North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack Family Remembers Cozell McQueen
8/6/2026 12:08:00 PM | Men's Basketball
By: Tim Peelerr
Courtesy of TheWolfpacker/On3
The greatest thing about Cozell McQueen was that he believed he was invincible.
What other word would you use to describe someone who challenged the greatest players of his generation and thought they should be just as scared of him as everyone thought he was of them?
For the record, McQueen, who died Wednesday in Raleigh after a long battle with brain cancer, wasn't scared of anyone or anything. He was 64.
"Me, nervous?" McQueen said before the 1983 Final Four. "I've never been nervous; I just go out and play."
From 1981-85, McQueen was the man in the middle of Jim Valvano's basketball program, often the butt of his coach's well-rehearsed jokes but rarely a liability on the court. The lefthanded center wasn't much of a scoring threat, averaging 5.3 points and 5.9 rebounds in four seasons. Yet his 134 games played still ranks fourth in school history and emphasizes his importance to Valvano's program.
He never topped 10 points in 11 NCAA tournament games but he was quietly heroic in the final two games of the 1983 season, especially against Houston All-America Hakeem Olajuwon. Against Georgia and Houston, McQueen grabbed 25 rebounds, blocked five shots and played his typically strong defense in games that mattered most.
His death marks the third former player and fifth member of the Cardiac Pack to pass in the 43 years since that magical run [Insert link here: https://gopack.com/news/2019/4/11/mens-basketball-nc-state-athletic-hall-of-fame-1983-national-champions.] He was preceded by forward and classmate Lorenzo Charles (who enrolled with McQueen as a freshman in 1981), walk-on forward Quinton Leonard, head coach Jim Valvano and assistant coach Ed McLean.
At 6-11 and barely more than 200 pounds during his playing days, McQueen was almost comically lanky and the perfect foil for Valvano's biting wit. The fact that he came from Bennettsville, South Carolina, opened up even more fertile fields for humor.
"We have Cozell McQueen from South Carolina," Valvano said when he introduced his second recruiting class. "He said he always wanted to go up north to play college basketball."
Valvano also told the story about how McQueen made him wait before making his final decision to commit to the pack so he could make one more recruiting trip to an exotic location—Toledo, Ohio.
McQueen took Valvano's stories and his teammate's jibes in full stride.
"It seems to me that people think everybody from South Carolina is slow and behind," McQueen said before his senior season. "I know I am quite intelligent, or I wouldn't be here. I consider myself smarter than a regular student.
Some regular students can't even do their work. People just say if you are from South Carolina, you are a dummy and you don't know what you are doing.
"If you come from a big city or something, people give you the benefit of the doubt. They don't know if you are dumb or not."
McQueen was actually born in Paris, where his father was serving in the U.S. Army. The first 18 months of his life, he bounced from France to Fayetteville to Fort Benning, Georgia, before permanently landing in the Palmetto State.
His incoming class as a freshman included Charles, Terry Gannon, Alvin Battle, Walter "Dinky" Proctor and George McLain. Their maturation as sophomores, especially in the absence of injured senior guard Dereck Whittenburg, is the often-uncredited reason the team was at its peak in the second half of the championship season.
By the end of his second season, McQueen was brimful of confidence.
It started in the Feb. 19 victory against North Carolina. In the second half, no one on the Wolfpack could make the front end of a one-and-one free throw, to the consternation of Valvano. "Can anyone here make a free throw?"
McQueen, a 57.6 percent shooter that season, raised his hand. Sure enough, he drained a pair of foul shots to seal the landmark 70-63 victory, Valvano's first ever over the Tar Heels.
He never let the gravity of the Wolfpack's desperate times get the best of him.
One of the favorite stories of those who covered the '83 teams was seeing McQueen out late at night before the Wolfpack was to play Virginia in the NCAA East Regional championship game in Ogden, Utah. He was found enjoying what there was of the Mormon-tinted nightlife.
"Cozell," one of them asked, "aren't you worried about playing Ralph tomorrow? Shouldn't you be back in the room?"
McQueen didn't break stride as he said, "Let Ralph worry about me."
Apparently, Sampson didn't worry enough, even though he out-scored McQueen 23-0 the next afternoon. When the game was on the line, after Cavalier forward Tim Mullen missed a shot that would have given his team the lead with just seconds to play, McQueen boxed Sampson completely out of the picture and grabbed the rebound that secured the Wolfpack's trip to the Final Four.
After that game, a reporter asked McQueen to name the ACC's best center. McQueen thought for a minute and declared that he was. "What Ralph Sampson?" asked the incredulous reporter of the Cavaliers' three-time national player of the year. "Ralph ain't in the ACC any more," McQueen said.
Against Houston, Olajuwon played well early on but McQueen shut him down in the second half. The 7-foot All-America center made just one field goal and two free throws in the game's final 14 minutes, and McQueen out-rebounded him after intermission 9-7. After the game, "McQueen" was the first name Houston coach Guy Lewis mentioned. "He knows how to play defense," Lewis said. "In the last 10 minutes, he was our biggest problem."
