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Oldtimer's Memories Thread

liveanddiedeac

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I'm starting this thread to post random old memories and thoughts of Wake teams from the distant past.

Anyway, last night I'm looking for something to watch on TV, so I start searching YouTube for old Wake Forest stuff. The first thing I came across was a video of all the Auburn football coaches TV shows from 1979. So, I fast forward until I find the 1979 game against us. They showed a lot of good footage of that game and not just pro-Auburn plays. Groves was filled and rocking and there was plenty of Auburn support there too. Our stadium was fine at the time, but is so much better now. Auburn's coach sounded like a country bumpkin, but was very complimentary of our team. It was funny to see a team throw as much as we did and the QB be under center and have to drop back everytime, this was before anyone much besides the Cowboys used the shotgun. Venuto had a heck of an arm. What a game that was, still hard to top that one, despite a bunch of great games since. We were down 38-20 at halftime and won 42-38, with the help of some 2nd half Auburn turnovers.

After watching that, I came across the 1980 and final title game of the old Big 4 tournament. I only watched the 1st half, but will watch the 2nd soon. Anyway, we played UNC after beating State by 30 points the night before and UNC beating Duke by 2 the night before. Our starting lineup was Frank Johnson, Mike Helms, Alvis Rodgers, Guy Morgan and Jim Johnstone. Danny Young was freshman that year. I remembered this game, but it's pretty vague, I was 10 then. Things that stood out to me were how good a starting lineup we had, how good Guy Morgan was on the boards, how quick and smooth Frank Johnson was, how underrated Carl Tacy was as a coach, how incredible long Sam Perkins arms were (almost looked deformed) and how pro Wake the crowd was (Duke and State fans were holding Wake pom-poms). Billy Packer and Bones McKinney were on color with Jim Thacker on play by play. Packer was pretty high on that Wake team, calling it very talented and the deepest Wake team he'd ever seen. When Sam Perkins first came out on the court, he didn't start, I thought he looked like Plastic-Man, a few seconds after I had that thought, Packer said "you know that Saturday morning cartoon Plastic-Man, that's who Perkins reminds me of." I honestly think the memory of Billy saying that was buried very deep in my mind from all those years ago and that's why that thought popped in my head right before he said it.

Anyway, just thought some might find this interesting.
 
The Auburn game was homecoming as well. Maybe the best homecoming game ever, but who schedules like that.

James McDougald had 4 rushing TD's. That team had both a passing and run game.
 
The Auburn game was homecoming as well. Maybe the best homecoming game ever, but who schedules like that.

James McDougald had 4 rushing TD's. That team had both a passing and run game.

Oh yeah, definitely was a balanced offense, but for the time we did throw it around a lot.
 
I'm starting this thread to post random old memories and thoughts of Wake teams from the distant past.

Anyway, last night I'm looking for something to watch on TV, so I start searching YouTube for old Wake Forest stuff. The first thing I came across was a video of all the Auburn football coaches TV shows from 1979. So, I fast forward until I find the 1979 game against us. They showed a lot of good footage of that game and not just pro-Auburn plays. Groves was filled and rocking and there was plenty of Auburn support there too. Our stadium was fine at the time, but is so much better now. Auburn's coach sounded like a country bumpkin, but was very complimentary of our team. It was funny to see a team throw as much as we did and the QB be under center and have to drop back everytime, this was before anyone much besides the Cowboys used the shotgun. Venuto had a heck of an arm. What a game that was, still hard to top that one, despite a bunch of great games since. We were down 38-20 at halftime and won 42-38, with the help of some 2nd half Auburn turnovers.

After watching that, I came across the 1980 and final title game of the old Big 4 tournament. I only watched the 1st half, but will watch the 2nd soon. Anyway, we played UNC after beating State by 30 points the night before and UNC beating Duke by 2 the night before. Our starting lineup was Frank Johnson, Mike Helms, Alvis Rodgers, Guy Morgan and Jim Johnstone. Danny Young was freshman that year. I remembered this game, but it's pretty vague, I was 10 then. Things that stood out to me were how good a starting lineup we had, how good Guy Morgan was on the boards, how quick and smooth Frank Johnson was, how underrated Carl Tacy was as a coach, how incredible long Sam Perkins arms were (almost looked deformed) and how pro Wake the crowd was (Duke and State fans were holding Wake pom-poms). Billy Packer and Bones McKinney were on color with Jim Thacker on play by play. Packer was pretty high on that Wake team, calling it very talented and the deepest Wake team he'd ever seen. When Sam Perkins first came out on the court, he didn't start, I thought he looked like Plastic-Man, a few seconds after I had that thought, Packer said "you know that Saturday morning cartoon Plastic-Man, that's who Perkins reminds me of." I honestly think the memory of Billy saying that was buried very deep in my mind from all those years ago and that's why that thought popped in my head right before he said it.

Anyway, just thought some might find this interesting.

Great find on the Auburn game. I was at that game, I was 9 years old and sitting on the hill. When we were down at the half, I went to my parents seats because I figured that my dad would want to leave early. But instead I got to sit there with them and watch our amazing comeback. Still one of the most exciting games I have ever attended.
 
The Auburn game was one of the best live sporting events I've ever attended.

