The ACC recently announced its ACC Legends Class for 2012, to be honored during the ACC Championship game and twice during bowl season (Nov 30^th and Dec 1^st).  The ACC has been publishing a Legends class every year since the beginning of the ACC Football Championship game.  This year, none other than Tory Holt will be joining the ranks of other ACC greats.  This is a huge honor for Tory Holt when you consider who he is stacked up against.  These are the other NC State members…

2005 – Roman Gabriel, QB
2006 – Jim Ritcher, OL 
2007 – Dennis Byrd, DT
2008 – Bill Yoest, OG
2009 – Willie Burden, RB
2010 – Ted Brown, RB 
2011 – Marc Primanti, PK
2012 – Torry Holt, WR

The idea of hosting ACC “Legends” at first may seem like a shameless ploy to garner ratings and viewers from all other 10 fanbases not in the ACC Championship game (and it probably is to some extend), but in reality it’s probably the most appropriate time to honor stand-out players from all 12 member schools of the ACC.  The only big problem I have is that it doesn’t look like there is any sort of concrete criteria for what makes a legend

WHAT MAKES A LEGEND?

If the ACC really wants to come out with a “Legends” list, I think it needs to evaluate what makes a legend.  If you are coming up with “legends”, you have to establish some set of criteria for what makes a legend.  So… let’s set up some criteria.  How about…

• Personal Achievement (Standing Records)
• Team Achievement (Championships)
• Honors/Awards
• Extraordinary Personal Stories (or the “Rudy” factor)
• Retention (or how long we remember his legacy after he’s gone… a nice way of saying “old”)

This is a simple list, but it will do.  It captures achievement as an individual, as a team player, and how cemented they are in the history books by virtue of what they achieved and how long their achievement has stood.  Most of NC State’s players fit this mold.  When you look at someone like Marc Primanti,  there is a struggle to find where he fits in with the rest of the Pack.  He had amazing personal achievement, but he was on a team that went 3-8 both in 1995 and 1996.  He didn’t move on to an NFL career earning Super Bowl rings and setting professional records.  What he did was amazing, but worthy of being a legend?  That seems a bit gracious.

The ACC made a decent pick this year with Torry Holt.  Not only does he hold an ACC career receiving record of almost 3400 yards, but he also went on to compete for Super Bowl rings and earn distinctions in the NFL by being the first to reach several receiving benchmarks.  He has proven himself a legend. 

WHO SHOULD BE THE 2012 NC STATE ACC LEGEND?

First let’s talk about Rivers, because that’s a name that comes up frequently.  Philip Rivers is amazing but shouldn’t be in a Legends class just yet.  His career is far from over and while his NCAA career is certainly sufficient to be honored amongst the other NC State greats, it would be too early to place him amongst people like Roman Gabriel until we give him some more time to make things happen with the Chargers.

In 2013, Dick Christy, the only other retired NC State jersey (besides Philip) not yet selected should be the NC State rep in the ACC Legends class.  He played from 1955-1957, scoring all of NC State’s 29 points in the 1957 ACC Championship game against South Carolina.  He was honored as the ACC Player of the Year and was a consensus 1st team All-American in 1957.  In 1962 he went on to earn the distinction All-Star in the AFL.  If there is another “legend” that should have been honored two years ago, this is it.