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A Ghost on Tobacco Road: Five years later, the late Skip Prosser still looms over WF

obviously the Clev State game.

keeper, I agree with you that the atmosphere now is far worse than 2001. However, let's be honest, Skip had a huge impact on the crowd from Odom right out of the box. It was simply not a priority for Odom. GDO's success translated to improve our crowd but Skip did many things to get the crowd involved as it was one of his priorities.

I had no idea that Skip's death would set us back for so long but the reality is that it has done just that.
 
On the whole a nice piece that revived many of our memories of Skip Prosser and his years as Wake's basketball coach. I think the article helped many non-followers of Wake basketball get a little feel for what we, who are followers of the Deacs, have experienced during the last decade. Congrats on a job well done.
I do have a couple of minor quibbles though. Using the expression "dropped dead" for a much admired and beloved coach seems a little odd. Comparing successful basketball coaches to Mussolini seems stranger yet. Mussolini was a bombastic and overly ambitious loser, who stumbled his way to the top. Did he ever win anything, like maybe a fair election? Furthermore, there may be a "gray area between success and failure" but in ACC basketball much of the time the difference between winning and losing - success and failure - is a very thin line. One final point, and someone please correct me if I am wrong but I believe the incident with the girl in the band took place in the early morning hours after the Cleveland State basketball game, not the night before.
In any case thanks for an evocative piece on Wake hoops. Nicely and obviously affectionately done.
 
donaldross said:
obviously the Clev State game.

keeper, I agree with you that the atmosphere now is far worse than 2001. However, let's be honest, Skip had a huge impact on the crowd from Odom right out of the box. It was simply not a priority for Odom. GDO's success translated to improve our crowd but Skip did many things to get the crowd involved as it was one of his priorities.

I had no idea that Skip's death would set us back for so long but the reality is that it has done just that.
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Scaling the house price wise didn't hurt either. Prosser was quite the promoter though. We are being set back in my view because so many of our best players left after their sophomore seasons.
 
Tough to read. Very nostalgic. At the time, I had no idea how good we had it. Skip did make Wake cool. Now, we are back to being just an afterthought. Maybe one day we will return to the glory days, but not under the current regime.
 
sailordeac said:
Comparing successful basketball coaches to Mussolini seems stranger yet. Mussolini was a bombastic and overly ambitious loser, who stumbled his way to the top. Did he ever win anything, like maybe a fair election?
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Not strange considering that he was stating that coaches are like dictators. Which dictator would you rather him choose as a comparison: Hitler, Pot Pol, Stalin? Can you name any dictator who won a fair election?
 
donaldross said:
obviously the Clev State game.

keeper, I agree with you that the atmosphere now is far worse than 2001. However, let's be honest, Skip had a huge impact on the crowd from Odom right out of the box. It was simply not a priority for Odom. GDO's success translated to improve our crowd but Skip did many things to get the crowd involved as it was one of his priorities.

I had no idea that Skip's death would set us back for so long but the reality is that it has done just that.
Click to expand...

I give Skip tremendous credit for improving the atmosphere at Wake Forest basketball games. Dave didn't believe that was part of his role or job. Not to mention Dave didn't have the personality of Skip (not a knock on Dave, Skip had a very unique personality).

I knew Skip's death would change things but I didn't see us headed down this road after it. It's ok to look back and reflect where we are but I hope we can start to move forward.
 
My wife and I enjoyed it very much. I think you should develop it into a screenplay. Let me know if you want some casting ideas so far I've got Kevin Spacey in mind as Wellman.
 
iodeac said:
This is why BuzzIn-ers constantly baffle me. The man shows 1/10000000th of the charisma, charm, and enthusiasm of Skip. The effort and W/L record wouldn't be half as hard to tolerate if he had just a fraction of the personality that Skip showed.

SkipLooksAtK.jpg
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Wasn't this right after Chris and Redick got into that scuffle on the floor. Loved the chippiness we played with back then. I think it's comical to think of Bzz nearly signing Oden or Chalmers after reading the article.
 
Say what you will about Coach G's handle on the players and in game coaching ability, but I don't ever remember seeing the emptiness and apathy at the Joel during his tenure, like it is now. I remember the games back in 09 at the Joel and that place was rockin'!
 
Yep, Reddick bitch slapped CP3 and I thought the roof was going to blow off the place. Then Coach K was incredulous over the whole thing, and Prosser looked at him like he was out of his freaking mind.
 
RJKarl said:
I wonder if Baby or sig will get the mountain of personally sick Neg I got for saying the same thing.
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please change the thread title to "rjkarl is a tragic victim."

Thanks
 
I must spread rep around before giving it to Milhouse again.
 
ProbationDeac said:
I give Skip tremendous credit for improving the atmosphere at Wake Forest basketball games. Dave didn't believe that was part of his role or job. Not to mention Dave didn't have the personality of Skip (not a knock on Dave, Skip had a very unique personality).

I knew Skip's death would change things but I didn't see us headed down this road after it. It's ok to look back and reflect where we are but I hope we can start to move forward.
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We're not here because Skip died. We're here because Wellman poorly managed the basketball program after Skip died.
 
PhDeac said:
We're not here because Skip died. We're here because Wellman poorly managed the basketball program after Skip died.
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While very true, it's also an issue of semantics. Had Skip not died, Wellman would have had little to no need to try to manage the program.
 
I'll never forget being close enough to hear K say (about Zombie Nation) "I hate this fuckin song."
 
Go said:
I'll never forget being close enough to hear K say (about Zombie Nation) "I hate this fuckin song."
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You should have said something to someone...we could have piped it into their locker room....
 
Finally got around to reading this. Just a tremendous effort, Irish. Probably my favorite piece of yours. I really admire your writing.

I miss Skip :(
 
RiskyBusiness said:
Maybe he shoul have just written that members of the team were up late partying and chasing women the night before the game.
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As Sailor correctly pointed out, the incident in question occurred after the game, not before. Not picking on you Risky, but when folks repeat things like this (that I am sure they must believe but are wrong) then it has a snowball effect and others quickly cannot discern fact from fiction. There are several popular misconceptions about the last few years, and that situation is merely one of them.
 
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