Jay Venuto and I were classmates. I tutored him and some others in Latin early on. Good dude. Got to know Syd Kitson and Bill Ard well, too.
 
can you post links to such?

also need a "phil medlin's greatest dunks" vine
 
if you were 3 years old or older when WF beat Auburn, friendly reminder to get your colorectal screening done
 
if you were 3 years old or older when WF beat Auburn, friendly reminder to get your colorectal screening done

Ouch.

Having been on the boards a very long time, the 1979 Auburn game always struck me as oldtimer talk. I just realized that it was 20 years between the 1979 Auburn game and the 1999 Georgia Tech game that was 22 years ago.
 
Ouch.

Having been on the boards a very long time, the 1979 Auburn game always struck me as oldtimer talk. I just realized that it was 20 years between the 1979 Auburn game and the 1999 Georgia Tech game that was 22 years ago.

The 1994 Duke game posted above doesn't seem all that long ago to me and then I realize it was 27 years ago!
 
Tony Byers. His first game and (so I recall) Wake's first game of the year, my freshman year against Alabama. Red-headed girl, whose name i will not forget (nor repeat).
Go Deacs!
 
I'm starting this thread to post random old memories and thoughts of Wake teams from the distant past.

Anyway, last night I'm looking for something to watch on TV, so I start searching YouTube for old Wake Forest stuff. The first thing I came across was a video of all the Auburn football coaches TV shows from 1979. So, I fast forward until I find the 1979 game against us. They showed a lot of good footage of that game and not just pro-Auburn plays. Groves was filled and rocking and there was plenty of Auburn support there too. Our stadium was fine at the time, but is so much better now. Auburn's coach sounded like a country bumpkin, but was very complimentary of our team. It was funny to see a team throw as much as we did and the QB be under center and have to drop back everytime, this was before anyone much besides the Cowboys used the shotgun. Venuto had a heck of an arm. What a game that was, still hard to top that one, despite a bunch of great games since. We were down 38-20 at halftime and won 42-38, with the help of some 2nd half Auburn turnovers.

After watching that, I came across the 1980 and final title game of the old Big 4 tournament. I only watched the 1st half, but will watch the 2nd soon. Anyway, we played UNC after beating State by 30 points the night before and UNC beating Duke by 2 the night before. Our starting lineup was Frank Johnson, Mike Helms, Alvis Rodgers, Guy Morgan and Jim Johnstone. Danny Young was freshman that year. I remembered this game, but it's pretty vague, I was 10 then. Things that stood out to me were how good a starting lineup we had, how good Guy Morgan was on the boards, how quick and smooth Frank Johnson was, how underrated Carl Tacy was as a coach, how incredible long Sam Perkins arms were (almost looked deformed) and how pro Wake the crowd was (Duke and State fans were holding Wake pom-poms). Billy Packer and Bones McKinney were on color with Jim Thacker on play by play. Packer was pretty high on that Wake team, calling it very talented and the deepest Wake team he'd ever seen. When Sam Perkins first came out on the court, he didn't start, I thought he looked like Plastic-Man, a few seconds after I had that thought, Packer said "you know that Saturday morning cartoon Plastic-Man, that's who Perkins reminds me of." I honestly think the memory of Billy saying that was buried very deep in my mind from all those years ago and that's why that thought popped in my head right before he said it.

Anyway, just thought some might find this interesting.

We used to call him Venitas.
 
Guess I am an oldtimer since I was at both of those games.
Auburn game remains my favorite Wake football memory.
1980 was before Joel. Smoke-filled Memorial Coliseum.

Thanks for the links
 
Just finished watching Iowa beat Virginia in the Big Ten Challenge. McCaffrey made the winning block to keep Virginia from a follow-up lay up to win. His Father Fran is the coach. I saw Fran play for Wake his freshman year as a highly recruited player. He felt he wasn't quite up to the task of the level of ACC and transferred to Penn where he finished his career. (This last part is just what I remember hearing.) He has had a very successful coaching career and now has Iowa at 7 - O.
 
Auburn ranks up there as the greatest football game I've ever seen. Not just Wake football but in general.

I remember the PA announcer repeatedly asking people to not throw oranges, sugar or roses onto the field. And there were all three being thrown in the 2nd half.
Different era when bowl games were few and far between.
 
Auburn ranks up there as the greatest football game I've ever seen. Not just Wake football but in general.

I remember the PA announcer repeatedly asking people to not throw oranges, sugar or roses onto the field. And there were all three being thrown in the 2nd half.
Different era when bowl games were few and far between.

I remember the oranges, but why were people throwing roses? There's no way we would end up in the Rose Bowl.
 
I remember the oranges, but why were people throwing roses? There's no way we would end up in the Rose Bowl.

It was 1979. We hadn't been to a bowl since about WWII. You didn't have 7x24 "live bowl coverage" like you do today. Outside of that, I have no damn idea why. But they did.
 
It was 1979. We hadn't been to a bowl since about WWII. You didn't have 7x24 "live bowl coverage" like you do today. Outside of that, I have no damn idea why. But they did.

I was there too. But I was only 9 years old and even I knew that the Rose Bowl was Big 10 and Pac 10. It was a great day to be a Wake fan.
 
I was at that Auburn game…I was a senior in high school.

I don’t think anyone sat down or was quiet the entire second half.

Fantastic game and experience.
 
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