Sam Swank vs. Ole Miss, 2008
Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame 2020 Class: Sam Swank
6/11/2020 12:00:00 PM | Football
The Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame selection committee recently held its annual meeting and selected the newest members of the Hall of Fame. The new inductees will be introduced one per day this week exclusively on GoDeacs.Com.
In recent years, Wake Forest football players have had a knack of performing well when the Deacons visit their hometown. Most notably, placekicker Mike Weaver, a native of Elmira, N.Y., booted a 47-yard field goal as time expired to give the Deacons a win at Army West Point. In 2016, quarterback Kendall Hinton led the Deacs to a come-from-behind win vs. Duke in his hometown of Durham.
But none can match the degree to which Sam Swank performed in front of the home crowd in the 2006 ACC Championship Game.
The Jacksonville Beach, Fla. native was the game's MVP after kicking three field goals and accounting for all of Wake Forest's points in a 9-6 win over Georgia Tech at Alltel Stadium. That victory sent the Deacons onto the Orange Bowl and made Wake Forest the first team from North Carolina to play in a major bowl game since 1961.
Swank converted three field goals, from 19, 33 and 22 yards and was named the game's Most Outstanding Player. Tied at 6 with time running down in the fourth quarter, Swank converted from 22-yards out with 2:55 remaining to earn Wake Forest the win.
"This is really an emotional experience," Swank told the Winston-Salem Journal following the game. "To be able to come home and play in this game was a dream come true in the first place, but to come away from this with a win and then to be MVP, that makes this pretty much the best sporting experience in my whole life. It's just incredible. I don't think I could have written a better ending. I'm speechless. I can't really describe how I feel. Take whatever goals any person has, multiply it by two or three because of the home environment, and that's what it feels like to be where I am right now. "
Swank recently earned election into the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame induction class of 2020. He will be one of six new inductees that comprise the 47th Hall of Fame induction class. The date of the induction is pending while the world deals with the Covid-19 pandemic.
When it comes to kickers, there's nobody in Wake Forest history that can match Sam Swank.
"It is such an honor to be inducted into the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame. I could not be more proud to be deemed worthy of a permanent place within Wake Forest Athletics. I would like to thank my wife and family for always supporting me in my endeavors and providing a solid foundation throughout my life. Additionally, I am indebted to Jim Grobe, Billy Mitchell, and their staff for taking a chance on this beach kid and giving me the opportunity to play at Wake. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I want to thank my teammates who I had the honor of sharing the field with each week. Together we accomplished some amazing things, but the relationships we formed off the field are what I cherish to this day."
Swank finished his career as Wake Forest's all-time scoring leader with 337 points. He continues to hold the school record with 124 PATs and 71 field goals made. He made 121 consecutive PATs and finished his career 16th in NCAA history and third in ACC history with 71 field goals. He was especially accurate from long-range, making 28 of 43 field goals from 40 yards or more. And from greater than 50 yards, Swank was an incredible nine of 13. He booted three 50-yarders in a 2006 win over NC State that still stands as the NCAA record.
Swank was clutch when he needed to be clutch. He kicked a game-winning 41-yarder with three seconds left to beat Ole Miss in 2008. He accounted for all of Wake Forest's points in a 12-3 win at Florida State in 2008 and, most memorably, in the 9-6 ACC Championship game victory over Georgia Tech in 2006.
Despite many heroes who contributed to the success of the 2006 ACC Championship team, it was Swank who was unanimously voted team MVP by his teammates at the end of the year. The then-sophomore was a first team All-American by Sports Illustrated and ESPN and was first team All-ACC by the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association. His heroics week-in and week-out led him to become the first player in league history to win three consecutive ACC Specialist of the Week honors.
To this day, Swank owns six of the eight longest field goals in school history, led by his pair of 53-yarders vs. the Wolfpack in 2006. Since he concluded his playing days in 2008 with nine career 50-yard field goals, Wake Forest has made just two 50-yarders in the last 11 years.
Swank was a three-time Lou Groza Award semifinalist and was also semifinalist for the Ray Guy Award as the nation's top punter.
Swank was the rarest of specialists, handling both punting and placekicking duties every week. He was exclusively Wake Forest's placekicker as a freshman in 2005 while Ryan Plackemeier handled the punting chores. In 2006 and 2007, all the kicking chores were exclusively Swank's. His senior season in 2008 started off the same way until a strained quad after four games sidelined him for six contests. He was the NCAA's active career field goal leader at the time. Swank returned to action for the final three contests including the EagleBank Bowl win over Navy but strictly handled placekicks until resuming his kickoff chores vs. the Midshipmen.
