Scott Welch accumulated. He bought golf carts and landscaped extravagantly and turned a modest ranch house into a striking estate. He had a log cabin playhouse built for his children and a pier built for his speedboat. And all of it was not terribly notable for a Wachovia executive in the midst of the Charlotte banking boom ... Welch himself seemed unremarkable - quiet and well-liked by most neighbors and colleagues, a family man who took his children to sporting events around Mooresville and
Charlotte's Bob Lawing - who helped keep order on the football fields and basketball courts of the Carolinas and throughout the country - died Thursday of cancer ... Lawing, 58, was a former football and basketball referee in the ACC who had been an NFL official since 1997. He also worked for his family's T.R. Lawing Realty Inc ... As a student at East Mecklenburg High, Lawing began officiating when he was 14 in the Myers Park Trinity Little League program ... After graduating from N.C. State,
The North Carolina State Bar on Monday suspended state Rep. Nick Mackeys law license in a case the bar described as involving "acts of dishonesty," "a pattern of misconduct" and circumstances reflecting Mackeys "lack of honesty, trustworthiness, or integrity." ... Mackey, whose district covers parts of north central and eastern Mecklenburg, will lose his license for three years, though he can petition to get it back under certain conditions after one year. The suspension was part of a
Pete Maravich had dozens of huge scoring performances in a dazzling college career at Louisiana State. He scored more than 60 points in three games. In only three college seasons, he set an NCAA career scoring record that still stands ... But the best college game in the life of the best college basketball scorer in history might just have been the one Maravich played 40 years ago this week against Clemson ... It happened in Charlotte on Dec.20, 1969 ... In front of a crowd of 7,282 at the
In the bowels of Tennessee's Neyland Stadium late Saturday night, South Carolina quarterback Stephen Garcia and receiver Moe Brown huddled to discuss what they could do to make sure this season does not go the way of the previous two ... Their solution: Pick up the practice pace ... Coming off the field Wednesday, defensive tackle Ladi Ajiboye volunteered that the Gamecocks had not had a great practice. He thought the execution was OK, but the tempo was lacking ... Did that lead to the sometimes
N.C. State's come-from-behind, 38-31 defeat of Pittsburgh on Saturday night helped deliver one of the top prospects in North Carolina ... Cary High senior Fre'Shad Hunter said Sunday that the Wolfpack's performance in the win helped him decide to commit to N.C. State after the game ... He said N.C. State was one of the first teams to offer him a scholarship and has been his top choice throughout his recruitment ... "It's a dream come true," he said. "I grew up watching N.C. State, seeing all
More than 200 plaintiffs in one of the largest alleged mortgage fraud cases in state history have said for months that they were duped into paying inflated prices for coastal lots ... Now the revelation that former Gov. Mike Easley and his wife, Mary, got a 25 percent discount from a developer named in the lawsuits shows that even the state's highest official may have unwittingly helped hype the prices they paid ... No one involved in the fraud cases has claimed that the Easleys were knowingly
The beautiful stadium opened one week earlier at the North Carolina state fairgrounds on the outskirts of Raleigh. For the stadium's second game, a boisterous crowd of 21,000 filled Carter Stadium to see N.C. State take on eighth-ranked Florida ... What N.C. State and Florida fans saw on that mid-October day in 1966 was the emergence of Gators quarterback Steve Spurrier as a candidate for the Heisman Trophy (he would win it by season's end) and a master of play-calling that would serve him well
For the first time since 2003, no NCAA tournament games will be played in the state of North Carolina in March. But there will be the usual abundance of ACC games in 2009-10 to help determine the league's postseason hopes ... Without Tyler Hansbrough, will UNC be able to keep its winning streak at Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium alive? Will N.C. State, which still doesn't know what date it will open the season, be able to pick up the pace on the court and in the league standings? And where can
The route was just a simple dump-off on a check-down by the quarterback. Toney Baker turned it into something special. He broke tackles and fought his way downfield for one of the biggest plays of N.C. State's second preseason scrimmage ... It was the latest indication that Baker is getting close to resembling the back who led the Wolfpack in rushing in 2006. Baker, now a senior, hasn't played since tearing a knee ligament in the 2007 opener against Central Florida, but finally feels right