Wake Forest Demon Deacons football

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2008 Wake Forest Demon Deacons football team
Wake Forest Demon Deacons
First season 1888
Staff
Head coach Jim Grobe
7th year, 46–39
Stadium
Home stadium BB&T Field at Groves Stadium
Stadium capacity 31,500
Stadium surface FieldTurf
Location Winston-Salem, North Carolina
League/Conference
Conference ACC
Division Atlantic
Team records
All-time record 395–580–33 (.406)
Postseason bowl record 5–3–0
Awards
National titles 0
Conference titles 2 (1970, 2006)
Heisman winners 0
Pageantry
Colors Old Gold and Black            
Fight song O' Here's to Wake Forest
Mascot Demon Deacon
Marching band The Spirit of the Old Gold & Black
Rivals Duke Blue Devils
North Carolina Tar Heels
NC State Wolfpack
Website WF Sports

The Wake Forest Demon Deacons football team represents Wake Forest University in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference. Wake Forest was ranked in the Top 25 in the nation by the AP Poll during most of the 2006 season. Wake Forest won the 2006 ACC Atlantic Division Title and the 2006 ACC Conference Championship by defeating Georgia Tech 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 Series. Of all schools that play Division I FBS football, only Rice and Tulsa have smaller undergraduate enrollments, and Wake Forest has the smallest undergraduate enrollment of any school in the BCS conferences. For his part in the record-setting season, coach Jim Grobe was unanimously selected ACC Coach of the Year, and handily won the AP Coach of the Year award several weeks later. Wake Forest plays its home football games in Groves Stadium.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Mascot, nicknames and colors

Like many other collegiate school colors and mascots, Wake Forest's traditional "Old Gold & Black" and "Demon Deacon" have distinctive, yet somewhat debated, origins.

As early as 1895, Wake Forest College was using its colors in athletic competition. The school's literary magazine, "The Wake Forest Student," described them in this manner:

"At last, Wake Forest has a college badge. It is a very neat button designed by Mr. John M. Heck and contains a tiger's head over the letters WFC. The colors are in old gold and black." [1]

As the 20th century opened, those colors became frequently associated with the college, particularly its athletic and debate teams. Most historians believe that their adoption comes from the connection with the tiger mascot, and not, as some have proposed, from any association with the Bible.

Sadly, Heck, who is credited by the magazine with the creation of the tiger/old gold and black badge, died of typhoid fever at the age of 19 -- just one year after making a contribution to Wake Forest history that has lasted now for nearly 100 years.

The tiger mascot, however, remained with the school for just more than two decades. Reports indicate that by the early 1920s, the college's nicknames were most commonly noted as the "Baptists," or simply "The Old Gold & Black."

Those were difficult times for the Wake Forest athletic squads. But a gentleman by the name of Hank Garrity took over as head football and basketball coach in 1923 and for a brief period reversed those fortunes. Garrity led the football team, which had never had a winning record in the 1900s, to three straight winning seasons. And in two seasons on the hardwood, his clubs compiled a 33-14 mark.

The current nicknames of the time were not descriptive enough of this new-found athletic spirit, school newspaper editor Mayon Parker ('24) felt. After Wake Forest defeated rival Trinity (now Duke) in Garrity's first football season (1923), Parker first referred to the team as "Demon Deacons," in recognition of what he termed their "devilish" play and fighting spirit.

Wake Forest's news director Henry Belk and Garrity liked the title and began using it extensively. The name has, of course, remained as one of the most unusual in America.

[edit] Wake Forest head football coaches

Tenure Coach Years Record Pct.
1888 W.C. Dowd 1 1-0 1.000
1889 W.C. Riddick 1 3-3 .500
1891-93 W.E. Sikes 3 6-2-1 .722
1908 A.P. Hall Jr. 1 1-5 .167
1909 A.T. Myers 1 2-4 .333
1910 Reddy Rowe 1 2-7 .222
1911-13 Frank Thompson 3 5-19 .206
1914-15 W.C. Smith 2 6-10 .375
1916 C.M. Billings 1 3-3 .500
1917 E.T. MacDonnell 1 1-6-1 .188
1918-19 Harry Rabenhorst 2 3-8 .273
1920-21 J.L. White 2 4-15 .211
1922 George Levene 1 3-5-2 .400
1923-25 Hank Garrity 3 19-7-1 .722
1926-27 James A. Baldwin 2 7-10-3 .425
1928 Stanley B. Cofall 1 2-6-2 .300
1929-32 F.S. Miller 4 18-15-4 .541
1933-36 James H. Weaver 4 10-23-1 .309
1937-50 D.C. Walker 14 77-51-6 .597
1951-55 Tom Rogers 5 21-25-4 .460
1956-59 Paul Amen 4 11-26-3 .313
1960-63 Billy Hildebrand 4 7-33 .175
1964-68 Bill Tate 5 17-32-1 .350
1969-71 Cal Stoll 1 15-17 .469
1972 Tom Harper 1 2-9 .182
1973-77 Chuck Mills 5 11-43-1 .209
1978-80 John Mackovic 3 14-20 .412
1981-86 Al Groh 6 26-40 .394
1987-92 Bill Dooley 6 29-36-2 .448
1993-00 Jim Caldwell 7 26-63 .292
2001- Jim Grobe 7 45-39 .536
1888-2007 31 coaches 102 396-582-33 .406