Let the record show that Wake Forest's school record for the longest punt is an 86-yarder by Swank against Duke in 2006.
Swank was not pre-destined to play college football. In fact, he was content in his role on the soccer team at Fletcher High in Jacksonville, Fla. His soccer coach, Ricky Medlock, was also an assistant coach on the football team and that squad needed a kicker. Sam converted 27 of 35 field goal attempts as a senior and made the all-state team. Along the way he converted four field goals in a 12-10 win that helped Fletcher qualify for the state playoffs. And he also helped Fletcher's soccer team earn a No. 1 ranking in the state polls.
During his playing days Swank carried a laid-back, casual aura, at least on the surface.
"He's just real chill. He's a surfer boy from the beach, laid back, and I think that's what makes him more successful than a lot of other people," said his long snapper Nick Jarvis.
"Every time I look at him, I think of California or somebody surfing – not (a) hippie but someone in that broad area," said offensive tackle Louis Frazier.
"I'm not really a stressful kind of guy," admitted Swank.
But put him in a pressure packed situation, and Sam Swank always responds.
Like the time in high school when he was a lifeguard at Hanna Park, a municipally maintained beach in Jacksonville. A pregnant woman was stranded on a sandbar and began having seizures. Swank raced into the water and brought her to safety.
"I'm like 'This is serious. Drop the flag. Get in there. Put the game face on.' I'm struggling to pull her out because she was pretty big," Swank told Rob Daniels of the Greensboro News and Record. "She was still in bad shape, but my supervisors and EMT's took over.
"You've got to keep your wits about you and not flip out as each situation presents itself."
Long before any Demon Deacon fan had heard of current Wake Forest placekicker Nick Sciba, and before Sciba's NCAA record 34 consecutive made field goals, there was Sam Swank. Swank owned the school mark of 11 straight successful field goals which he set in 2005 and which Sciba erased last year.
Throughout his career, his coaches and teammates offered nearly the same analysis of Swank.
"He's cool, he doesn't get bothered by the pressure," said special teams coach Billy Mitchell in 2005. "That's something you can't find on film."
"The thing I like about Sam is he has a great desire to be really good and to help the team, but he has a real short memory," said head coach Jim Grobe. "If he does something bad, it doesn't last very long."
Wake Forest fans do have long memories and they will long remember Sam Swank and his induction into the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame.
In recent years, Wake Forest football players have had a knack of performing well when the Deacons visit their hometown. Most notably, placekicker Mike Weaver, a native of Elmira, N.Y., booted a 47-yard field goal as time expired to give the Deacons a win at Army West Point. In 2016, quarterback Kendall Hinton led the Deacs to a come-from-behind win vs. Duke in his hometown of Durham.
But none can match the degree to which Sam Swank performed in front of the home crowd in the 2006 ACC Championship Game.
The Jacksonville Beach, Fla. native was the game's MVP after kicking three field goals and accounting for all of Wake Forest's points in a 9-6 win over Georgia Tech at Alltel Stadium. That victory sent the Deacons onto the Orange Bowl and made Wake Forest the first team from North Carolina to play in a major bowl game since 1961.
Swank converted three field goals, from 19, 33 and 22 yards and was named the game's Most Outstanding Player. Tied at 6 with time running down in the fourth quarter, Swank converted from 22-yards out with 2:55 remaining to earn Wake Forest the win.
"This is really an emotional experience," Swank told the Winston-Salem Journal following the game. "To be able to come home and play in this game was a dream come true in the first place, but to come away from this with a win and then to be MVP, that makes this pretty much the best sporting experience in my whole life. It's just incredible. I don't think I could have written a better ending. I'm speechless. I can't really describe how I feel. Take whatever goals any person has, multiply it by two or three because of the home environment, and that's what it feels like to be where I am right now. "
Swank recently earned election into the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame induction class of 2020. He will be one of six new inductees that comprise the 47th Hall of Fame induction class. The date of the induction is pending while the world deals with the Covid-19 pandemic.
When it comes to kickers, there's nobody in Wake Forest history that can match Sam Swank.
"It is such an honor to be inducted into the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame. I could not be more proud to be deemed worthy of a permanent place within Wake Forest Athletics. I would like to thank my wife and family for always supporting me in my endeavors and providing a solid foundation throughout my life. Additionally, I am indebted to Jim Grobe, Billy Mitchell, and their staff for taking a chance on this beach kid and giving me the opportunity to play at Wake. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I want to thank my teammates who I had the honor of sharing the field with each week. Together we accomplished some amazing things, but the relationships we formed off the field are what I cherish to this day."
