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Rolling the Quad
Enthusiasm for athletic victories at Wake Forest University can be measured by the toilet paper in the
trees. Wake Forest students, alumni and other fans celebrate game wins by “rolling the quad,” covering the center of campus
with streamers of white tissue. The tradition, while popular with Wake Forest fans of all ages, began mostly
because of the 172-year-old university's 1956 move from the town of Wake Forest, N.C., to Winston-Salem.
Home of Wake - Forest Football
BB&T Field:
The home of Wake Forest Football is BB&T Field, considered one of the most beautiful stadiums of its size
in the nation. The facility, which celebrated its 35th season in 2002, underwent a $1.5 million refurbishing in recent years
which added significantly to both its appearance and utility heading into the 21st century. Of course, the most obvious and striking
improvement to the complex has been Bridger Field House, which houses the Wake Forest and visitor locker rooms, postgame interview
room, specific areas for the equipment and sports medicine staffs and the Deacon Shop on the first floor. Wake Forest is currently
in the middle of a six-phase plan to completely renovate BB&T Field.
Prior to the 2005 season, the facade along the sidelines and south endzone were re-faced with approximately 89,000 bricks, specifically
created for this project by Pine Hall Brick Company. The bricks are in the same style of those that adorn the buildings on Wake Forest's
Reynolda Campus, less than a mile away.
"History of the Deacon Mascot:"
The tradition of the Deacon began in 1922 when a gentleman named Hank Garrity, Sr. took over the coaching of the
college's athletic teams. Wake Forest had fallen on lean years prior to Garrity, but under his tutelage the college experienced a
resurgence in school spirit and winning seasons. At that time Wake Forest teams were called the "Baptists" and the "Old Gold and Black."
However, the enterprising editor of the school paper, Mayor Parker '24 of Ahoskie, thought the school needed a unique nickname and, after
a particularly devilish win over Trinity (now Duke), created the alliteration, "Demon Deacons." The college's publicity director, Henry
Belk, started using the name in his press releases, and soon papers across the country proclaimed the success of the "Demon Deacons."
Demon Deacon - the name was right. It was not until 1941, however, that Wake Forest had a Deacon mascot at its athletic contests. In a
dormitory bull session, Jack Baldwin '43 of Greensboro proclaimed the need for a mascot to some of his fraternity brothers and, when
one dared him to do it, agreed on the condition that they supply him with a costume.
"We tried to make him a little more dignified than other mascots," Baldwin says. "So we dressed up like you would think an
old Baptist Deacon would dress up." And when Baldwin made his first appearance in top hat, tails, and umbrella, riding the Carolina
ram, the Deacon was here to stay. Every succeeding Deacon has flavored the tradition. In the fifties Jim DeVos '55, of Libertyville, Illinois and Ray Whitley '57 of
Rochester, New York perfected the fine art of goal post climbing, sitting, hanging and even walking - in cleated football shoes.
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