Reading: The Legacy of Skip Prosser
1/25/2019 3:19:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Skip Prosser was a teacher as much as he was a basketball coach at Wake Forest. And in 2007, at age 56, he was taken away far too early.
Nearly 12 years have gone since his passing, but his legacy continues to be felt each and everyday, both by Wake Forest University and the greater Winston-Salem community.
On campus, Prosser's famous mottos―commonly referred to as "Skipisms"―are memorialized throughout the Athletic facilities: "Never delay gratitude" and "The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender."
At the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum, a banner hangs from the rafters, bearing an image of him courtside, coaching his Demon Deacons.
In the Winston-Salem community, Prosser's legacy is experienced by many, but most noticeably through the Skip Prosser Literacy Program, which was established in 2009 to encourage reading among local fourth grade students. With the intention of paying tribute to Prosser, Athletic Director Ron Wellman, along with Jane Caldwell, Geoff Lassiter and others, decided the best way to honor and expand his legacy was through education―specifically through reading. The idea was taken to the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School offices and they were receptive and excited about the idea.
"Coach Prosser loved to read," says Assistant Athletic Director Mike Odom. "He was always asking people which book they were reading or telling you about one he had just finished. He had a passion for learning and that passion was evident every day."
Prosser was known to quote James Joyce, Ralph Waldo Emerson and even Shakespeare.
"Skip was never without a book," recalls Ron Wellman. "I well remember when he went on our football trip to ECU. It was his first year with us and he loved traveling with the football team. The morning of the game Skip was in the hotel lobby reading a book until the team bus departed for the game. He loved to read so it was appropriate for us to honor him with a literacy program."
The Athletic Department believed the Literacy Program would combine Prosser's passion for learning and enthusiasm to help young people, while carrying out the University's motto of "Pro Humanitate" throughout the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School System.
This weekend, in January 2019, we celebrate 10 years of honoring Prosser's legacy through literacy and renew our commitment to expanding his impact as we begin a new decade.
Since its inception in 2009, approximately 40 different elementary schools have participated in the Literacy Program, contributing to an estimated total of one million books read by local fourth graders. Throughout the annual 11-week program, students earn prizes as they reach benchmarks based on how many minutes they read independently, which includes both in-class and out-of-class reading time. Wake Forest encourages students to read 2,000 minutes throughout the program, earning prizes along the way, before reaching the "Champion" status, which awards students with two free vouchers to a men's basketball game. This year the vouchers are good for the contest against Boston College on Saturday, Jan. 26. Students attending the annual game are recognized for their achievement on the jumbotron.
Denise Ring, the Parental Involvement Coordinator at Union Cross Elementary School and an avid follower of Wake Forest Athletics, is a supporter and advocate of the Literacy Program. After learning about the program, while attending a basketball game a few years ago, she decided her school needed to participate.
"I decided this was something our school needed to do, as reading is one of the country goals we are working to improve," said Ring. "The program promotes reading among the students and elevates their desire to read, especially as it is coming from an admired venue like Wake Forest."
As the Skip Prosser Literacy Program advances into its next decade, it aspires to expand its reach, which has already begun through collaboration with Dr. Allan Brown and the Wake Forest Department of Education.
Beginning in 2017, Brown decided that the Skip Prosser Literacy Program could become an umbrella for similar literacy-based initiatives on campus, potentially involving a greater range of students, student-athletes and faculty.
For the past two fall semesters, Brown has invited students from his EDU 101: Issues and Trends in Education class to participate in supporting the Skip Prosser Literacy Program. At least four times during the semester, students in Brown's class visit local elementary schools participating in the 11-week program. These school visits have encouraged Wake Forest students to consider their own considerable influence as students and athletes in the lives of children and to promote literacy learning in their local community.
Brown, like so many at Wake Forest, has fond memories of Prosser. As a graduate student in 2004, Brown would frequently encounter Prosser when running on the campus track.
"I don't know if he knew my name," Brown recalls. "But he would always speak to me and ask me about my studies. He knew about my aspirations for teaching high school students and coaching basketball and always took the time to ask me how things were going. I would always want to talk basketball but he would always want to talk about books."
Now a Wake Forest professor with an avid interest in collaborating with Athletics, Brown hopes to see Prosser's legacy grow and become an umbrella for other university initiatives tied to literacy and education.
This umbrella has extended in recent years with the efforts of former Demon Deacon, Wendell Dunn, and the work he did with the reading and mentoring group at Paisley Middle School. Redshirt freshman Mike Allen of Wake Forest football and senior Kyle McKenzie, a men's basketball manager, have followed in Dunn's footsteps, while other students and student-athletes have become increasingly interested in making an impact through literacy.
"[Skip Prosser] was so much more than a basketball coach," said Wellman of Prosser's importance to Wake Forest and Winston-Salem. "In many ways he became the face of not only our basketball program but also of the university. We could not have had a better representative than him."
