‘I scored 81 points in one basketball game.’ Tales from the life of NC State’s Sam Esposito.

Basketball occupied nearly all of the third floor in Case Athletic Center on the N.C. State campus, all except one small room that housed two desks as the office of Sam Esposito, the Wolfpack’s baseball coach and his young assistant, Ray Tanner.

“His office was a gathering spot,” says Tanner, now the athletic director at South Carolina. “From early morning throughout the day, it was where you went to laugh. It’s where you went to get advice. It’s where you went to vent. It was the counseling center, and he was the godfather.”

Oh, the stories that were told about Espo, who reverently took on that nickname throughout his playing and coaching career until he died last week at age 86.

There was the time Espo doubled as an assistant basketball coach for both Norm Sloan and Jim Valvano for 12 seasons, including during the Wolfpack’s run to a national championship in 1974. Trouble was, Espo had a home baseball game in Raleigh on the same day N.C. State squared off against mighty UCLA in the NCAA basketball semifinals in Greensboro.

Like many Espo tales, this one has gained strength in its telling over the years. Sloan’s book, “Confessions of a Coach,” reports that what happened next occurred in the fifth inning of that baseball game. In the more than three decades since, the telling of Espo’s incident in that game happened in the first inning.

There also is the everlasting question of whether Espo alerted the umpires before the game that he wanted to be ejected. With or without the umpires being tipped off, Espo was ejected, marched off the field, handed his lineup card to an assistant coach, and ran to an awaiting car outside Doak Field. His wife, Noreen, taxied him to Greensboro in time for tipoff.

Then there were the tales of Espo’s athletic prowess, both in high school and college. He was a world-class handball player. He was the Chicago area high school athlete of the year for his standout performances at Fenger High School in baseball, basketball and football.

Again, the story about him scoring 81 points in one game has been embellished over time. Some thought it was 100 points. Others heard that it happened in an all-star game played at Chicago’s Soldier Field.

One day in the late 1980s, Espo was standing in the Doak Field dugout when, upon asking, he recounted his high-scoring game to a player, Mark Withers.

“I scored 81 points in one basketball game,” Espo said.

Withers looked puzzled, not sure if Espo was pulling his leg, according to teammate Turtle Zaun.

“Mark, you couldn’t score 81 points if I locked you in the gym,” Espo said.

Then there were the tales of Espo’s rules and discipline.

Players were clean shaven and their hair could not appear outside their caps. Socks were worn a certain way, and all players wore their pants to the same length. Hats were worn one way only.

“It was not trying to present a particular image,” Tanner says. “It was a presentation of who you were. You look good, you play good. You dress the right way. It all makes a difference.”

Every 10 days to two weeks for four years, Zaun received a closely manicured, 25-minute haircut there from barber Frank Turnipseed.

Eddie Biedenbach was a star basketball player for the Wolfpack. As a freshman he also played on the N.C. State baseball team during the final season for coach Vic Sorrell. The next season, Biedenbach again wanted to play baseball under a new coach, Espo.

“He took basketball seriously,” says former N.C. player Francis Combs of Biedenbach. “He did not take baseball that seriously.”

One day, Biedenbach was horsing around, telling jokes and having a good time, according to Combs, as Espo entered the field to see what was going on.

“Eddie, come here and talk to me,” Combs recalls Espo saying.

Off to the side, where no one else could see, Espo dismissed Biedenbach from the team. Biedenbach did OK, though, earning first-team All-ACC honors in his junior year of basketball.

Tales of Espo’s fear of flying were legendary. He apparently had his fill of flying in airplanes during a 10-year major-league baseball career, mostly as a utility infielder for the White Sox, including earning a ring for winning the 1959 American League pennant.

“I asked him about it one time,” says former player Alex Wallace.

“I spent enough time on airplanes,” Wallace recalls Espo saying. “I think my time is up.”

Combs, who along with his brother Freddie, were around Espo’s teams, often throwing batting practice. Combs also was called upon to drive Espo to road games in basketball and baseball, no matter the distance. Trips to Maryland and Clemson, meant arriving home at 2 or 3 in the morning.

On the way back home, Combs was the designated driver as Espo smoked cigars -- later a pipe -- and drank Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. He did the same in his garage at home because his wife did not allow smoking in their house.

Espo was greatly respected beyond his team and throughout the athletic administration. Espo worked for athletic director Jim Valvano from 1986-89, and the baseball coach often was a sounding board for his AD.

Valvano wanted a big-name coach to succeed Espo when he retired. Espo told him the only candidate for the job was his assistant, Tanner. Valvano hired Tanner.

Espo used Valvano’s celebrity status to help in recruiting.

Wallace was on a recruiting visit to N.C. State in 1983 and was set to attend a game at Reynolds Coliseum, the one where Dereck Whittenburg broke his foot against Virginia, nearly derailing the Wolfpack’s eventual national title..

Five minutes before tipoff, Espo said he had someone he wanted Wallace to meet. It was Valvano. Wallace, who also considered playing at North Carolina, was sold on the Wolfpack.

“That’s the kind of influence Espo had on not only players, but coach Valvano looked up to Espo like a father figure,” Wallace says.

N.C. State lost to Oklahoma State and was eliminated from the 1987 NCAA tournament in Starkville, Miss., Wallace struck out in his final at-bat as a Wolfpack player to end the game.

Wallace quickly set aside the emotions of his college career coming to an end and approached Espo on the field. Wallace apologized for ending his coach’s career that way.

Former players, coaches and friends of Esposito are gathering Thursday at 3 p.m. at Amedeo’s Italian Restaurant on Western Boulevard in Raleigh to share more tales.