Originally,
Wake ForestWake Forest University is a private, coeducational university in the U.S. state of North Carolina, founded in 1834. The university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina, the state capital. The Reynolda Campus, the university's main campus, is...
's athletic teams were known as the Fighting Baptists, due to its association with the Baptist Convention (from which it later separated itself). However, in 1923, after a particularly impressive win against the
DukeDuke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
Blue DevilsDuke University's 26 varsity sports teams, known as the Blue Devils, compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The name comes from the French "les Diables Bleus" or "the Blue Devils," which was the nickname given during World War I to the Chasseurs Alpins, the French Alpine light infantry...
, a newspaper reporter wrote that the Deacons "fought like Demons", giving rise to the current team name, the "
Demon DeaconThe Demon Deacon is the mascot of Wake Forest University, a school located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Probably best known for its slightly unorthodox name and appearance, the Demon Deacon has become a mainstay in the world of U.S. college mascots....
s".
Wake Forest has won a total of eight national championships in four different sports; four of these championships have come in the past six years. Wake Forest is sometimes referred to as being a part of "
Tobacco RoadTobacco Road refers to the tobacco-producing area of North Carolina and is often used when referring to sports played among rival North Carolina universities...
" or "The Big Four", terms that refer to the four North Carolina schools that compete heatedly against each other within the ACC; these include Duke University,
North CarolinaThe University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States...
, and North Carolina State, as well as Wake Forest.
The Demon Deacons participate in the
NCAAThe National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...
's Division I (in the Bowl Subdivision for
footballCollege football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
) and in the
Atlantic Coast ConferenceThe Atlantic Coast Conference is a collegiate athletic league in the United States. Founded in 1953 in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC sanctions competition in twenty-five sports in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association for its twelve member universities...
.
The
Athletics DirectorAn athletic director is an administrator at many American colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches and related staff involved in intercollegiate or interscholastic athletic programs...
is Ron Wellman, who won multiple Athletic Director of the Year Awards for his work during the 2007-2008 school year
http://wakeforestsports.cstv.com/genrel/060908aah.html.
Football
2006 Season
Wake Forest's football team was ranked in the Top 25 in the nation by the
AP PollThe Associated Press College Poll refers to weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling sportswriters across the nation...
during most of the 2006 season. They won the 2006 ACC Atlantic Division Title and the 2006 ACC Conference Championship by defeating the
Georgia TechThe Georgia Institute of Technology is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States...
Yellow JacketsThe Yellow Jackets is the name used for all of the intercollegiate athletic teams that play for the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. The teams have also been nicknamed the Ramblin' Wreck, Engineers, Blacksmiths, and Golden Tornado. There are 8 men's and 7 women's teams that...
9–6 on December 2 in the ACC Championship Game in Jacksonville, FL. The win sent Wake Forest to the Orange Bowl to play Big East champion Louisville, where they lost to the Cardinals. This made Wake Forest the smallest school to ever compete in the
Bowl Championship SeriesThe Bowl Championship Series is a selection system that creates five bowl match-ups involving ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision , including an opportunity for the top two to compete in the BCS National Championship Game.The BCS relies on a combination of...
. Of all schools that play Division I FBS football, only
RiceWilliam Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University or Rice, is a private research university located on a heavily wooded campus in Houston, Texas, United States...
and
TulsaThe University of Tulsa is a private university awarding bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA. It is currently ranked 75th among doctoral degree granting universities in the nation by US News and World Report and is listed as one of the "Best 366 Colleges" by...
have smaller undergraduate enrollments, and Wake has the smallest undergraduate enrollment of any school in the
BCS conferenceAn Automatic Qualifying conference is an athletic conference in NCAA Division I FBS whose champion receives an automatic berth in one of the five Bowl Championship Series bowl games...
s.
