(upbeat music)
- Hello, Wolfpack nation.
Welcome to another edition of Red Chair Chats,
where I, as chancellor get to spend some quality time
with members of the Pack that you know and love.
And we're just going to have a good conversation
and find out a little bit more about our guest,
Boo Corrigan.
Boo, how are you doing?
And I really mean it. I mean, this has been a tough year.
How you doing man?
- I'm doing well, chancellor.
I appreciate it.
It's great to be back on the Red Chair Chats.
You know, it looks a little bit different than before,
but it's great to be with you, and you know what,
we're doing well.
We're going to find a way to come out of this
stronger than we went into it.
And it certainly has strengthened the Pack in our eyes.
- Well, I want to congratulate you
and your colleagues in athletics
for getting through this year.
It's been a challenge for the athletes,
been a challenge for the coaches,
and I know it's been a challenge for the administration.
So thank you for all you've done
to allow our student athletes to do what they love
and do it representing the university that we all love.
- You know this, you know how special the young people are
that we have on this campus
and what they do and what they're committed to doing
the right things.
And they really do.
They want to get out there and whether it's cross country
finishing second in the country on the women's side,
or women's swimming finishing second in the country,
or men's swimming finishing eighth
or wrestling finishing sixth,
or, you know, there's so many great stories,
but it all starts with them
doing the right thing, buying in,
the coaches buying in, the staff buying in,
and you know, quite frankly,
great leadership from your office
has really kinda been the guiding part of this whole thing.
- You've been here. You're in your second year,
second competitive season.
Tell me what it means to you to be part of the Pack.
- You know, it's about the people, is what it is.
And I think that's what this entire university is about.
And it's easy to talk about different aspects,
than it's just about winning or it's about being in the ACC
or it's about, you know, being in big time sports
and those things.
But to me it always boils back down to the people.
You know, the student athletes on the football team,
whether it's Grant Gibson, or Isaiah Moore, Thayer Thomas,
and they're all different men
as they're going through this, right?
And, and how do they,
how are they dealing with everything and,
and Melissa Evans on the volleyball team,
and what she's going through,
and about these each individual journeys
as we go through it.
And I find that every day that I get inspired,
by them, and what they do,
and what they bring to this place.
And an incredible fan base that's been with us
through this entire thing, and amping the comeback.
- You know, I was reminded of this
when you came to NC State,
I found an old picture of you sitting
behind the basketball goal at an NC State basketball game.
And I suspect we may have been playing a team
where your father was employed.
Growing up, you were around sports constantly.
Your father, we all know was a longtime athletic director
and commissioner of the ACC.
So what's your favorite sports moment growing up?
- Oh, I got you there.
- You got, you got me.
- Well, I would say I was in the pit
in Albuquerque New Mexico.
And just as a kid being there,
depending on, you know, depending on what,
what story is that day, either a shot or a pass
and Lorenzo Charles jumps up and dunks it.
And it was a great moment in that I didn't,
have this incredible rooting interest on what it is,
but it was competition at the highest level.
It was unbelievable excitement in everything
that's going on.
So clearly from that standpoint,
as far as a seminal type moment of what it is,
and seeing people run around the court, and me,
actually broke through the security
and ran onto the court too,
I was just kinda like excited to be there,
but it's ironic that I now sit in the chair that I sit in,
but that's one of the, that's one of the great moments.
But, you know, being a kid in Charlottesville,
being a kid in South Bend, Indiana.
And the first night game in the history,
of Notre Dame's football stadium, when they played Michigan
was a pretty cool thing to, to be around.
But, you know, as I get older,
I just kind of keep going back to who were the people
involved in all those things,
and what those moments are about.
- You've had many opportunities
to be a part of big sports moments.
You know, for me, it was the Redbugs
winning the state championship in Fordyce Arkansas,
but not quite as big as Lorenzo Charles is his past.
- [Boo] What is the hand signal for a Redbug?
- No, we don't have one.
It's all about the itch.
So for us, it's really about scratching ourselves.
Cause you know, all of our opponents have Redbugs all over.
All right.
