Wake Forest Athletics
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Quintet of Demon Deacons Named to Southern Conference 100th Anniversary Team
1/5/2022 5:30:00 PM | General
Five Wake Forest alums were named to the Southern Conference’s 100th Anniversary team for their respective sports.
100th Anniversary Teams
SPARTANBURG, S.C. – As the Southern Conference wrapped up its celebration of its first 100 years of history as last year in 2021, the league has named its 100th anniversary teams.
Although Wake Forest was a charter member of the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Demon Deacons were a member of the Southern Conference from 1936-53.
With that, five alums were named to their leagues 100th anniversary teams.
Baseball:
Among the criteria that merited selection to the teams were the common benchmarks of:
"Celebrating our 100th anniversary has been special," SoCon Commissioner Jim Schaus said. "It has allowed us to highlight many great student-athletes, teams, coaches and moments over our history. It has provided an opportunity to illustrate how the Southern Conference has withstood the test of time and thrived during world wars, The Great Depression and other significant changes. It has allowed us to celebrate our past successes, honor our current 10 member institutions and look ahead to a future vision of excellence for the next 100 years.
"We felt it is an appropriate way to end our 100th anniversary celebration by naming our 100th anniversary teams. Over our storied 100-year history, there have been thousands of outstanding student-athletes that have competed in the Southern Conference, so identifying a select group was a challenge. We developed a series of criteria that assisted with the process. Congratulations to those selected, but we want to also recognize a list of others so big we can't count all of the talented and worthy student-athletes who have competed under the SoCon banner."
The Southern Conference was founded on Feb. 25, 1921, when delegates from 15 of the 30 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association institutions met at the Piedmont Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, to finalize plans for a new conference. Alabama, Alabama Polytechnic Institute (Auburn), Clemson, Georgia, Georgia School of Technology (Georgia Tech), Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi A&M (Mississippi State), North Carolina, North Carolina State, Tennessee, Virginia, Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech) and Washington & Lee all signed on to form the Southern Intercollegiate Conference, while Tulane attended the meetings but would not join until the following year.
The league has had 44 full-time members over its illustrious history, spawning the Southeastern Conference (1932) and the Atlantic Coast Conference (1953) and currently serving as home to 10 institutions throughout six states in the Southeast. Among current members, VMI joined in 1923 and celebrated 88 years in the league in 2021 (the Keydets were not members from 2003-14). The Citadel and Furman own the longest continuous tenure in the league, as both programs joined in 1936.
SPARTANBURG, S.C. – As the Southern Conference wrapped up its celebration of its first 100 years of history as last year in 2021, the league has named its 100th anniversary teams.
Although Wake Forest was a charter member of the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Demon Deacons were a member of the Southern Conference from 1936-53.
With that, five alums were named to their leagues 100th anniversary teams.
Baseball:
- Charlie Teague, Wake Forest, 2B
- College Baseball Hall of Fame 2010
- All-America 1947, 1949, 1950
- SoCon Hall of Fame 2014
- Gene Hooks, Wake Forest
- All-America 1947, 1949, 1950
- Nick Sacrinty, B, Wake Forest
- 1st-team All-SoCon 1943, 1945, 1946
- Arnold Palmer, Wake Forest
- SoCon Hall of Fame 2009
- NCAA champion 1949, 1950
- SoCon champion 1948, 1949
- Bill George, Wake Forest
- SoCon champion 1948, 1949, 1952
Among the criteria that merited selection to the teams were the common benchmarks of:
- Member of the collegiate hall of fame for that sport
- Member of the SoCon Hall of Fame
- National player of the year
- All-America honors in two different academic years
- SoCon Male or Female Athlete of the Year
- Two-time SoCon Player of the Year
"Celebrating our 100th anniversary has been special," SoCon Commissioner Jim Schaus said. "It has allowed us to highlight many great student-athletes, teams, coaches and moments over our history. It has provided an opportunity to illustrate how the Southern Conference has withstood the test of time and thrived during world wars, The Great Depression and other significant changes. It has allowed us to celebrate our past successes, honor our current 10 member institutions and look ahead to a future vision of excellence for the next 100 years.
"We felt it is an appropriate way to end our 100th anniversary celebration by naming our 100th anniversary teams. Over our storied 100-year history, there have been thousands of outstanding student-athletes that have competed in the Southern Conference, so identifying a select group was a challenge. We developed a series of criteria that assisted with the process. Congratulations to those selected, but we want to also recognize a list of others so big we can't count all of the talented and worthy student-athletes who have competed under the SoCon banner."
The Southern Conference was founded on Feb. 25, 1921, when delegates from 15 of the 30 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association institutions met at the Piedmont Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, to finalize plans for a new conference. Alabama, Alabama Polytechnic Institute (Auburn), Clemson, Georgia, Georgia School of Technology (Georgia Tech), Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi A&M (Mississippi State), North Carolina, North Carolina State, Tennessee, Virginia, Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech) and Washington & Lee all signed on to form the Southern Intercollegiate Conference, while Tulane attended the meetings but would not join until the following year.
The league has had 44 full-time members over its illustrious history, spawning the Southeastern Conference (1932) and the Atlantic Coast Conference (1953) and currently serving as home to 10 institutions throughout six states in the Southeast. Among current members, VMI joined in 1923 and celebrated 88 years in the league in 2021 (the Keydets were not members from 2003-14). The Citadel and Furman own the longest continuous tenure in the league, as both programs joined in 1936.
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