As we celebrate the impact Prosser's legacy has had on our community over the past decade, we look to the future with eager anticipation for all the good that has yet to come.
Nearly 12 years have gone since his passing, but his legacy continues to be felt each and everyday, both by Wake Forest University and the greater Winston-Salem community.
On campus, Prosser's famous mottos―commonly referred to as "Skipisms"―are memorialized throughout the Athletic facilities: "Never delay gratitude" and "The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender."
At the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum, a banner hangs from the rafters, bearing an image of him courtside, coaching his Demon Deacons.
In the Winston-Salem community, Prosser's legacy is experienced by many, but most noticeably through the Skip Prosser Literacy Program, which was established in 2009 to encourage reading among local fourth grade students. With the intention of paying tribute to Prosser, Athletic Director Ron Wellman, along with Jane Caldwell, Geoff Lassiter and others, decided the best way to honor and expand his legacy was through education―specifically through reading. The idea was taken to the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School offices and they were receptive and excited about the idea.
"Coach Prosser loved to read," says Assistant Athletic Director Mike Odom. "He was always asking people which book they were reading or telling you about one he had just finished. He had a passion for learning and that passion was evident every day."
Prosser was known to quote James Joyce, Ralph Waldo Emerson and even Shakespeare.
"Skip was never without a book," recalls Ron Wellman. "I well remember when he went on our football trip to ECU. It was his first year with us and he loved traveling with the football team. The morning of the game Skip was in the hotel lobby reading a book until the team bus departed for the game. He loved to read so it was appropriate for us to honor him with a literacy program."
The Athletic Department believed the Literacy Program would combine Prosser's passion for learning and enthusiasm to help young people, while carrying out the University's motto of "Pro Humanitate" throughout the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School System.
This weekend, in January 2019, we celebrate 10 years of honoring Prosser's legacy through literacy and renew our commitment to expanding his impact as we begin a new decade.
Since its inception in 2009, approximately 40 different elementary schools have participated in the Literacy Program, contributing to an estimated total of one million books read by local fourth graders. Throughout the annual 11-week program, students earn prizes as they reach benchmarks based on how many minutes they read independently, which includes both in-class and out-of-class reading time. Wake Forest encourages students to read 2,000 minutes throughout the program, earning prizes along the way, before reaching the "Champion" status, which awards students with two free vouchers to a men's basketball game. This year the vouchers are good for the contest against Boston College on Saturday, Jan. 26. Students attending the annual game are recognized for their achievement on the jumbotron.
Denise Ring, the Parental Involvement Coordinator at Union Cross Elementary School and an avid follower of Wake Forest Athletics, is a supporter and advocate of the Literacy Program. After learning about the program, while attending a basketball game a few years ago, she decided her school needed to participate.
"I decided this was something our school needed to do, as reading is one of the country goals we are working to improve," said Ring. "The program promotes reading among the students and elevates their desire to read, especially as it is coming from an admired venue like Wake Forest."
As the Skip Prosser Literacy Program advances into its next decade, it aspires to expand its reach, which has already begun through collaboration with Dr. Allan Brown and the Wake Forest Department of Education.
Beginning in 2017, Brown decided that the Skip Prosser Literacy Program could become an umbrella for similar literacy-based initiatives on campus, potentially involving a greater range of students, student-athletes and faculty.
For the past two fall semesters, Brown has invited students from his EDU 101: Issues and Trends in Education class to participate in supporting the Skip Prosser Literacy Program. At least four times during the semester, students in Brown's class visit local elementary schools participating in the 11-week program. These school visits have encouraged Wake Forest students to consider their own considerable influence as students and athletes in the lives of children and to promote literacy learning in their local community.
Brown, like so many at Wake Forest, has fond memories of Prosser. As a graduate student in 2004, Brown would frequently encounter Prosser when running on the campus track.
"I don't know if he knew my name," Brown recalls. "But he would always speak to me and ask me about my studies. He knew about my aspirations for teaching high school students and coaching basketball and always took the time to ask me how things were going. I would always want to talk basketball but he would always want to talk about books."
Now a Wake Forest professor with an avid interest in collaborating with Athletics, Brown hopes to see Prosser's legacy grow and become an umbrella for other university initiatives tied to literacy and education.
This umbrella has extended in recent years with the efforts of former Demon Deacon, Wendell Dunn, and the work he did with the reading and mentoring group at Paisley Middle School. Redshirt freshman Mike Allen of Wake Forest football and senior Kyle McKenzie, a men's basketball manager, have followed in Dunn's footsteps, while other students and student-athletes have become increasingly interested in making an impact through literacy.
"[Skip Prosser] was so much more than a basketball coach," said Wellman of Prosser's importance to Wake Forest and Winston-Salem. "In many ways he became the face of not only our basketball program but also of the university. We could not have had a better representative than him."
As we celebrate the impact Prosser's legacy has had on our community over the past decade, we look to the future with eager anticipation for all the good that has yet to come.
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