My Take on Wake - A Showplace

A Showplace

The first game I ever watched in what was then called Groves Stadium was in 1970, the day I rode over with some buddies from Chapel Hill to see Wake drive down the field to beat the Tar Heels 14-13.. I remember three things from that far back, just how mad coach Bill Dooley (then with the other guys) was when quarterback Larry Russell pushed Larry Hopkins over for the climatic touchdown, the fight one of the guys I was with got into in the parking lot afterward and just what a drab, nothing stadium Groves was in which to watch a game of football.

Just how long ago that was hit home in the wee hours of Sunday morning, as I was winding down from the Deacons’ 31-10 victory over Maryland. A replay of the game was on TV, and I was struck by what a showplace BB&T Field has become. Foxsports kept panning the stadium from ground level of the Bridger Fieldhouse endzone, looking down past Deacon Tower on the right at the gargantuan video board on top of Deacon Hill, with the grass and the trees. Talk about curb appeal.

As he was watching a replay the next day, coach Jim Grobe saw what I’d seen. What he and athletics director Ron Wellman have accomplished over these past five or six years is nothing short than a metamorphosis..

“Isn’t it cool? Isn’t it cool?’’ Grobe said. “Ron’s done a great job. Anything he’s ever done has been really first class and it’s really neat. It’s a great environment.’‘

The most dramatic visuals of BB&T Field, of course, came from the blimp during the Notre Dame game. In the television age, any venue is going to be judged most of all by how well it shows up on the tube, and I can’t help but imagine that prospective high school football players across the nation are looking at Wake—with its academic reputation, its cozy,,shiny stadium and a program back in a bowl after a two-year hiatus—as an enticing place to spend their next four or five years.

“And that’s why we took on Notre Dame,’’ Grobe said. “We thought that would be a way to showcase our school and our stadium. That night was just—you can’t describe from when we first got here until the Notre Dame night. And I’m like you, the other night I watched the replay and just with Maryland there it was cool. It was really cool. We had a good crowd and it was just a great night. Of course it started in the afternoon but it didn’t take long before we lost the sun and it’s just a beautiful place.

“It’s a great environment.’‘

Evan Lepler of IMG College asked Grobe if it helped the Deacons in recruiting.

“It does,’’ Grobe said. “I think winning is more. If you win you have a better shot in recruiting. But the kids want facilities. We’ve got some work left to do, weight-room wise and locker room-wise, and things like that. But from where we were 11 years ago is pretty amazing.’‘

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By Dan Collins on 11/22/2011 (1:55 pm)

Comments

Wonderful facility and the fans are beginning to get with the program and become more vocal without being rude. One thing I would like to see would be more restrooms. It’s nearly impossible to access them after a qtr. or at halftime but I realize these changes cost a lot of money, maybe a thought for the future. I’ll be there early Saturday expecting another nail-biter. With the Deacs what else would you expect.

glennard on 11/23/2011 (3:06 pm)

YES! This is why everyone has to help out as much as possible. The better our place looks, the more excitement there is about our team and the more poeple want to come and support us. One day we will be supported by more of the town folks and maybe we can get ALL of our seats sold to Wake supporters. If you want to see how that looks and sounds to opposing teams, attend the Clemson game in Clemson two years from now. Go Deacs!

DannyB on 11/23/2011 (11:31 am)

I was at the Maryland game with our youth group from church and one of our kids is a huge Carolina fan and attends many of their games but he kept talking about what a great stadium BB&T Field is and how “awesome” it is. Needless to say, he came home with a new respect for Wake and a ton of pictures of our great facility. Of course it helped that we won the game too. Thanks to Ron Wellman, Coach Grobe and all those who have made the transformation of Groves stadium possible. Go Deacs beat Vandy!

av8r on 11/23/2011 (9:18 am)

Dan I can’t tell you how proud I am of our stadium. It may be small but it has went from a place where you kind of shrug your shoulders and say “yeah that’s where the Deacs play football” to “Welcome to BB&T field!” There is obviously still work to be done and the from the way Grobe talks the locker rooms are in need of updating. But man oh man has Wake came a long way.

Cliff Daniel on 11/22/2011 (10:17 pm)

When I first saw BB&T Field a few years ago I thought it was a nice college stadium. When we sat there at the ND game a couple of weeks ago my wife & I looked at each other and said “Wow!” It was as if a magical transformation had taken place. And as I wrote in a previous blog entry it reminded us of Heinz Field with all the twirling towels.

