Chuck Amato, former NC State football coach, dies at 80
247Sports reports former Wolfpack head coach Chuck Amato died at 80 after a battle with throat cancer and months in hospice care.
Why Chuck Amato is trending
Chuck Amato, the former NC State head football coach, has died at 80, 247Sports reports. Amato had battled throat cancer and died after several months in hospice care, according to the outlet.
Amato ran the Wolfpack program for seven seasons, taking over before the 2000 season and leaving after 2006. In Raleigh he is remembered as a Wolfpack legend and by the nickname "Chuck the Chest."
Seven years running the Wolfpack
Amato went 49-37 overall and 25-31 in the ACC at NC State, reaching five bowl games and winning four of them. His best season came in 2002, when the Wolfpack finished 11-3 and beat Notre Dame in the Gator Bowl.
Four of his seven seasons came with Philip Rivers at quarterback. Amato's NC State teams sent more than 20 players to the NFL, including first-round picks Rivers, Mario Williams, Manny Lawson and John McCargo. Williams went No. 1 overall in the 2006 NFL Draft after his breakout season under Amato's defense, the only Wolfpack player taken first overall in the modern draft era.
A career that ran from NC State to Florida State and back
Amato played linebacker at NC State from 1965 to 1967 under head coach Earle Edwards, served as a senior defensive captain in 1967, and won ACC wrestling championships at heavyweight in 1966 and 1968. He got his coaching start as a grad assistant under Al Michaels and Lou Holtz, then worked as a defensive backs coach under Holtz and as defensive coordinator under Bo Rein through 1979.
He coached two seasons at Arizona before spending nearly two decades at Florida State under Bobby Bowden, from 1982 through 1999, first coaching the defensive line and later serving as associate head coach. Assistants who worked under Amato at NC State went on to head coaching jobs of their own, including Curt Cignetti, Manny Diaz, Doc Holliday and Marc Trestman. His coaching career ended at Akron in 2017.
Back home in Raleigh
After he stopped coaching, Amato returned to Raleigh and hosted The Chuck Amato Show from Amedeo's. He was known around town as a larger-than-life personality who changed the feel of a room when he walked into it.
247Sports extended condolences to Amato's wife, Peggy, and his daughters, LuGina and Selena.
Facts per 247Sports. Opinion is the taproom's.