Monte Towe chuckled, protesting, “I can’t even remember yesterday.” Yet the N.C. State assistant coach instantly recalled stepping onto the court at packed Cole Field House on that Sunday afternoon 35 years ago.

The game between third-ranked N.C. State and second-ranked Maryland was nationally televised, a first for ACC basketball, and the College Park arena was electric with anticipation. “I’d never seen anything like it,” said Towe, then a sophomore guard with the Wolfpack. “It almost made you feel like turning around and walking back into the locker room.”

A pair of teams permeated with comparable talent would be quite rare in today’s world of quick exits to the NBA. (Well, maybe Duke and North Carolina.) “There was a huge buildup to the game because obviously Maryland was very good and we were very good,” said Towe, a superlative, 5-7 playmaker.

N.C. State and Maryland boasted five eventual first-round pro draft picks between them – the Wolfpack’s Tom Burleson and David Thompson and the Terrapins’ Len Elmore, John Lucas, and Tom McMillen. Thompson and Lucas were the No. 1 selections in 1975 and 1976, respectively.

Terps Jim O’Brien, Tom Roy, and Mo Howard were eventually second- and third-round selections.

The first of six remarkable clashes between the teams over the 1973 and 1974 seasons, culminating with a classic ACC Tournament finals in ‘74, aired as an hors d’oeuvre to Super Bowl VII. All but one game in that Maryland-N.C. State series was decided by six or fewer points; the Wolfpack won every time, none more dramatically than that first meeting.

The '73 football game proved far less interesting than the ACC contest, as the Miami Dolphins beat the Washington Redskins, 14-7. The game was not nearly as competitive as the score would indicate. Miami finished 17-0, the first unbeaten season in modern NFL history.

Since then, ACC squads have played on all but three Super Bowl Sundays. Last year Florida State defeated Duke at Durham, 68-67, while the Indianapolis Colts crushed the Chicago Bears.

XXXV years after that first Super Sunday encounter with Maryland, N.C. State faces Wake Forest prior to the climactic NFL game between the New York Giants and New England Patriots. The Pats are the first team since the Dolphins to enter a Super Bowl without a defeat.

The appearance is the Pack’s 15th on Super Sunday, more than any other ACC program. Their record in such games is 9-5.

Given that neither N.C. State nor Wake is ranked, their meeting on regional TV is unlikely to garner national attention. Certainly nothing they do on the court will rival the impact of that 1973 contest, when Thompson burst onto the national stage, dazzling observers and opponents alike.

“David was much ballyhooed, and lived up to everything they said,” remembered Elmore, a 6-9 post player from New York who is now an attorney and TV basketball analyst. “We had never seen anybody like him before. He was the difference, there’s no question about it.”

Thompson, a 6-4 wing, scored 37 points against the Terps at a time when there was no shot clock to force action, no 3-point line to reward his long jumpers, and no dunk to facilitate his breathtaking above-the-rim play. “He was spectacular without those things,” Towe said. “This was the beginning of the Maryland-has-no-answer-for-David Thompson series.”

The score was tied at 85-all when, with 12 seconds remaining, Burleson missed a forced jumper over Elmore. The ball bounced high off the rim, and suddenly, floating toward the basket, here came Thompson.

“It’s almost like a Jordan commercial, where everything starts to go in slow motion,” recalled Elmore, referring of course to UNC’s Michael Jordan, who grew up idolizing the Wolfpack star. “You see Thompson rising up…”

And up, and up, until he grabbed the rebound of Burleson’s miss and guided it into the basket, scoring the winning points as the buzzer sounded.

Towe watched the final play from the bench, having fouled out several minutes earlier. Playing with a broken wrist and a broken nose, the fiery guard greeted his fifth personal by throwing his protective face mask to the court, incurring the ire of his mother, watching on TV back in Indiana.

“David just went up and got the ball, and we were out of there,” Towe said. “It was the beginning of a great run for us.” The victory, coming where and when and how it did, gave the youthful Wolfpack a huge psychological lift, said their floor leader. “I think that really helped us go on that great two-year run.”

N.C. State posted a 57-1 record, the best two-year burst in ACC history. The Pack was 27-0 in 1973, but on probation and ineligible for postseason play. Norm Sloan’s squad won the national championship the following season, dethroning seemingly invincible UCLA in the process.

As for Thompson, look toward the ceiling of Raleigh’s RBC Center. N.C. State has honored a number of jerseys, but retired only one. Number 44 belonged to Thompson, who began to establish himself as the greatest ACC player of all time on a Super Bowl Sunday 35 years ago.