In 2011, a member of one of college basketball’s most beloved title teams died far too young. Lorenzo Charles was killed in a highway accident that stunned Raleigh and reopened old wounds from a program that had already lost its coach to cancer years earlier. This week, that same roster lost another one of its own – former NBA center Cozell McQueen.

McQueen, the 6-foot-11 center who anchored NC State’s 1983 national championship run, has died at age 64. The program confirmed his passing Wednesday night.

“We are saddened by the passing of Cozell McQueen, who proudly wore the Red and White from 1981-85 and was a member of our unforgettable 1983 National Championship team,” NC State’s men’s basketball program tweeted. “Our thoughts are with his family, friends, teammates and all who knew him.”

A cause of death has not been publicly released.

McQueen, born in Paris and raised in Bennettsville, South Carolina, played for NC State from 1981 to 1985 under legendary coach Jim Valvano. He was a key figure on the “Cardiac Pack” squad that pulled off one of the sport’s all-time upsets.

As a sophomore during the 1983 tournament, he hit an off-balance bank shot with eight seconds left against Pepperdine to force second overtime in the first round. McQueen then posted a career-high 13 rebounds against Georgia in the semifinal to help push the Wolfpack toward Albuquerque.

The championship game itself is where McQueen made his lasting mark. Facing a heavily favored Houston team led by Hakeem Olajuwon, McQueen was tasked with slowing down college basketball’s most dominant young center.

He contributed 12 rebounds and four points while helping hold Olajuwon to one of the most stunning title-game defensive performances in NCAA history, as NC State pulled off a 54-52 win. North Carolina Sports Network called McQueen “the heart of NC State’s 1983 championship team,” crediting his “dominant defense, clutch plays, and larger-than-life spirit” as essential to the run.

At the final buzzer he created one of the most enduring images in college basketball history. As chaos broke out on the court, McQueen and freshman teammate Ernie Myers climbed up and stood on top of the backboard, celebrating above the rim as the rest of the team cut down the nets below them.

In an interview years later, McQueen was asked whether he still watched the famous title game against Olajuwon and Houston. Broadcaster Jeff Gravley, who conducted that interview in 2023, revisited McQueen’s answer in his own tribute this week. “When I interviewed Cozell McQueen in 2023, this response struck me. Now, even more, as we have lost another of the Cardiac Pack,” Gravley wrote. “RIP Co.”

The NC State Alumni Association remembered McQueen, writing that “his defense in the 1983 title game helped bring the national championship home to Raleigh,” while adding that he was “a fearless competitor from 1981-85.”

McQueen played all 66 games across his final two seasons at NC State, averaging 7.9 points, 8.8 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game, before being selected by the Milwaukee Bucks in the fourth round of the 1985 NBA Draft.