Thank You, Jeffrey! Lifelong Demon Deacon Jeffrey Griffin Announces Retirement as Public Address Announcer for Wake Forest Athletics

Interested applicants to be the new public address announcer for the Demon Deacons should email Associate AD Daniel Watkins (watkinj@wfu.edu) and Assistant AD Lonnie Penner (pennerl@wfu.edu).

A more than two-decade career that began with a mysterious impromptu audition will come to an end this March, as Jeffrey Griffin steps away from his role at public address announcer for Wake Forest Athletics.

With his wife Vikki in attendance, Griffin plans to walk off the Joel Coliseum floor for his final game hand-in-hand with his daughter, Sophia, and son, Miles, as they embark on new family adventures in the coming years.

"I told them all I want them to be there, for us all to walk out together," Griffin said. "They know that's coming. You don't have forever with your children. We don't want to get 10 years down the road and look back wishing we had that time back.

"Between now and when our children get grown and live their own lives, we're going to go 500 miles an hour and do as much as we can with our children and friends. This is like we're jumping in one race car to another, but we're just going down a different road now."

Griffin's public address announcing journey began in the fall of 2001, the first season of the Skip Prosser Era of men's basketball. He started announcing football the subsequent fall and in recent years has taken on the task for women's basketball, men's and women's soccer, volleyball, field hockey and both tennis programs.

Over the course of a year, Griffin is the public address announcer for around 100 events for football, men's & women's basketball, men's and women's soccer, field hockey, volleyball and some tennis matches as well.

"I've never known the answer to it," Griffin said with a laugh when asked how he started with the Demon Deacons 22 years ago. His mother was the choir director at Maple Springs United Methodist Church, where former Wake Forest dean of admissions William Starling also attended, with his wife (Elinor Wallace Starling) a member of the choir. When Dean Starling tragically passed away in June of 2001, Griffin was asked to sing at his funeral at Wait Chapel.

"The chapel was packed, because so many people loved Bill and he meant so much to Wake Forest," Griffin said.

A few months later, Griffin received a call from a church friend who also happened to work at Wake Forest.

"There's a rumor going around Wake Forest that they're going to ask you to audition to be the next announcer for the Demon Deacons," his friend told Griffin. "If your cell phone rings, answer it like a grown up!"

Less than a minute later, Griffin received a call from then-Wake Forest associate athletics director Craig Keilitz.

"We're looking for a new public address announcer and we'd like you to come to the coliseum and audition," Keilitz told Griffin.

As a life-long Demon Deacons fan, Griffin was ecstatic about the opportunity, but was unsure at the immediacy of the tryout. Keilitz wanted Griffin to report to Joel Coliseum right then, but Griffin was in sweats and a t-shirt doing work at the church.

"C'mon, right now?" Keilitz insisted, according to Griffin. "It's an empty coliseum, just come on down."

Griffin had never announced anything before, but the working plan was for Wake Forest to get down to two finalists, with each doing an exhibition game before the final decision was made.

Having just one day's notice before the exhibition, Griffin was excited about the opportunity, but woke up that Saturday morning under the weather.

"I was so excited, but I woke up Saturday sick as a dog," Griffin explained. "My mom did what all mothers do. I went to the ballgame with elixirs, potions, spritzers, sprays, pills, tablets, kleenex and water. I was totally drugged up. It was fine.

"Sunday morning they called and told me they made up their mind and offered me the job. I did the next exhibition game and I've been doing it ever since."

The conventional wisdom, yet unconfirmed, is that Wake Forest noticed Griffin when he sang at Dean Starling's funeral in June that year.

"Nobody ever confirmed that and I have no proof," Griffin said. "I don't know and nobody has ever told me. They never told me where they got my name. I just figured I would keep going until they told me to stay home, and so far they have not told me to stay home, so I've been there ever since."

Griffin was producing the morning show on Winston-Salem's WSJS radio station at the time, but then left that role to teach broadcasting for about a decade.

Late last year, Griffin returned to WSJS to host the Triad Today show every morning from 7-10 a.m.

"If you grew up in Winston listening to Wally (Williams) & Wayne (Willard), Gene Overby, Glenn Scott and Smith Patterson — that's kind of like the hall of fame and then asking me if I want to be part of that lineage," Griffin said. "I said absolutely, so I'm back at WSJS."

While Griffin is widely recognized as the public address voice behind the Deacs, he understands nothing happens at Wake Forest without the dedicated hard work behind the scenes by so many others.

"You can't do it by yourself, " he said. "The people at Wake Forest do the hard work. It should always be about the student-athletes and the coaches. They're the ones who put in the work. Then you have the folks in fan experience and communications. They do a lot of work. Then I show up for the party and just announce."

And of course, he defers his individual success over the years to the family dynamic that has allowed him to throw himself into Wake Forest Athletics for the last two-plus decades.

"Vikki, Miles and Sophia have allowed me to adjust family life around the Wake Forest schedule," he said. "Had they not been so gracious and willing — it's been a family investment and family commitment. It's been a family sacrifice, and I don't say that with any bitterness or begrudging. It's just the way our family life has been.

"If they had been unwilling or unable to do that, then I wouldn't have been able to have been at Wake Forest all those days and nights."

Griffin explained that Sophia will be heading off to college in a few years and Miles is 12-years old.

"There comes a time when you know you know," he said. "I really want to go watch football with my son and be at my daughter's basketball games and scream and go crazy at the referees.

"There's now a point in our life where another decision has to be made, and it's time to be with Vikki, Sophia and Miles. I'm not retired forever, but it's time to step away because there are other things that are important to me that have been on hold for this first adventure in our family life. Now it's time for those things to take center stage."

While excited for the future magical moments with his family, Griffin knows he'll forever cherish the time he's spent with Wake Forest fans, coaches and players.

"I'm an emotional guy and I wear my heart on my sleeve," he said. "It's not lost on me that I grew up loving Wake Forest and for 23 years I got to live the dream. I got to sit where so many would have loved to have been, and watched the best coaches, most incredible players and most extraordinary moments. When we grow older, you almost take it for granted. I still, every ball game, tipoff and kickoff — when that player you're read about is standing within arms reach? That's still exciting to me. There are lots of nights where I go home not believing what I'd just witnessed.

"It has been a magical experience from beginning to end, and that's not lost on me. There are a lot of moments where I'm overcome with gratitude. I love adventures, but it's time for the next adventure. This one has been a magical ride, but it's time for another."

Wake Forest Athletics

Thank You, Jeffrey! Lifelong Demon Deacon Jeffrey Griffin Announces Retirement as Public Address Announcer for Wake Forest Athletics

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