always a robin and I think it only be fair during this interview with you that we bring up your Robin, Tony Haines. So I reporter for NC State football, your color analyst for basketball. What's your relationship like with Tony? I mean, I know you spend a lot of time together for work, but how did you guys develop sort of just a friendship where when you guys call games together, work together, it just comes naturally as you guys have known each other for, for many years. Well, Tony was already a capital broadcasting when I, uh, when I came and he was doing, uh, sportscasts, I think it was in the afternoon on the North Carolina News Network. And, uh, they brought me in to do mornings and then, uh, do, uh, Wolf Pack football and basketball. And, uh, so for a while I was actually Tony's supervisor. If you can believe that, uh, Tony's real talented, I can see that right off the bat. He's probably more talented than I am. Uh, but, uh, he, I, I could not have asked for a better, uh, partner, uh, for broadcasting than, uh, than Tony Haines because he, uh, is a student of the game. He's a tremendous basket. I think he's the best basketball analyst on radio in the, in the AC C and he'd be hard to top, you know, if you go all over the country, uh, because he's, he's locked in, he knows exactly when to come in, how long to speak. Uh, you know, we don't, uh, we don't talk over each other. Uh, and he's been a, uh, he's been a good friend. Uh, we used to play, uh, uh, more golf together. Tony doesn't play much golf now. He was, he was an excellent junior golfer and, uh, if he, if he would set his mind to it again, he could be scratched. I mean, that's how good he is. But, uh, and I'm not very good so he had to put up with that. But, uh, it's been, it's been a good run and I couldn't have asked for a better, uh, uh teammate on football to do sidelines. I couldn't have asked for a better analyst than Johnny Evans. Johnny's one of my personal heroes and it has nothing to do with, uh football has everything to do with uh who he is and um uh his, his faith in the Lord. So, uh I just been, I've just been blessed. Howard Baum has been the sta statistician for my entire 34 years. He's been amazing. Howard's 89. He's slowing down a little bit. But in his prime, I'm telling you, there is nobody better, nobody better than doing stats. He used to come up with all the things that you're seeing on the crawl now on television, all of it. And, uh, I, I knew right away when I got to Raleigh that, uh, and, and he, he did like, I think it was after the first football game. I said, somehow I've got to get because he was passing me notes and sometimes they were a little too late. And I, I told the engineer I said, can you figure out a way so that he can talk to me in my right ear and I can hear me in the left ear. And so he brought it about and I told Howard, I said, now you can't give me war and peace. Now you gotta give me short little things here because I can't listen to you and talk at the same time. No human being can do that, but he got the hang of it. And, uh, I mean, he's given, he's given our broadcast such a boost with the information that it's, uh, I mean, it's not funny. He's just been great. Francis Combs has been a wonderful friend. Uh, and my spotter, he's, uh, saved me from many mistakes. And, uh, David Milan's been our producer engineer for a long time before that. It was Rob Deacon and, uh I'm trying to think there was one other fellow in there. Some somewhere but not, not for very long, but it's just been a uh a marvelous team. I don't try to do their job and they don't try to do mine. And I just, I just, I'm kind of the ring master in football and um it's pretty much the same thing. I mean, I know Tony's got some incredible information, the listeners need to know it. And so, um I try to back off as much as I can and still be descriptive as if we needed another reason to be jealous of Tony. Right? He gets to work with all the people you just mentioned to see all the, the great runs that, that you've both been a part of to also know he could be a scratch golfer. I mean, it's just, just throwing, throwing a little extra on it, a little icing on the cake. Um Gary, we, we appreciate you for taking the time. I know that, that all of your prep is, is uh extensive uh during an NCAA tournament run. Uh Last question for you. I don't know if you read there, there's an article in the Washington Post that hints at this and obviously, uh there's, there's uh you know, the, the conversations that surround a run like this. What's your response to people that say the, the, the run to the final four this year is lucky. Uh because, because, you know, there is some, there is some of that but, but all right, I already, I already hear you jumping in. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna get out of the way, lay back as they say and let the legend take it. No, no, no. These guys have earned it. Now, do you have to have a few breaks during the way? Uh Yeah, and NC State had a, had a big break in the Virginia game. I mean, uh basically you've got Virginia's best free throw shooter going to the line. He's like 89% and he doesn't, uh miss one but he misses two. Now, there's something called game pressure there and there's also something that, uh, that has been bugging Virginia all year. Their fans have been all over him about their poor team free throw shooting. Well, you don't think that's going through the head of this guy with the game on the line probably is. Anyway, he misses two pack, gets the ball more, so gets it up the left side line to o'connell and I know he was just trying to get it to the basket and give it a chance because it was, you know, uh, uh, mcneely almost got, got there and blocked the shot. I mean, it was very, very close. He just got it away. Uh, he banked it in, it was incredible and he stayed, goes to overtime and just wipes Virginia out in the next five minutes. Well, you still gotta make the basket, you still gotta have those things happen. So, no, this isn't, uh, this, this isn't luck. These guys are playing good basketball. You, you realize that the last six opponents, NC state has, this just shows you the defensive improvement. Uh, the NC state held the last six opponents to less than 40% shooting from the field and 69 points. Now, that's good defense and NC State offensively, I think during this nine game winning streak is shooting 48% from the field and averaging almost 80 points a game, I think it's 79 points something. And so that's improvement. I mean, that's not luck. That's people getting better