Gold Rush Feature: Like Father, Like Son
6/21/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
June 21, 2011
This article was originally published in the June 11 edition of Gold Rush.
By Jay Reddick
David Hopkins grew up hearing Wake Forest stories -- perhaps too many Wake Forest stories. Such is life for the son of a school legend.
Hopkins is the son of Larry Hopkins, who scored the winning touchdown to beat North Carolina during the Deacs' ACC title run in 1970.
The younger Hopkins is a rising senior on the men's tennis team. Born and raised in Winston-Salem, some of his earliest memories involve his father entertaining houseguests with tales from the gridiron.
"It was all I heard, every single day," David said with a laugh. "It was crazy --anytime anyone came over, he would show pictures and video of him running for 40 yards, scoring that infamous touchdown. I think I could tell you all his moves better than he could."
Larry, now an OB/GYN at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, doesn't deny watching the 1970 highlight film often, maybe a little too much. He said he has used his experience to teach his son lessons for his own athletic career.
"If I had his size and strength, I'd have played in the NFL a long time," said Larry Hopkins. "As it is, I had to put in the time to become the player I was. You have to learn to motivate yourself and be prepared for anything. That's what I want him to know."
David Hopkins has enjoyed a solid WFU tennis career so far, becoming a top-50 national doubles player and compiling a winning record in singles. But he believes the best is yet to come.
"If I can get into tip-top shape, like I know I need to be, I don't think anything else will stop me," said David Hopkins.
David played many sports as a child, but he said he first discovered tennis as a 6-year-old attending a lesson with his mother.
"I was really hyperactive at that point," David said. "I started hitting balls around, and figured out I could hit them over the fence. I thought that was the coolest thing."
When it came time to pick one sport to focus on, he chose tennis over the team-oriented activities, enjoying the control over his own destiny. He thought seriously of expressing his individuality in another way, by leaving home to attend college. But the pull of Wake Forest (he has known coach Jeff Zinn since he was 10) proved to be too much.
"Everybody always assumed I was going (to Wake Forest)," he said. "I had been in Winston for so long that I kind of wanted to go somewhere else. Once I went to other schools, though, I found out they were way too big, there was no support system, and it would be hard to come home very often. For everything Wake Forest can provide for me, I'm so glad I'm here."
THAT CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON
Larry Hopkins was a member of the Deacons' first ACC championship football team, but like everyone else, he enjoyed the ride of Jim Grobe's title team of 2006.
"It had been a long time...a long time," Hopkins said. "It was a wonderful feeling. It had you glowing all over. I really went through our season all over again --nobody expected anything from us, we just hung in there and beat the odds."
Hopkins isn't shy about saying that the second ACC run probably couldn't have happened without the first one.
"If you go back, when we won, somebody at the school realized if we can improve our facilities and our recruiting a little bit, we can do this again and do it in more sports. I think that's when the atmosphere for sports changed at Wake Forest, and we were a part of it."
Players Mentioned
