To make inroads in the state, Edwards’ first hire  was the head football coach at Durham High School — Carey Brewbaker. Edwards scored a coup with Brewbaker. Turned out, the tough-minded, yet affable Brewbaker was an outstanding coach as well as a recruiting genius.

       Brewbaker came to NC State after a superb 17-year tenure as the head football coach at Durham High School. Six of his Durham squads played in state championship title games. He won the title outright three times, tied twice, and lost once. The year Brewbaker left for State (1954), Durham High again advanced to the state title game.

       Brewbaker would spend the next 17 years at NC State, forging a partnership with Edwards that would produce five ACC Championship teams, and bring NC State football to conference and national prominence.

       Brewbaker did exactly what Edwards had hoped. One of his first big recruiting coups was convincing Roman Gabriel a 6-4, 210-pound quarterback from Wilmington to come to State in 1958. His recruitment opened the gates wide for North Carolina prep talent to seriously consider NC State University. And they did thanks to Brewbaker.

       Brewbaker molded some of the finest defensive stars in NC State football history, including Darrell Dess, Bert Wilder, Dennis Byrd, Mark Capuano, and Ron Carpenter. Every player that came in contact with Brewbaker had respect for him.

       State’s 1967 team, long considered the best in school history, produced three All-American players — Byrd, Fred Combs and Gerald Warren. The trio of North Carolina natives Brewbaker recruited all three of the North Carolina natives.

       Brewbaker’s tenure at State wasn’t without hardship and adversity. Just before he joined the Wolfpack staff in ’54 he underwent brain surgery. He continued to have physical and medical problems during his days at State, but you would have never known it. He eventually needed a second operation because of a brain tumor that affected his equilibrium.

       “His troubles would have made invalids of most men, but not him,” said Edwards in 1982. “He had more courage, I believe, than any man I’ve ever known."

       Veteran NC State athletic administrator, Frank Weedon, had the pleasure of working with Brewbaker.

      “Carey Brewbaker was a heck of a coach,” says Weedon. “He was a down in the trenches type coach. He was tough, fair and had a great sense of humor. He knew football and how to teach it. Every kid on the team respected him.”

       Brewbaker, a Buchanan, Va. native, was a graduate of Roanoke College, where he excelled at football and baseball. He earned a B.S. in political science at Roanoke. He was football captain of the 1936 Roanoke team, which won the Virginia Collegiate Championship.

       Former Wolfpack players got together in 1977 and pushed for the creation of the Carey Brewbaker Outstanding Defensive Lineman Award, awarded annually at NC State.

       Carey L. Brewbaker died in November of 1982. He is buried in Raleigh’s Memorial Park.

by Carter Cheves

May 20, 2004