Now we're getting into the lightening round now,
since Boo's started scratching his head
to get rid of the Redbugs,
we thought we'd go through just a few off the cuff questions
to try to get the juices flowing here.
What was your first impression of NC State?
- Meeting you and coming into the original interview
and just the ease at which we had a conversation
and really just kind of enjoying that moment
and thinking, wow, if this, if this guy's in charge,
I want to be a part of something like that.
- Well, I was expecting something bigger than that,
but I do appreciate it.
- You asked first impression, you asked first impression.
- Yeah. I get it. I get it.
All right now, we've had a little more time
this year to be with our families.
Now you've been with the Wolfpack all over the country,
but you know, I've spent a little more time at home
compared to what I normally would as chancellor and,
I've watched a few more movies and I typically might.
And so I want to get into that a little bit
and find out what actor would you be if you were in a movie?
What's an actor that you think personifies Boo Corrigan,
but this can be big.
- Well, nah.
- Come on, you know.
- No, I, I mean, you think about, I've been,
I've been accused of looking like Tom Hanks,
Or looking like Vince Vaughn, right?
Throughout the whole thing.
But you know, for my money,
any movie that included Gene Hackman
or included Samuel L. Jackson,
are two of the ones that I would go with.
- Tough guy, you're a tough guy.
- A little bit, a little bit.
You know, they got a little edge to them.
You know, they got a little edge to them,
but they always come out and seemingly
come out on the right side.
- Well, sometimes Gene Hackman doesn't
come out on the right side,
but you know, I'm going to go with you.
It's tough guys, I get it.
- But he was in Hoosiers.
I mean, you know, he kinda came out
on the other side of Hoosiers.
Some grumpy old guy, and he turned out are right.
- Well, that's true, that's true.
All right. Music.
I know you drive around in that,
how big is that truck you drive?
- It's the third biggest truck
in the state of North Carolina.
- If I had to park that truck at the supermarket,
picking up a six pack of beer, I'd hit something I'm sure.
- There you go.
- Alright. Now, what did you learn to drive on
when you were growing up?
What was, what car did your dad put you in to drive?
- It was, the first one was a used,
probably 78 Toyota Tercel. Five speed.
- [Chancellor] On the floor?
- [Boo] Yeah.
- [Chancellor] How are you with the clutch?
- I was all right. I was pretty good.
I did a lot of bunny hops on the way there
to figuring it out.
But by the end, I was pretty good on a hill in doing that.
And then the first car I ever owned was a
67 green Buick Skylark.
It was the first one I ever bought.
- Wow. A green Skylark was hip?
- Yeah, it was that.
It was that perfect shade of green too,
that Detroit green.
You know, it's kinda lime, kinda ugly. Yeah.
- Doesn't polish up real good though.
- No, it does not. Does not at all.
Did not get great gas mileage either.
Let me assure you.
- Well, I'm just, I'm proud that your father said,
look, if you're going to learn to drive,
you got to learn to drive with a stick.
You gotta, you've got to learn how to master the clutch.
- Yes.
- Which is why you're a perfect athletic director now.
What's an unexpected hobby of yours?
- Coming out of this and trying to do all I can
to stay in shape is, I used to do a fair amount of yoga.
Now I do Orangetheory.
- Who?
- Orangetheory, something we should go to someday.
It's more functional fitness.
- Is this, this is a thing?
- This is a thing. And..
- I wasn't briefed on this.
None of the producers told me about Orangetheory.
- All right. Picture 20 minutes on a treadmill,
20 minutes on a rower,
and then 20 minutes of weight training.
And you do it all in an hour with thumping music and...
- So what's your favorite dish to cook?
- I've been on the grill four nights this week, right?
From chicken wings that I got a little marinade
that I put on the chicken wings,
before a dry rub,
to some barbecue chicken to some steak last night and,
fish kinda to start the week.
So any of those things, but, you know,
I make a pretty good lasagna.
I make a a pretty good lasagna, multi-layer.
And there's a veggie lasagna,
and a separate meat lasagna every time we do it.
- Wow. I don't think I've ever had your lasagna.
- Well, we can, as soon as we're out of this,
it's going to be amazing what we can do.
