Any time that NC State wins a major sporting event, tradition calls for its Memorial Belltower to be lit up a glowing red. Hundreds of Wolfpack fans crowd around it chanting, “Go Pack,” and throwing up the Wolfpack hand signal.
This year, fans have made over a dozen visits to the tower to celebrate historic wins by the men’s and women’s basketball teams, with both advancing to the Final Four.
The men’s team had not made it this far in the NCAA Tournament since 1983, and the women’s team’s last Final Four appearance was in 1998.
But while hundreds of devoted fans have crowded around the base of the red-lit tower in celebration, many have not stepped inside it and may not know its history and significance.
The News & Observer paid a visit to the tower on Thursday in advance of the upcoming games on Friday and Saturday to learn more about it from Thomas Stafford, former vice chancellor for student affairs, who has given over 1,000 tours of this edifice.
Here are some answers to questions you may have:
What is the origin of the Memorial Belltower?
Construction of the 115-foot-tall granite and concrete Belltower — which stands at the intersection of Hillsborough Street and Pullen Road on NC State’s North Campus — began in 1920 but was not finished until 1937. This was due to setbacks during the Great Depression and during World War II.
But the idea for the tower originated years earlier with Vance Sykes, of the class of 1907, to commemorate alumni killed in World War I. In 1949, the tower was officially dedicated to honor NC State alumni killed in World War I.
What’s the Memorial Belltower’s significance?
“On Fame’s eternal camping-ground
Their silent tents are spread,
And Glory guards, with solemn round,
The bivouac of the dead.”
These words, from the poem “Bivouac of the Dead” by Theodore O’Hare, are engraved onto a large backlit plaque inside what’s known as the “The Shrine Room,” or the space inside the tower’s base.
Also on this plaque are the names of students who died during World War I. Officially, 33 NCSU alumni died in World War I, but the plaque bears 34 names. The name of George L. Jeffers was included accidentally.
He had been reported as killed in action but in fact had not died, only been gravely wounded. To correct this, the university altered Jeffers’ name to “George E. Jefferson” to honor unnamed soldiers who died in the war.
Next to this shrine is a large vase full of bright red poppies, a popular symbol of remembrance of World War I. There is one poppy for each student who died.
“This is a sacred military memorial; most of our students don’t know that,” said Stafford.
“These men were students here when the U.S. went to war in 1917. They left school, they went into the war and they died,” he said, adding that some died not from combat but instead from the Spanish flu, which was rampant at that time.
Stafford served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army and obtained a master’s degree from NC State in 1966.
Why is the tower lit red and how does this happen?
The tower began being lit red at the request of Marye Anne Fox, who joined NC State in 1998 as the university’s 12th chancellor and first woman chancellor.
She hailed from the University of Texas at Austin, which has a tower that has been lit orange to celebrate academic and athletic accomplishments since 1937.
NC State’s tower is lit up for holidays that honor the military, such as Veterans Day and Memorial Day, and Patriot Day to mark the anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001. It’s also lit up for commencement, and to celebrate awards and achievements by faculty, staff and students.
As for how it’s lit up, the tower is surrounded by four bronze towers with what look like gigantic bowls on top. Those hold floodlights.
Turning them on and off is controlled through a phone by an NC State employee, Stafford said.
Does the Belltower have bells, and how often do they ring?
One would assume that a bell tower has bells.
But in fact, the Memorial Belltower initially did not. This was due to financing issues during its construction. Up until 2021, the chimes from the tower were produced by a speaker tucked away in Holladay Hall, which is next to the tower, said Stafford.
In 2017, alumni Bill and Frances Henry of Gastonia were visiting the campus with their son when they learned from Stafford that the tower did not have bells. The couple paid to put 55 bells in the tower and to build a carillon room, said Stafford.
A carillon is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard — composed of wooden pegs — with each key connected to a bell.
The Belltower’s carillon room is located right below the bells, in a room at the height of the Belltower’s clock.
The Belltower peals the Westminster Chimes melody hourly and then rings out on as many chimes as necessary to mark the time. It also rings out to mark every half hour.
But nobody is sitting at the carillon all day playing. Instead, Stafford said it’s automatic, through electronic equipment programmed to get the carillon and the bells going.
Are there any other noteworthy Belltower traditions?
One lesser-known tradition involves graduation rings and the tower.
Stafford said students once would go to a jewelry store to buy their class ring and there would be no ceremony.
“Well, we changed that in 2005,” he said, and to buy a ring you would go through one company, Balfour.
“So, the first year we did it when all the rings were produced and delivered to the campus, somebody in the alumni office thought that it would be cool to bring all the rings over to the tower,” he said. The rings would be left on the two benches in the Shrine all night long, he said.
Today, students who buy the ring are invited to pick it up at the tower — without looking at it, as it’s considered bad luck — and leave it all night long, Stafford said.
“Putting the rings there to spend the night” establishes a “symbolic connection between each student and their ring and all the alumni that have gone before,” he said.
Students are also often seen taking pictures alongside the tower during commencement.
How can I tour the Belltower?
While he retired in 2012, Stafford still gives tours. These can be coordinated with alumni services, he said.
These tours started in 2008 after a student came into Stafford’s office asking to see the inside of the tower with a group of other students. Prior to this, the tower was always locked and nobody went in except to make repairs, he said.
“So I got the key and I took him in,” Stafford said, “and when I saw how excited they got and how many pictures that were taken to prove that they had been inside the Belltower, I knew right there, there was a good opportunity.”
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