Historic Wake Parade All Americans

Short list, with a mixed bag as far as how they panned out.  I'd have thought there would be more than just 9.....

March 31, 2011

Wake Forest's Parade All-Americans
With the news that future Demon Deacon Chase Fischer was named a first team Parade All-American, I was curious as to how many Wake Forest signees earned the prestigious honor. The fine folks at Parade were kind enough to send me a spreadsheet listing all of the teams since the award's inception in 1957.

The list contains some fascinating names such as Jerry Lucas (1957, 1958), Bill Bradley (1960, 1961), Lew Alcindor (1963, 1964, 1965), Pete Maravich (1965), Earvin Johnson (1977), Pat Ewing (1979, 1980, 1981), Mike Jordan (1981), Shaquille O'Neal (1989), four of the Fab Five (Webber, Howard, King and Rose in 1991), Kobe Bryant (1995, 1996), LeBron James (2001, 2002, 2003) and even Terrelle Pryor (2008).

As for the Demon Deacons, I found a total of nine on the list:

Mark Cline - 1982 (2nd team)
Rodney Rogers - 1990 (3rd)
Loren Woods - 1996 (3rd)
Eric Williams - 2002 (3rd)
Chris Paul - 2003 (1st)
Kevin Swinton - 2005 (4th)
Al-Farouq Aminu - 2008 (1st)
Tony Woods - 2008 (4th)
Chase Fischer - 2011 (1st)

What is interesting about this list is that only Cline and Williams played four years at Wake Forest. Rogers, Paul and Aminu each left early for the NBA, while Loren Woods, Swinton and Tony Woods all transferred out after two seasons with the Deacons. 

If anyone has potential additions to the list of Wake Forest's Parade All-Americans, please email wortmasm@wfu.edu, and I can confirm or deny the name with the master list.

Wake Forest and the Final Four
Wake Forest has played an eventual Final Four participant in the regular season in 23 of the past 24 seasons since 1987-88. The only season during the stretch in which the Deacons did not play an eventual Final Four team in the regular season came in 2006-07 when Florida, Georgetown, Ohio State and UCLA advanced to the Final Four.

During the 24-season stretch, at least one ACC team advanced to the final four 19 times. In the four different years that the Deacons only played a non-ACC affiliated Final Four team, Wake Forest faced Massachusetts (1996), Marquette (2003), George Mason (2006) and VCU (2011).

When you include NCAA Tournament meetings, Wake Forest has played multiple Final Four teams on 10 occasions over the past 24 seasons:

1990 - Duke, Georgia Tech
1991 - Duke, North Carolina
1993 - North Carolina, Kentucky (NCAA Tournament)
1995 - North Carolina, Oklahoma State (NCAA Tournament)
1996 - Massachusetts, Kentucky (NCAA Tournament)
2000 - North Carolina, Wisconsin
2001 - Duke, Maryland
2002 - Maryland, Kansas
2004 - Duke, Georgia Tech
2005 - North Carolina, Illinois

- Scott Wortman, Wake Forest Media Relations