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N.C. State University Basketball Coach Killed

Lowe dies in celebration accident

Sidney Lowe, men's basketball coach at North Carolina State University, has been killed in a horrific accident, according to university officials.

What started as a tribute to a thrilling victory turned into a tragedy late Saturday night, resulting in the death of the first-year coach.

Lowe's Wolfpack defeated third-ranked North Carolina 83-79 on Saturday afternoon, marking N.C. State's first victory over the rival Tar Heels since 2003. Jubilant students rushed the floor and celebrations were plenty across Raleigh on Saturday night.

Wolfpack boosters immediately commissioned a bronze statue of Lowe to be placed outside of the Case Athletic Center on the N.C. State campus, as well as arranging for a permanent display in the school's Hall of Honor for the bright-red blazer Lowe wore on the sideline for the historic victory.

The trouble began shortly thereafter when the statue sculptor, hurrying to finish the statue before the planned parade down Hillsborough Street, accidentally bronzed the 47 year-old coach.

Wolfpack officials announced their plans to place the metal-encased corpse on display outside the Case Center anyway.

A memorial quickly began to form outside Reynolds Coliseum, the site of N.C. State's last basketball glory some 20-plus years ago, and where Lowe played for the Wolfpack in the early 1980s. The NC State media relations office refrains from referring to Lowe as an alumnus since he did not actually graduate from the university.

A distraught Wolfpack fan, James Westphal of Kenansville, shivered in the February cold outside Reynolds on Sunday morning, shirtless and still covered in body paint from the game on Saturday.

"Sidney Lowe was a like a god, man, " said Westphal. "He understood that beating Carolina is the most important thing that can ever happen to a Wolfpack fan. No matter if the trailer burns down, or if you get laid off from the turkey plant, you can still say we beat Carolina. When they win the national championship in April, we can say, 'yeah, but we whipped you in February!'"

Wolfpack Club member Dr. Kenneth Noisewater also spoke passionately of Lowe, saying "Sidney really got things turned around here. I mean, he's got to be smiling in heaven knowing he died undefeated against Carolina. Seeing that statue, knowing his bones are inside it, will make me forget the 5 straight NCAA tournament appearances we had with Herb Sendek."

North Carolina head coach Roy Williams released a statement through the university late Saturday night.

"All of us in the Carolina basketball family extend our sympathies to our poor cousins down I-40," said Williams. "Sidney's team really played hard and took us behind the woodshed during that game. As I looked down the sideline and saw that red blazer, I could have sworn I saw Jim Valvano working his magic down there. OK, not really, but that was the look he was going for and I'm not going to ruin it for him by talking ill of the dead."

Williams refused to address the question of whether or not the Tar Heels were looking past the Wolfpack to Wednesday's matchup with Duke. He did say, however, that his team played like crap and that after Sunday's practice they would wish they had never been born.

NC State athletic director Lee Fowler praised Lowe, saying "Ol' Sid really woke up the echoes, didn't he? Now that he's beaten Carolina and achieved hero status, I don't look like such a horse's ass for the way I conducted that coaching search, do I?"

Fowler said a decision on starting the search for Lowe's replacement had not been reached, but that he had a foolproof plan this time. He would not elaborate, but he was later overheard asking an athletics department aide for the area code for Boston and for that aide to get Al Skinner on the phone...