Fall is definitely in the air when college football gets cranked up during thosecrisp days of autumn. The Wake Forest Demon Deacons are one of the seven charter members of the prestigious Atlantic Coast Conference that was organized in 1953. Their best season so far has been in 2006 when it was ranked in the top 25 by the Associated Press poll. In fact, football coach Jim Grobe was unanimously voted 2006 Coach of the Year for the ACC for an outstanding 11 - 2 regular season. This was a record 11 wins in one season for the school that included a perfect 6 - 0 record while on the road. That year they won the ACC football conference championship which earned the team their first trip to the Orange Bowl in Miami, one of the oldest and most coveted bowls in the country. The Wake Forest football team has been playing in the famous Groves Stadium since the 1960s. The stadium is located in Winston Salem, North Carolina.

Wake Forest University was founded in 1834 after the Baptist State Convention purchased land for the new school that was intended to educate Baptist ministers and laymen alike. The early team nickname reflected this heritage by being called the Fighting Baptists. In 1923 the team fought like demons for a spectacular win against Trinity College which later became Duke University. The sports editor of the school newspaper Mayon Parker first called the team Wake Forest Demon Deacons, and that nickname has been used for the athletic teams ever since. Wake Forest is part of "The Big Four" which refers to the four North Carolina universities that make up the backbone of the ACC. The other schools are Duke, UNC, and NCSU. Sometimes these schools are also referred to as "Tobacco Road" since tobacco has been a main money crop in North Carolina.

Without a doubt the Wake Forest football player who is best known is Brian Piccolo. During his senior year in 1964, he led the nation in scoring and rushing. As a result, he was honored as the Player of the Year for the ACC but was inexplicably not selected for the 1965 draft for the NFL. Later Piccolo earned a spot on the Chicago Bears as a free agent. His life and untimely death from cancer were chronicled in the movie Brian's Song. The ACC awards the Brian Piccolo Award to the "Most Courageous Player" in the conference. Since 1972 four Wake Forest athletes have been given the ACC award. The Bears have a similar award.