Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 1970
Weaver first started at Wake Forest as the football coach from 1933-36, compiling a four-year record of 10-23-1. In 1937, he was named the Director of Athletics.
During that time, Weaver oversaw and created two essential parts of the Wake Forest athletic department that remain today. Weaver was instrumental in helping Wake Forest create a men's golf team, which has produced numerous All-Americans, professional golfers and gained notoriety as one of the best programs in the country. Weaver also created the Deacon Club, an athletic booster club that started small but has grown substantially and still operates today as a large part of the athletic department.
While serving as golf coach, Weaver was responsible for getting Arnold Palmer to enroll at Wake Forest in 1948.
Weaver was a guiding force in the formation and development of the ACC and subsequent reputation as the nation's top academic athletic conference. The ACC's first full-time commissioner, Weaver took office on July 1, 1954, and served 17 years until his death of a heart attack on July 11, 1970.
During his 17-year tenure, the ACC captured nine national titles, including the league's first men's basketball championship by North Carolina in 1957. In addition, under Weaver's guidance the ACC Tournament became one of the nation's premier collegiate athletic events and the ACC became the first conference in the country to benefit from having a regionally syndicated basketball television contract in 1958.
Weaver was born March 29, 1903 at Rutherford College, N.C. He attended Emory and Henry in 1919 and played football, basketball and baseball. At that time his father, Charles C. Weaver, a Methodist minister, was president of that institution. From Emory and Henry he went to Duke University (then Trinity College) and from there to Centenary College in Shreveport, La., where he played football under the celebrated Alvin (Bo) McMillan from 1922 through 1924. He was named to the All-State eleven in 1923 and 1924 and graduated from Centenary in 1924 with a bachelor's degree in biology.
Weaver coached the Centenary freshmen for one year before being named coach of the Nacogdoches, Texas high school team in 1926-27. He returned to North Carolina in 1928 and for the next five years served as head football and basketball coach at Oak Ridge. He came to Wake Forest in 1933.
Weaver served as the athletics director at Wake Forest from 1937 to 1954, except for three years in the Navy during World War II. He was discharged from the Navy as a lieutenant commander. Jim Weaver passed away on July 11, 1970 and was posthumously inducted into the WFU Sports Hall of Fame on October 17, 1970. He is also a member of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.
