What is a Demon Deacon?
College Football Bowl Season is right around the corner and there are some really good story lines out there this year - which I’m sure will be beaten into our heads over the next month. One of them is the success stories at Rutgers and Wake Forest.
I found this historical mascot tidbit interesting. Lorenzo Perez of the News Observer recounts how the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest became such:
According to the official tale from the university’s student handbook, a school newspaper reporter in the 1920s gave the football team that name after a “devilish” win over the Trinity Blue Devils — now known as the Duke Blue Devils. Back then, Wake Forest was the only college in the state without a mascot.
In 1941, a Wake student named Jack R. Baldwin took on a fraternity brother’s dare and dressed up as he thought an old-time Baptist deacon would: top hat, tuxedo and carrying a black umbrella. Apparently that was a big hit with the football fans, cementing the tradition.