Swank finished his career as Wake Forest's all-time scoring leader with 337 points. He continues to hold the school record with 124 PATs and 71 field goals made. He made 121 consecutive PATs and finished his career 16th in NCAA history and third in ACC history with 71 field goals. He was especially accurate from long-range, making 28 of 43 field goals from 40 yards or more. And from greater than 50 yards, Swank was an incredible nine of 13. He booted three 50-yarders in a 2006 win over NC State that still stands as the NCAA record.
Swank was clutch when he needed to be clutch. He kicked a game-winning 41-yarder with three seconds left to beat Ole Miss in 2008. He accounted for all of Wake Forest's points in a 12-3 win at Florida State in 2008 and, most memorably, in the 9-6 ACC Championship game victory over Georgia Tech in 2006.
Despite many heroes who contributed to the success of the 2006 ACC Championship team, it was Swank who was unanimously voted team MVP by his teammates at the end of the year. The then-sophomore was a first team All-American by Sports Illustrated and ESPN and was first team All-ACC by the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association. His heroics week-in and week-out led him to become the first player in league history to win three consecutive ACC Specialist of the Week honors.
To this day, Swank owns six of the eight longest field goals in school history, led by his pair of 53-yarders vs. the Wolfpack in 2006. Since he concluded his playing days in 2008 with nine career 50-yard field goals, Wake Forest has made just two 50-yarders in the last 11 years.
Swank was a three-time Lou Groza Award semifinalist and was also semifinalist for the Ray Guy Award as the nation's top punter.
Swank was the rarest of specialists, handling both punting and placekicking duties every week. He was exclusively Wake Forest's placekicker as a freshman in 2005 while Ryan Plackemeier handled the punting chores. In 2006 and 2007, all the kicking chores were exclusively Swank's. His senior season in 2008 started off the same way until a strained quad after four games sidelined him for six contests. He was the NCAA's active career field goal leader at the time. Swank returned to action for the final three contests including the EagleBank Bowl win over Navy but strictly handled placekicks until resuming his kickoff chores vs. the Midshipmen.
Let the record show that Wake Forest's school record for the longest punt is an 86-yarder by Swank against Duke in 2006.
Swank was not pre-destined to play college football. In fact, he was content in his role on the soccer team at Fletcher High in Jacksonville, Fla. His soccer coach, Ricky Medlock, was also an assistant coach on the football team and that squad needed a kicker. Sam converted 27 of 35 field goal attempts as a senior and made the all-state team. Along the way he converted four field goals in a 12-10 win that helped Fletcher qualify for the state playoffs. And he also helped Fletcher's soccer team earn a No. 1 ranking in the state polls.
During his playing days Swank carried a laid-back, casual aura, at least on the surface.
"He's just real chill. He's a surfer boy from the beach, laid back, and I think that's what makes him more successful than a lot of other people," said his long snapper Nick Jarvis.
"Every time I look at him, I think of California or somebody surfing – not (a) hippie but someone in that broad area," said offensive tackle Louis Frazier.
"I'm not really a stressful kind of guy," admitted Swank.
But put him in a pressure packed situation, and Sam Swank always responds.
Like the time in high school when he was a lifeguard at Hanna Park, a municipally maintained beach in Jacksonville. A pregnant woman was stranded on a sandbar and began having seizures. Swank raced into the water and brought her to safety.
"I'm like 'This is serious. Drop the flag. Get in there. Put the game face on.' I'm struggling to pull her out because she was pretty big," Swank told Rob Daniels of the Greensboro News and Record. "She was still in bad shape, but my supervisors and EMT's took over.
"You've got to keep your wits about you and not flip out as each situation presents itself."
Long before any Demon Deacon fan had heard of current Wake Forest placekicker Nick Sciba, and before Sciba's NCAA record 34 consecutive made field goals, there was Sam Swank. Swank owned the school mark of 11 straight successful field goals which he set in 2005 and which Sciba erased last year.
Throughout his career, his coaches and teammates offered nearly the same analysis of Swank.
"He's cool, he doesn't get bothered by the pressure," said special teams coach Billy Mitchell in 2005. "That's something you can't find on film."
"The thing I like about Sam is he has a great desire to be really good and to help the team, but he has a real short memory," said head coach Jim Grobe. "If he does something bad, it doesn't last very long."
Wake Forest fans do have long memories and they will long remember Sam Swank and his induction into the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame.
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