Originally the Wake Forest team was known as the Deacons. However, in 1941, after a particularly good win against the Duke Blue Devils, a newspaper reporter wrote that the Deacons "fought like
Demons," giving rise to the current team name, the "
Demon Deacons."The Demon Deacons participate in the NCAA's Division I (I-A for football) and in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Recent athletic honors include
winning the regular-season ACC basketball championship in 2003 under the leadership of forward Josh Howard.Wake Forest is generally regarded as a competitive basketball team, one that
often qualifies for the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship (19 times in the school's
history). They reached the Final Four once, in 1962. They began the 2004 season ranked number one in the country. The school's most famous basketball alumni are
Billy Packer, a guard on the 1962
Final Four team who became far more famous as a basketball broadcaster, and current NBA superstar and two-time league MVP
Tim Duncan.Wake Forest has had several successful golf teams, winning national championships in 1972, 1973 and 1986. Several well-known
players include Arnold Palmer, Curtis Strange and Scott Hoch.Their football team is historically poor, though in the early 2000's they
achieved moderate success and attended bowl games. Of all schools that play
Division I-A football, only Rice and Tulsa have smaller undergraduate enrollments.Both the current head basketball coach, Skip Prosser, formerly of Xavier, and football coach, Jim Grobe, were signed to huge ten-year
contracts in 2003. The current Athletics Director is Ron Wellman.