The tower, the incredible scoreboard and the atmosphere is awesome. Saturday when the officiating crew inexplicably made a slew of bonehead calls during the Maryland game and the fans started booing it sounded like there were 80,000 people there instead of the around 40,000. Again, we looked at each other and just laughed (between our boos).

High School kids have to be impressed with what’s taken place at BB&T this year and here’s hoping that the winning continues because if it does it’s going to make the gameday experience that much better.

GO DEACS!

Deac Fan on 11/22/2011 (7:30 pm)

My dream for BB&T field is to add seats where the bushes are by Deacon Hill. I sometimes sit in my seat and look over there and try to estimate how many seats that would add….

Jim on 11/22/2011 (6:07 pm)

BB&T Field is lovely, especially with all the added new improvements, but I remember how beautiful to my eyes Groves Stadium was in 1968, comparatively speaking it was a great place to watch a football game than Bowman Gray Stadium, located across town from our campus.Ugh! I hated the games at Bowman Gray. Sometimes we only had 3 home games during a season. I remember the first game at Groves how Freddie Summers carried the ball like a loaf of bread, how we lost to NCSU 10-6; the following game we tied Clemson, with Win Headley stopping Buddy Gore in his tracks, lifting him up in mid air, with his legs still kicking in the
wind. Dan, that Carolina Game, you forgot to mention Don McCauley stretching his arm and the football like a swimmer’s stroke everytime he was tackeled, and I believe the refs gave him a good spot many of times.

The Original PC on 11/22/2011 (5:18 pm)

I have said it on this board several times. Ron Wellman doesn’t get near the credit he deserves. This quick little story is funny now but several years ago it was embarrassing to me. After the 2005 season I wrote Ron Wellman a three page letter of my thoughts on the stadium and the game day experience. Some of the ideas were to have a better press box and scoreboard etc… Mr. Wellman wrote a nice letter back and as polite as he could stated he was working on all my ideas…..Probably about 13 months after that letter they broke ground on the Deacon Tower. He knew it was in the works already and he knew by reading my letter I did not know. But he still took the time to write back.

Doug on 11/22/2011 (4:52 pm)

Dan,

Obviously it would have been nice to have the funding to make all of these improvements at once, but I think that Ron Wellman and company has done a terrific job of orchastrating the transformation in phases.

And one huge benefit of the phased renovation is that it creates a sense that the athletic facilities will never be neglected, and I think that can trickle down to the rest of the teams.

Yeah, our stadium looks great on TV this year. But just wait until next year when we make the concessions even better, and we continue to work on the surrounding neighborhood (Wake has bought up so much property!), and we upgrade the locker rooms the year after that. I just love establishing the mindset that Wake Forest will always be about improving and never about being satisfied.

All of this helps with recruiting. But Coach Grobe is correct - winning helps the most! Go Deacs!

DC on 11/22/2011 (4:36 pm)

There was an officiating crew at that game in 1970. They didn’t call it so it didn’t happen. Tar Heels need to get over it.

gary on 11/22/2011 (4:16 pm)

I overheard a VaTecky fan, enviously, describing Groves as the “Taj Mahal”. It is beautiful and should be known as BB&T Field at Groves Stadium. Groves goes back to the old campus and should be reinstated. At least until another 10,000 seats are in order and renaming it BB&T Field at Grobe Stadium.

demondave on 11/22/2011 (4:14 pm)

I’ve always loved Groves Stadium, because it is Wake’s stadium. However, the improvements to it from the time I first attended a game there in 1980 and now are amazing. After the game Saturday I went down on the field for the first time ever and just stood there taking it all in. The brick work, the field house (I remember well the original field house), the Deacon Tower, and the new video board are really breath-taking for this long-time Deacon fan. Heck, even standing out in front of the stadium is amazing with the near perfect lawn hill, brickwork along the walkways, the Deacon Tower standing tall, and of course the statue of the Deacon himself. It really is a place to be very proud of and the typical jokes we’ve all heard about our “high school” stadium over the years from rival fans, now sound as pathetic as the individuals who make them.

Chad on 11/22/2011 (3:34 pm)