So, with football season (mercifully) over and basketball season (unmercifully) getting into full swing, I thought I'd take a stab at generating a weekly feature designed to create discussion about Wake sports. I'll probably post these on Monday in the future, with the goal that posters - even those that don't post here regularly - contribute their ideas towards a civil, meaningful discussion about... well... whatever the hell I come up with for the week.

This week's topic: Who would you put in your Wake Forest sports personalized Mt. Rushmore?

Rules: For this challenge, there are three rules.

1) Pick any 4 players, coaches, or personae with a connection to Wake athletics - however tenuous - is eligible. I leave it up to you whether to value impact while at Wake or impact elsewhere however you see fit.

2) Only one spot on your Mt. Rushmore is allotted per sport. So no, you can't have Muggsy Bogues and Rodney Rogers both - you have to pick one. For multi-sport stars (looking at you, Rusty LaRue), you have to concentrate on their contributions to the sport for which you nominate them.

3) At least one of the spots on your Mt. Rushmore must come from a women's sport, and at least one of the sports on your Mt. Rushmore must come from a men's sport (although I suspect this will be less of a problem).

Got it? Thinking caps on, and... go!

My Deacon Mt. Rushmore is as follows:

1) Arnold Palmer (men's golf): The easiest one to choose for me. Ignoring debates about whether golf is a sport or not, there's a fairly good case to be made that Arnie is one of the three or four most important athletes of all-time, given how he popularized the concept of athletes as spokespeople.

2) George Greer (baseball): 608-382-4 record in 17 seasons as head coach. Three ACC Tournament titles. Winningest coach for any sport in Wake history (okay, a lot of that has to do with the nature of baseball). Incredibly consistent, with 30+ wins in 14 of his 17 seasons. Looks a bit like Jim Grobe, so people will probably think the Mt. Rushmore is just a bad artist's rendering.

3) Jennifer Averill (women's field hockey): National titles for Wake Forest coaches not named Jennifer Averill: 5. National titles for Jennifer Averill: 3. It's all about dem ringzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

4) Randolph Childress (men's basketball): The hardest one to choose for me. I suspect that the men's basketball selection will draw the widest range of responses (and I can't imagine anyone leaving the sport off entirely) if only because we have plenty of solid candidates from which to choose. But give me Childress, for the last 8 minutes of the first half in the 1995 ACC Quarterfinal, for his overall sterling record against Duke, and for making Jeff McInnes look like a complete dunce.

via gifsoup.com

Just missed: Jay Vidovich (men's soccer), Jim Grobe (men's football), Katie Stengel (women's soccer), Tony da Luz (women's soccer), Jeff Bzdelik (men's basketball), Skip Prosser (men's basketball), Tim Duncan (men's basketball), Lew Gerrard (women's tennis), Chris Barclay (men's football)