For his part in the record-setting season, coach
Jim GrobeJim Grobe is an American football coach and former player. He is currently the head coach at Wake Forest University, a position he has held since the 2001 season. From 1995 to 2000, Grobe served as the head coach at Ohio University...
was unanimously selected ACC Coach of the Year, and handily won the AP Coach of the Year award several weeks later. Coach Grobe signed a ten-year contract in 2003.
2007 Season
Wake Forest followed its success in 2006 with another excellent year and finished the regular season with a record of 8 wins and 4 losses. During the season, the Demon Deacons were briefly ranked in the Top 25. Their success throughout the year earned Wake Forest an invitation to the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte, North Carolina. Played on December 29 in the Bank of America stadium (home of the Carolina Panthers) the Demon Deacons defeated the Connecticut Huskies 24–10.
Wake Forest's head coach, Jim Grobe, continues to garner national attention as an outstanding college football coach. Though he was offered coaching positions at other schools, Grobe chose to remain with the Deacons much to the relief of Wake fans.
Wake Forest plays its home football games at
BB&T FieldThis article is about the football stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. For the baseball stadium also in Winston-Salem, see BB&T Ballpark. For the baseball stadium in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, see BB&T Coastal Field....
(formerly Groves Stadium).
Men's basketball
Wake Forest is generally regarded as a competitive program in men's
basketballBasketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
, frequently qualifying for the
NCAA Men's Division I Basketball ChampionshipThe NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship is a single-elimination tournament held each spring in the United States, featuring 68 college basketball teams, to determine the national championship in the top tier of college basketball...
(20 times in the school's history). The men's basketball team has made 16 straight postseason appearances (through their NIT appearance in 2006), the longest such streak in the ACC. They reached the
Final FourFinal Four isa sports term that is commonly applied to the last four teams remaining in a playoff tournament, most notably NCAA Division I college basketball tournaments. The term usually refers to the four teams who compete in the two games of a single-elimination tournament's semi-final round...
once, in 1962. The school's famous basketball alumni include
Billy PackerAnthony William "Billy" Packer is a former American sportscaster for CBS Sports and a published author.-Early life:Packer is a graduate of Liberty High School in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania...
, a guard on the 1962 Final Four team who became far more famous as a basketball broadcaster; "Muggsy" Bogues, the shortest player ever to play in the
NBAThe National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
;
Randolph ChildressRandolph Childress is an American former professional basketball player who last played in Italy for Cestistica San Severo...
, for his MVP performance in the 1995 ACC Tournament;
Dallas MavericksThe Dallas Mavericks are a professional basketball team based in Dallas, Texas. They are members of the Southwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association , and the reigning NBA champions, having defeated the Miami Heat in the 2011 NBA Finals.According to a 2011...
star
Josh HowardJoshua Jay Howard is an American professional basketball player who most recently played for the NBA's Washington Wizards. At and , he plays as a small forward.-High school:...
; 2006
NBA Rookie of the Year AwardThe National Basketball Association's Rookie of the Year Award is an annual National Basketball Association award given since the 1952–53 NBA season, to the top rookie of the regular season. The winner receives the Eddie Gottlieb Trophy, which is named in honor of the Philadelphia Warriors head...
winner and New Orleans Hornets star
Chris PaulChristopher Emmanuel Paul is an American professional basketball point guard for the New Orleans Hornets.Paul was born and raised in North Carolina. Despite only playing two varsity basketball seasons in high school, he was a McDonald's All-American and accepted a scholarship with nearby Wake...
; and two-time league MVP and three-time
NBA FinalsThe NBA Finals is the championship series of the National Basketball Association . The series was named the NBA World Championship Series until 1986....
MVP
San Antonio SpursThe San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio, Texas. They are part of the Southwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association ....
forward
Tim DuncanTimothy Theodore "Tim" Duncan is an American professional basketball player for the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association . The 6-foot 11-inch , 255-pound power forward/center is a four-time NBA champion, two-time NBA MVP, three-time NBA Finals MVP, and NBA Rookie of the Year...
.
Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial ColiseumThe Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum is a 14,407-seat multi-purpose arena, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Construction on the arena began on April 23, 1987 and it opened on August 28, 1989...
is the home venue for the Demon Deacons basketball team.
