Wake Forest Demon Deacons
North Carolina-- Wake Forest has an unusual history with Duke that might surprise you. If it wasn't for Duke, we might not have the Wake Forest we have today in Winston-Salem.
Ed Morris, a Wake Forest Historian told News 2, "The very first college basketball game in North Carolina took place in 1906. Wake Forest played Duke. Wake Forest won the game."
That was back when Wake Forest University was located in Wake Forest, North Carolina, just north of Raleigh. That whole "Demon Deacon" thing is thanks to a 1923 football game between Duke and Wake.
"The newspaper editor wrote the next day that the "Baptists", which the Wake Forest team was known as in those days played like "Demon Deacons", said Morris.
While heated rivals in sports, Duke and Wake relied on each other to survive. First the medical schools partnered during the great depression, then later the law schools.
"Duke and Wake Forest worked very carefully together to keep those schools alive and of course both survived and thrive today", added Morris.
With this great love/hate relationship with Duke, why did Wake Forest ever move from Wake Forest?
It was 1956, the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company decided to bring higher education to their hometown, Winston-Salem, an idea they stole from another tobacco family, the Dukes.
That longstanding relationship between the two, relatively small, private universities might explain why a recent poll revealed that Wake Forest fans overwhelming root for Duke against UNC.
WFMY News 2