Throughout his career, he played his best against the best. As a senior, he was tasked to defend Southern Methodist All-America and Olympic team member Jon Koncak, who had just run over Oklahoma center Wayman Tisdale (Koncak had 22 points, 11 rebounds) and North Carolina's Brad Daugherty (31 points, 9 rebounds). He and the No. 4 ranked Mustangs were eager to quell a rowdy sold-out crowd at Reynolds Coliseum.
It didn't happen. McQueen's swarming defense held Koncak lows of five points and three rebounds in a thrilling 82-78 overtime victory for the Pack, its third win over a Top 10 team in a three-week period for a team that eventually advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight.
"I take a lot of pride in my defense," said McQueen, who besides Sampson and Olajuwon stared down Memphis State's Keith Lee, UNLV's Sidney Green and Daugherty in man-to-man contests. "And I think today was one of the best defensive games I've ever played.
"There's nobody I can't play against."
That's what was beautiful about the 6-foot-11 McQueen, who played professionally for a decade, then settled back in Raleigh with his family. He had no idea he was supposed to be intimidated by big-name opponents.
"Nothing Cozell does surprises me, not after I saw him get 25 rebounds in the [1983] Final Four," Valvano said after the SMU win.
McQueen's teammates, who collectively were with him on almost a daily basis the last few months as his health turned downward, appreciated the way McQueen handled the most pressure-filled situations.
"The thing about Co is he is someone who didn't know any better," Lowe said. "When he stepped on the floor against Ralph, Co thought he was better. Consequently, he played that way. The great thing about him was that he always understood his game and his role, to rebound and play defense.
"He was always unselfish in that way. He didn't care about scoring."
Like Charles Shackleford, McQueen was most remembered by some for punching-bag stories told about him by Valvano and others. He was much more, however, on the basis of performance and playing within his talent boundaries.
He was a fourth-round pick of the Milwaukee Bucks in the 1985 NBA draft, the 91st overall pick. He did not survive training camp because of his offensive limitations.
McQueen played professionally for a decade, mostly overseas—even in his "native" France. He logged just three games in the NBA for the Detroit Pistons in 1987. After retirement, he settled back in Raleigh with his family and attended every gathering of the '83 teammates, including the NC State Athletic Hall of Fame induction ceremony in April.
McQueen, his face contorted into a furious scowl every time he was called for a foul, was always a fan favorite and a top five center in program history, even if Valvano and his teammates gave him a hard time every now and then.
He was invincible in that way.
Courtesy of TheWolfpacker/On3
The greatest thing about Cozell McQueen was that he believed he was invincible.
What other word would you use to describe someone who challenged the greatest players of his generation and thought they should be just as scared of him as everyone thought he was of them?
For the record, McQueen, who died Wednesday in Raleigh after a long battle with brain cancer, wasn't scared of anyone or anything. He was 64.
"Me, nervous?" McQueen said before the 1983 Final Four. "I've never been nervous; I just go out and play."
From 1981-85, McQueen was the man in the middle of Jim Valvano's basketball program, often the butt of his coach's well-rehearsed jokes but rarely a liability on the court. The lefthanded center wasn't much of a scoring threat, averaging 5.3 points and 5.9 rebounds in four seasons. Yet his 134 games played still ranks fourth in school history and emphasizes his importance to Valvano's program.
He never topped 10 points in 11 NCAA tournament games but he was quietly heroic in the final two games of the 1983 season, especially against Houston All-America Hakeem Olajuwon. Against Georgia and Houston, McQueen grabbed 25 rebounds, blocked five shots and played his typically strong defense in games that mattered most.
His death marks the third former player and fifth member of the Cardiac Pack to pass in the 43 years since that magical run [Insert link here: https://gopack.com/news/2019/4/11/mens-basketball-nc-state-athletic-hall-of-fame-1983-national-champions.] He was preceded by forward and classmate Lorenzo Charles (who enrolled with McQueen as a freshman in 1981), walk-on forward Quinton Leonard, head coach Jim Valvano and assistant coach Ed McLean.
At 6-11 and barely more than 200 pounds during his playing days, McQueen was almost comically lanky and the perfect foil for Valvano's biting wit. The fact that he came from Bennettsville, South Carolina, opened up even more fertile fields for humor.
"We have Cozell McQueen from South Carolina," Valvano said when he introduced his second recruiting class. "He said he always wanted to go up north to play college basketball."
Valvano also told the story about how McQueen made him wait before making his final decision to commit to the pack so he could make one more recruiting trip to an exotic location—Toledo, Ohio.
McQueen took Valvano's stories and his teammate's jibes in full stride.
"It seems to me that people think everybody from South Carolina is slow and behind," McQueen said before his senior season. "I know I am quite intelligent, or I wouldn't be here. I consider myself smarter than a regular student.
Some regular students can't even do their work. People just say if you are from South Carolina, you are a dummy and you don't know what you are doing.
