Wake Forest fans stand tall, proud

JACKSONVILLE – Wake Forest fans are the most civilized fans I know. I don’t mean they don’t cheer or celebrate or go on the road and drink mass quantities of beer. I mean that instead of looking for reasons to complain, they enjoy the unexpected experience their football team has provided.

None of them expected to be in Jacksonville today for the ACC championship. About 9,000 made the trip. Georgia Tech sold about 15,000 tickets. Yet along the river in Jacksonville Friday night, there were many more Deacon fans than there were fans of the Yellow Jackets. It was a veritable Wake Forest fest.

Supporters of some schools and some professional teams look for reasons to complain. OK, I’m on the road with my team, and that’s a good thing. But the broadcasters and the newspaper writers and the bartenders like the other team better than mine so I’m not as happy as I should be and it’s everybody else’s fault.

Wake Forest fans aren’t just happy to be in Jacksonville. They want to win. But they are happy to be here. You see them laughing and slapping hands and nervously wishing each other luck, and you see an occasional smile that suggests they can’t believe they’re here.

Deacons, I salute you. There is hope.

Comments

[rex]

Awesome, I am glad for Wake and their fans. It has been a great season and a deserving one. I remember how much fun the NC State fans had in Jacksonville for the Gator Bowl afew years ago. Jacksonville are great hosts and NC State fans were very excited and happy. I also seen a great NC State football team then on & off the field. It was the Notre Dame players NOT State players that got arrested at a late night party.

[rex]

Btw, NC State had around 58,000 fans at the Gator Bowl... Notre Dame may have had 10,000 fans at the Gator Bowl.

[David McKnight]

For football fans who also enjoy the general hoopla around the gridiron, it should also be said that the Wake Forest fight song is one of the coolest in all the ACC.

Around here in the Research Triangle area including Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, our music bands naturally get a lot of requests for the State, Duke and Carolina fight songs, which are also quite catchy and entertaining musically. But every now and then we break into the Deacons fight song just because it has such a great melody and rhythm to it.

So all you concert and marching bands, practice up on the Deacons' fight song so you can salute this great Wake Forest football team during the holiday bowl season. And good luck to Wake from all corners of the Tar Heel--er, read that, the Old North State.

Maybe we should change the words to that fine holiday song this season to say instead:

"Walkin' in a Deacon Wonderland."