Skip ProsserGeorge Edward "Skip" Prosser was an American college basketball coach who was head men's basketball coach at Wake Forest University at the time of his death. He was the only coach in NCAA history to take three separate schools to the NCAA Tournament in his first year coaching the teams...
, Wake Forest University's men's basketball coach since 2001, died in Winston-Salem on July 26, 2007. One of Prosser's assistant coaches,
Dino GaudioDino Joseph Gaudio is the former head men's basketball coach at Wake Forest University. He previously served as the head coach at the United States Military Academy and Loyola College in Maryland....
, was named to replace him.
Women's field hockey
Recent athletic honors include three consecutive NCAA
Field HockeyField Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...
national championshipsTwelve women's sports were added to the NCAA championship program for the 1981-82 school year. The first national championship events were staged November 21-November 22, 1981, in cross country and field hockey.-Division I:-Division II:-Division III:...
in 2002, 2003, and 2004 under Head Coach Jennifer Averill. In 2005, the Deacs were defeated in the semifinal round by
Duke UniversityDuke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
, and in the 2006 championship game by the
University of MarylandThe University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...
.
Golf
Wake Forest has had several successful
golfGolf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
teams, winning
national championshipsThe NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championships, played in late May or early June, is the top annual competition in U.S. men's collegiate golf. It is a stroke play team competition, starting in 2009 the competition changed to a stroke play/match play competition with the top 8 teams after 54 holes of...
in 1974, 1975, and 1986. Several well-known players include
Arnold PalmerArnold Daniel Palmer is an American professional golfer, who is generally regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of men's professional golf. He has won numerous events on both the PGA Tour and Champions Tour, dating back to 1955...
,
Lanny WadkinsJerry Lanston "Lanny" Wadkins, Jr. is an American professional golfer. He ranked in the top-10 of the Official World Golf Rankings for 86 weeks from their debut in 1986 to 1988....
,
Jay HaasJay Dean Haas is an American professional golfer.Haas was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and grew up in Belleville, Illinois. He attended Wake Forest University and was a member of the NCAA Championship team of the middle 1970s with Curtis Strange and Bob Byman that Golf World has called "the...
,
Billy AndradeWilliam Thomas Andrade is an American professional golfer.Andrade was born in Bristol, Rhode Island. He attended Wake Forest University where he helped lead the Demon Deacons to the 1986 NCAA Championship. He played on the U.S. team in the 1987 Walker Cup, and turned professional in the same year...
,
Bill HaasWilliam Harlan Haas is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour and won the 2011 FedEx Cup. He is the son of former PGA Tour player Jay Haas.-Early life:...
,
Curtis StrangeCurtis Northrup Strange is an American professional golfer. He is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame and Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. He spent over 200 weeks in the top-10 of the Official World Golf Rankings between their debut in 1986 and 1990.-Early years through college:Strange and his...
,
Robert Wrenn----Robert "Bob" Duffield Wrenn was a left-handed American tennis player, four-time U.S. singles championship winner, and one of the first "enshrinees" in the International Tennis Hall of Fame....
,
Scott HochScott Mabon Hoch is an American golfer, who represented his country in the Ryder Cup in 1997 and 2002.Hoch was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. He was a member of the golf team at Wake Forest University before graduating in 1978. He also played on the winning U.S. team in the Eisenhower Trophy...
,
Webb SimpsonJames Frederick "Webb" Simpson is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour.-Amateur career:Simpson was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. He played high school golf at Broughton High before his collegiate golf career at Wake Forest University. He was a three-time All-American and...
, and
Cheyenne WoodsCheyenne Nicole Woods is an American amateur golfer.Woods was born in Phoenix, Arizona. She is a daughter of Earl Dennison Woods Jr., golfer Tiger Woods's older half-brother. Her grandfather, Earl Woods Sr., was her first coach. She played for the Xavier College Preparatory golf team and won...
.