and stepping up. And, uh, you know, th this is a team that's been playing under tremendous pressure night after night, after night, it's either win or go home pressure doesn't bother these guys anymore. It really doesn't. Now, this is a big stage, but last weekend was a big stage. The weekend before that in Pittsburgh was a big stage. These guys keep playing the same way and if they play the same way they've got a chance. I'm not, I'm not gonna discount NC State in the final four. I won't do it because I've seen it up close and personal. I know what's going on and, um, I know the, the team energy. I know the poise that these guys have played with. I know the mental and physical toughness that they've had. You can't win five straight games against top, like competition in the AC C and not be in the greatest shape physically. I mean, you just can't do it. But during those games, NC State in the second half looked like the fresher team almost every game. And that, that's incredible. That's not luck. That's not luck. It just doesn't happen. You know, it's, uh, the NC State has earned every bit of what it's, uh what it's received so far. I, I was hoping you had the perfect answer for that question and you did. So thank you. Well, you're welcome, Gary real quickly. I know you have a plane to catch. But again, the commentator, Amy just has to know this and this is gonna be probably a tough question for you to narrow down with your career that you've had at NC State at Grana. Again, a phenomenal one favorite call that you've ever had in an NC state, either football or we'll, we'll stick with basketball since this is, we're focusing on the final four favorite call that you've made for an NC State basketball game? Oh, man. Jeez. I don't know. Well, I'll tell you what, the only one I can remember right now because I've, I've got a bad long term memory but a really great short term memory which you have to have to do radio because you gotta flush, you know, the last opponent and learn everything new again. Uh There are some, some people come up to me sometimes you, you remember, uh, the, the, the, this, this game, I don't even remember hardly being there. I, I'll, I'll tell you, I mean, and that's the way my mind works. So I'd have to say probably the, uh, Michael o'connell Banked in three at the NC, uh, the AC C tournament against, uh, against Virginia because that's the, that's the last big one and then the end of the, uh Carolina game to win the A AC C championship. Uh, that was a, I thought that was a pretty good call. And so those are, those are two of them and this, this run to the final four is, uh, number one on my list. I mean, there's been some other wonderful moments. Uh, NC State beaten UConn when it hadn't gone to the sweet 16 forever. Uh, that was big, um, Philip Rivers and, uh, um, Thunder Dan, uh, beaten Notre Dame, uh, in the, uh Gator bowl. And what was it? 2003 or something like that? That was, that was huge. Uh There've been some, uh some other moments and there've been a few games that, uh I just happened to remember, uh that I thought were very good because they went right down to the last play and one of them was over in Duke in 1991. NC State scores to go up. I think it was like 35 to 32 or something like that. But there's only time for the kickoff. NC State kicks off to this Duke, uh player named Brad Breedlove. He starts bringing it up the field. He, he goes to the right, he makes a miss, he goes back to the left, he makes a miss. There's only one guy that has a, has got a shot at him and that's this little puny kicker that we've got called mark foul ball. And fortunately he had enough brains to know that if he, he got the angle on him, he could force him out of bounds, the game would be over and that's exactly what happened and he forced him out somewhere. I think it was inside the 15 yard line and the clock had already gone to zero. Now, that's an incredible football game. I don't care who you are and I still remember that one. So, uh you know, there are, there are bits and pieces here, but uh it's just been a marvelous, 34 year run. It's been the greatest professional blessing in my life. And, uh, I'm gonna miss, uh, being on the air. I, I'm not gonna kid you there. I'm, I'm gonna, I, because I love being on the air and I probably always will love being on the air. But I, I wanna, I wanna go when I still have my skills and, uh, the prep work that you have to do is getting harder for me to do and it's taking longer and it's become a job. And, uh, I've never thought that this, this would, this job would become a job. But, uh, you know, and take, trying to take care of my mom and do this job too. Uh, that was a real juggling act. I'd be up until one o'clock in the morning most mornings, uh, trying to get ready for the next game, sometimes two o'clock and then I'd have to get mom up if she had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and I'd try to go back to sleep again. And, uh, so I'm just kinda, I'm just kind of worn out, but, um, I got a lot to do here in the retirement. I'm probably gonna be slammed for the next couple of years. I'm getting married in August. So a lot of things are happening for me. And, um, I'm, uh, I'm not, I'm not sad to be leaving. I don't think the last broadcast, the last couple of minutes I'm gonna be balling on the air or anything like that because I've been ready for this since I announced my retirement in, uh October. But, um, you know, 34 years is a good run and to end it like this, it's just, it's just unforgettable. So I just, I just thank the Lord for all of it. Well, congratulations on the, on the upcoming wedding and uh I'll make this standing offer from the Pack Therapy podcast if you ever need to scratch that, that itch and talk some, talk some NC state, uh sports that our, our, our phone lines will always be open for you because, uh I know you said your long term memory may not what, what, uh what we might hope it is, but uh then you went into citing a kicker's name from a bunch of years ago. So I think you were sandbagging us a little bit there. Uh We have a, a standing invitation. This was great, uh Good luck on the call. Hopefully there's two more games for you before you, uh, you, you, you call it a career with the wolf pack, but uh this was great for Graham and I, and we really appreciate your time. Thank you, Gary. Well, the thank you, Tim. Thank you Graham and uh appreciate you. And uh, um I don't know what's gonna happen this weekend, but uh I know that I'm not gonna discount the pack. They got a shot there. It is. Thanks. You bet.