Like many universities and institutions that are part of Division I college sports, the North Carolina State Wolfpack has a rich history. The institution has achieved significant success in cross-country, baseball, and women’s basketball. However, the most important athletic accomplishment in the institution's history was the incredible national championship run by the 1983 Men’s basketball team. Led by the legendary Jim Valvano, the NC State Wolfpack would reach the mountaintop thanks to a last-second put-back dunk by the late Lorenzo Charles.    

Notable NC State Alumni include Bill Cowher, Vinny Del Negro, Nate Mcmillan, and Philip Rivers.   

Recently, the North Carolina State Wolfpack has significantly changed its primary logo. In this piece, we will review the change in their primary logo and its relationship to the institution's previous logo history. 

For context, it is necessary to review the primary logo history of NC State. In 1967, the school adopted its first primary logo. It consisted of a ferocious-looking wolf with a color combination of black and white. The wolf is on his feet and appears to be marching forward very determinedly. The wolf is wearing a red shirt with black stripes. An “NCS” LOGO wordmark can be seen in the middle of the shirt. The “S”  surrounds the letters “N” and C” portions of the logo. 

Additionally, the wolf wore a red and black hat with the words “NCSU” on it. The “NCSU” wordmark has black lettering. This logo lasted from 1967 to 1997. 

From 1997 to 2023, the NC State Wolfpack's primary logo underwent drastic changes. There was no wolf represented in this logo.  

In the previous logo, the angry wolf wore a shirt with the “NCS” logo, where the “S” engulfed the letters “N” and “C” in the middle. 

The second logo could be considered a scaled-up version of the original logo. The logo was a large red “S” with black and white trim. A red “N” can be seen in the upper portion of the logo, while a red “C” can be seen in the lower portion. Between 1997 and 2005, the “N” and the “C” were regular-sized. 

From 2005 to 2023, there was a slight change in the  “N” and “C.” The “N” and “C” wordmarks were much more comprehensive than the previous version of this logo. 

Recently, the North Carolina State Wolfpack has changed its primary logo again. However, the new primary logo is not new to North Carolina State. 

The new primary logo was the school's alternative from 2011 to 2023.   It consists of a ferocious-looking wolfhead. The wolf is black and white. He appears to be growling. His mouth is open so that you can see his teeth and the redness of his tongue.

He is wearing a red hat with an "NC State" wordmark. The NC State wordmark is colored white. This logo is a callback to the wolf head of the school's first primary logo. The only significant difference is that the wolfhead in this primary logo is turned slightly to the right, and the wordmark on the wolfhead's red hat says "NC State" instead of "NCSU."