Soccer
Wake Forest is a consistent
national titleThe NCAA began conducting a Men's Division I Soccer Championship tournament in 1959 with an eight-team tournament. Currently, the tournament field consists of 48 teams...
contender in men's soccer. In recent years several players from the program have played professionally in
Major League SoccerMajor League Soccer is a professional soccer league based in the United States and sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation . The league is composed of 19 teams — 16 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada...
, including
Brian CarrollBrian Carroll is an American soccer player who currently plays for Philadelphia Union in Major League Soccer.-Youth and College:...
,
Will HesmerWilliam "Will" Hesmer is an American soccer player who currently plays for Columbus Crew in Major League Soccer.-College:...
,
Brian EdwardsBrian or Bryan Edwards may refer to:*Brian Edwards , American soccer player*Brian Edwards , New Zealand media personality*Bryan Edwards , English politician...
,
Michael LahoudMichael Lahoud is a Sierra Leonean-born American soccer player who currently plays for Chivas USA in Major League Soccer.-College:Lahoud moved from his native Sierra Leone to Annandale, Virginia when he was two years old...
,
Michael ParkhurstMichael Parkhurst is an American soccer player. He plays primarily as center back for F.C. Nordsjælland in the Danish Superliga...
, James Riley,
Scott SealyScott Ryan Sealy is a Trinidadian footballer who currently plays for San Jose Earthquakes in Major League Soccer.-College:Sealy played college soccer at Wake Forest from 2001 to 2004, where he played in 83 games, starting 73...
,
Sam CroninSam Cronin is an American soccer player who currently plays for San Jose Earthquakes in Major League Soccer as a midfielder.-College and amateur:...
, and
Wells ThompsonThomas Wells Thompson is an American soccer player who currently plays for Colorado Rapids in Major League Soccer.-High school and College:...
. In 2006 the team advanced to the final four of the NCAA tournament where they were defeated in a penalty kick shootout by the
University of California, Santa BarbaraThe University of California, Santa Barbara, commonly known as UCSB or UC Santa Barbara, is a public research university and one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system. The main campus is located on a site in Goleta, California, from Santa Barbara and northwest of Los...
. They captured the 2007 NCAA Men's Soccer Championship defeating Ohio State 2–1.
Baseball
Wake Forest won the
1955 College World SeriesThe NCAA Men's Division I College World Series involved 8 schools playing in double-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college baseball. It began on June 10, and ended with the championship game on June 16...
in baseball. Starting in 2009, they will be playing on
Ernie Shore FieldGene Hooks Field at Wake Forest Baseball Park is a collegiate and former minor-league baseball park in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA. The full-time home of the Wake Forest University baseball team, starting in 2009, it was also previously home of the Winston-Salem entry in the Carolina League...
, in Winston-Salem, NC.
National Championships
- Men's
- Baseball - 1955
- Golf - 1974, 1975, 1986
- Soccer - 2007
- Women's
- Field Hockey - 2002, 2003, 2004
Screamin' Demons
Student attendance of Wake Forest football and
basketballBasketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
games is high, in part due to the program known as "Screamin' Demons". At the beginning of each respective athletic season students on the Reynolda Campus can sign up for the program whereby they pay $15 for each season; in addition to the slightly better seats than the other students in football (not enforced) and seats behind the rim in basketball, this gets students a football shirt in the fall and a tie-dye t-shirt in the spring along with a card that serves as an automatic pass to the sporting events. They lose this privilege if they miss two of the games. Most students sign up because ticket distribution to non-Screamin' Demons is unreliable. Through the planning of Sports Marketing and the Screamin' Demons program, basketball game seats in the students section are difficult to attain without participating in the Screamin' Demons program. The arena can only sit 2,250 of the 5,500 undergraduate students at Wake Forest. At least 150 seats are always set aside for non-Screamin Demons, who sit behind the 2,100 member group. Students often camp out through the night (against rain and freezing temperature) to get the best seats in the house (which are assigned in order of those showing up at the ticket gate).