[edit] Championships

[edit] Conference Championships

Conference Affiliations

Year Conference Overall Record Conference Record
1970 ACC 6-5 5-1
2006 ACC 11-2 7-2
Total conference championships 2

[edit] Records

[edit] All-time bowl record

Wake Forest has played in eight bowls in its history and owns a 5-3 record in those games. For the 2006-07 season, the school earned a bid to its first ever BCS game, with an Orange Bowl match-up against Louisville.

Date Bowl W/L Opponent PF PA
January 1, 1946 Gator Bowl W South Carolina 25 14
January 1, 1948 Dixie Bowl L Baylor 7 20
December 22, 1979 Tangerine Bowl L LSU 10 34
December 31, 1992 Independence Bowl W Oregon 39 35
December 25, 1999 Aloha Bowl W Arizona State 23 3
December 30, 2002 Seattle Bowl W Oregon 38 17
January 2, 2007 Orange Bowl L Louisville 13 24
December 29, 2007 Meineke Car Care Bowl W Connecticut 24 10
Total 8 bowl games 5-3

[edit] Rivalries

WFU is sometimes referred to as being a part of "Tobacco Road" or the Big Four[1], terms that refer to the four North Carolina schools that compete heatedly against each other within the ACC. Wake's all-time records against the members of Tobacco Road are 33-67-2 against UNC, 34-60-6 against NCSU, and 32-53-2 against Duke.[2] Wake Forest defeated North Carolina 6-4 on October 18, 1888 during the first intercollegiate football game played in the state of North Carolina.[3] Wake Forest swept the series with its Tobacco Road rivals in both 2006 and 2007.

[edit] Individual Award Winners

[edit] Player

  • ACC Player of the Year
Bill Barnes - 1956
Brian Piccolo - 1964
Jay Venuto - 1979
Chris Barclay - 2005
Ryan Plackemeier - 2005
  • ACC Rookie of the Year
James McDougald - 1976
Riley Skinner - 2006
Josh Adams - 2007

[edit] Coaches

  • ACC Coach of the Year
Paul Amen - 1956
Paul Amen - 1959
Bill Tate - 1964
Cal Stoll - 1970
John Mackovic - 1979
Bill Dooley - 1987
Bill Dooley - 1992
Jim Grobe - 2006
  • Associated Press Coach of the Year
Jim Grobe - 2006
  • Bobby Dodd Award
Jim Grobe - 2006

[edit] Current NFL Players

[edit] Other Famous Players

[edit] External links


v • d • e
Wake Forest University (WFU)
Academics
Athletics
Campus
People
v • d • e
Wake Forest Demon Deacons Football Seasons
1888 • 1889 • 1891 • 1892 • 1893 • 1895 • 1908 • 1909 • 1910 • 1911 • 1912 • 1913 • 1914 • 1915 • 1916 • 1917 • 1918 • 1919 • 1920 • 1921 • 1922 • 1923 • 1924 • 1925 • 1926 • 1927 • 1928 • 1929 • 1930 • 1931 • 1932 • 1933 • 1934 • 1935 • 1936 • 1937 • 1938 • 1939 • 1940 • 1941 • 1942 • 1943 • 1944 • 1945 • 1946 • 1947 • 1948 • 1949 • 1950 • 1951 • 1952 • 1953 • 1954 • 1955 • 1956 • 1957 • 1958 • 1959 • 1960 • 1961 • 1962 • 1963 • 1964 • 1965 • 1966 • 1967 • 1968 • 1969 • 1970 • 1971 • 1972 • 1973 • 1974 • 1975 • 1976 • 1977 • 1978 • 1979 • 1980 • 1981 • 1982 • 1983 • 1984 • 1985 • 1986 • 1987 • 1988 • 1989 • 1990 • 1991 • 1992 • 1993 • 1994 • 1995 • 1996 • 1997 • 1998 • 1999 • 2000 • 2001 • 2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • 2007 • 2008


Conference Championships: 1970 • 2006


v • d • e
Wake Forest Demon Deacons Head Football Coaches

Dowd • Riddick • Sikes • Hall • Myers • Rowe • Thompson • Smith • Billings • MacDonnell • Rabenhorst • White • Levene • Garrity • Baldwin • Cofall • Miller • Weaver • Walker • Rogers • Amen • Hildebrand • Tate • Stoll • Harper • Mills • Mackovic • Groh • Dooley • Caldwell • Grobe
v • d • e
Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC)
Atlantic Division
Coastal Division


[edit] References

  1. ^ Wake breezes to Big Four title, again
  2. ^ Wake Forest Opponents
  3. ^ Athletic History of WFU
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