"If you come from a big city or something, people give you the benefit of the doubt. They don't know if you are dumb or not."
McQueen was actually born in Paris, where his father was serving in the U.S. Army. The first 18 months of his life, he bounced from France to Fayetteville to Fort Benning, Georgia, before permanently landing in the Palmetto State.
His incoming class as a freshman included Charles, Terry Gannon, Alvin Battle, Walter "Dinky" Proctor and George McLain. Their maturation as sophomores, especially in the absence of injured senior guard Dereck Whittenburg, is the often-uncredited reason the team was at its peak in the second half of the championship season.
By the end of his second season, McQueen was brimful of confidence.
It started in the Feb. 19 victory against North Carolina. In the second half, no one on the Wolfpack could make the front end of a one-and-one free throw, to the consternation of Valvano. "Can anyone here make a free throw?"
McQueen, a 57.6 percent shooter that season, raised his hand. Sure enough, he drained a pair of foul shots to seal the landmark 70-63 victory, Valvano's first ever over the Tar Heels.
He never let the gravity of the Wolfpack's desperate times get the best of him.
One of the favorite stories of those who covered the '83 teams was seeing McQueen out late at night before the Wolfpack was to play Virginia in the NCAA East Regional championship game in Ogden, Utah. He was found enjoying what there was of the Mormon-tinted nightlife.
"Cozell," one of them asked, "aren't you worried about playing Ralph tomorrow? Shouldn't you be back in the room?"
McQueen didn't break stride as he said, "Let Ralph worry about me."
Apparently, Sampson didn't worry enough, even though he out-scored McQueen 23-0 the next afternoon. When the game was on the line, after Cavalier forward Tim Mullen missed a shot that would have given his team the lead with just seconds to play, McQueen boxed Sampson completely out of the picture and grabbed the rebound that secured the Wolfpack's trip to the Final Four.
After that game, a reporter asked McQueen to name the ACC's best center. McQueen thought for a minute and declared that he was. "What Ralph Sampson?" asked the incredulous reporter of the Cavaliers' three-time national player of the year. "Ralph ain't in the ACC any more," McQueen said.
Against Houston, Olajuwon played well early on but McQueen shut him down in the second half. The 7-foot All-America center made just one field goal and two free throws in the game's final 14 minutes, and McQueen out-rebounded him after intermission 9-7. After the game, "McQueen" was the first name Houston coach Guy Lewis mentioned. "He knows how to play defense," Lewis said. "In the last 10 minutes, he was our biggest problem."
Throughout his career, he played his best against the best. As a senior, he was tasked to defend Southern Methodist All-America and Olympic team member Jon Koncak, who had just run over Oklahoma center Wayman Tisdale (Koncak had 22 points, 11 rebounds) and North Carolina's Brad Daugherty (31 points, 9 rebounds). He and the No. 4 ranked Mustangs were eager to quell a rowdy sold-out crowd at Reynolds Coliseum.
It didn't happen. McQueen's swarming defense held Koncak lows of five points and three rebounds in a thrilling 82-78 overtime victory for the Pack, its third win over a Top 10 team in a three-week period for a team that eventually advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight.
"I take a lot of pride in my defense," said McQueen, who besides Sampson and Olajuwon stared down Memphis State's Keith Lee, UNLV's Sidney Green and Daugherty in man-to-man contests. "And I think today was one of the best defensive games I've ever played.
"There's nobody I can't play against."
That's what was beautiful about the 6-foot-11 McQueen, who played professionally for a decade, then settled back in Raleigh with his family. He had no idea he was supposed to be intimidated by big-name opponents.
"Nothing Cozell does surprises me, not after I saw him get 25 rebounds in the [1983] Final Four," Valvano said after the SMU win.
McQueen's teammates, who collectively were with him on almost a daily basis the last few months as his health turned downward, appreciated the way McQueen handled the most pressure-filled situations.
"The thing about Co is he is someone who didn't know any better," Lowe said. "When he stepped on the floor against Ralph, Co thought he was better. Consequently, he played that way. The great thing about him was that he always understood his game and his role, to rebound and play defense.
"He was always unselfish in that way. He didn't care about scoring."
Like Charles Shackleford, McQueen was most remembered by some for punching-bag stories told about him by Valvano and others. He was much more, however, on the basis of performance and playing within his talent boundaries.
He was a fourth-round pick of the Milwaukee Bucks in the 1985 NBA draft, the 91st overall pick. He did not survive training camp because of his offensive limitations.
McQueen played professionally for a decade, mostly overseas—even in his "native" France. He logged just three games in the NBA for the Detroit Pistons in 1987. After retirement, he settled back in Raleigh with his family and attended every gathering of the '83 teammates, including the NC State Athletic Hall of Fame induction ceremony in April.
McQueen, his face contorted into a furious scowl every time he was called for a foul, was always a fan favorite and a top five center in program history, even if Valvano and his teammates gave him a hard time every now and then.
He was invincible in that way.
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