- Okay. Well, I just want to keep,
just want to mention that.
- It's planted. The seed is planted.
- All right, let me get a little serious with you.
What's what's some of the best advice you've ever received?
- My father always had two things that he used to say.
One was, it is better to remain silent
and appear stupid than to open your mouth
and remove all doubt.
Which as I've gotten older is, you know,
make sure that you listen a whole lot more than you talk.
Right? That's kind of where I've gotten with that.
And the other is take your job seriously, but not yourself.
And I think that's, I think about that on a daily basis.
The chair in which I sit every day is,
is an important chair, right?
And it's something that deserves the best
of everything that I have every day.
But when I leave here and someone says, what do you do?
I say, I work in the athletic department.
You know, I don't want this to define who I am as a person.
This is what I do.
And I'm awful proud of what I do.
And I try to work hard and hopefully people see that
we work hard and that we really, really care about it,
but that's not, I want to be Kristin's husband.
I want to be Finley, Tre, and Brian's father.
I want to be my mom's son.
I want to be all of those things in life.
And this is, this is what I do
as opposed to being all consuming.
And quite frankly, starting to think of myself
as more than I actually am.
I'm just the guy that's the AD here.
- Well, and doing a phenomenal job.
You know, there aren't a lot of people
in a position like yours, that's a prominent position,
a very visible position.
And one with a lot of responsibility,
that grew up in a household where you actually ate dinner
occasionally with a man that walked in the shoes
you're walking in now.
That had a similar job.
So this is a different question because you were last
in the line of Corrigan children.
And I know everybody's dying to know,
where did the Boo come from?
- So the genesis comes from my father really didn't
love the name, Eugene.
So he didn't really want to name anyone after him,
but they had had two girls and then five boys.
And he thought maybe if I finally named someone Eugene,
we can stop having kids.
I like to think of it that he was waiting for the chosen one
to give the name to.
But you know, the real story behind it is
when I was a baby, he used to throw me up in the air
and say, "Boo Boo Boo Boo"
And I started responding to it.
And I sit before you as a 54 year old man named Boo.
- Well, I recall when we had this conversation
I mentioned to you that my father's middle name was Eugene.
Herbert Eugene.
And he was the seventh of seven and his nickname was Squirt.
So I think you came out on the better end of that.
- I think I ended up in a good place.
One of the sad things about the relationship
that we've been able to create
is that Herb and Gene Corrigan never got to meet each other.
I think they would have had quite a time together.
- I have no doubt,
and I would love to be a fly on the wall
and hear the conversation.
Well, as we come to the end of this Red Chair Chat episode,
I want to give you a chance to say anything
you've got on your mind to the Wolfpack nation.
I know it's been a tough year for everybody,
and they miss being in Carter-Finley.
They miss being in Reynolds and miss being at PNC
and on and on and on.
Let me give you a chance to have the last word here
to the Wolfpack family.
- Well, I just want to thank them first and foremost,
for staying connected.
And to thank our students for how they represented.
To thank our staff and coaches
who have made sacrifices, including financial sacrifices,
as we've gone through this,
to try to get our budget into a better place
than where we thought initially,
and to Wolfpack nation for those people that participated
in Preserve the Pack.
And they've been able to give a little bit
that will also continue to help our budget.
I wish like heck that, you know,
they could have been there as we won eight football games
this past year.
The job that coach Doeren's done,
and meet Luka Slabe, our new volleyball coach,
and been there with Wes as the women's team, as you know,
goes back to back ACC championships.
First time ever we've been a number one seed and,
and Laurie Henes and Braden Holloway and Pat Popolizio.
And here's the good news folks.
We're going to be able to welcome you back.
And we're so excited to be able to welcome you back
to be a part of it.
Because we don't want to be anyone else,
and they can't be us.
So let's be the best NC State we can be,
and let's move on and let's move up,
and let's keep being who we are
because I'm awful proud of who we are as an institution.
- Well, that's a good final word.
So Boo, thank you for all you do for NC State.
It's good to have you here today
on our episode of Red Chair Chat,
and we hope to see Wolfpack nation again in the next edition
of the Red Chair Chat.
Thank you all for being with us.