How former Notre Dame football coach Ara Parseghian once recruited a golfer for NC State

The death on Wednesday of former Notre Dame football coach Ara Parseghian spurred a memory for retired N.C. State golf coach Richard Sykes.

As Sykes recalled Wednesday: “I was at Wendell County Club one day and answered the phone and said, ‘Wendell Country Club. He said, ‘This is Ara Parseghian.’ I said, ‘Well, this is George Washington, what can I do for you?’”

It didn’t take long for Sykes, who coached the Pack for 46 years, to realize it wasn’t a prank call, that he was speaking to the Ara Parseghian, the one at Notre Dame.

“He chuckled a little and convinced me who it was,” Sykes said. “It was pretty exciting to be sitting in the Wendell golf club and suddenly be talking to one of the top football coaches in the country.

“He said he had a next-door neighbor who had a son who wanted to play golf in the South.”

Sykes said David Heckman played for the Pack for a couple of years in the ’70s.

Sykes, known for his humor, did have one parting comment for Parseghian that day.

“I told him we’d rather have him send some football players,” Sykes said.

This story was originally published August 2, 2017 at 4:42 PM with the headline "How former Notre Dame football coach Ara Parseghian once recruited a golfer for NC State."