The 1945 Wake Forest Demon Deacons football team was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

team that represented

Wake Forest University Wake Forest University is a private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Founded in 1834, the university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina. The Reynolda Campus, the un ...

during the

1945 college football season The 1945 college football season was the 77th season of intercollegiate football in the United States. Competition included schools from the Big Ten Conference, the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC), the Southeastern Conference (SEC), the Big Six C ...

. In its ninth season under head coach

Peahead Walker Douglas Clyde "Peahead" Walker (February 17, 1899 – July 16, 1970) was an American football and baseball player, and coach of American football, Canadian football, basketball, and baseball. Walker served as the head football coach at Atlantic Ch ...

, the team compiled a 5–3–1 record, finished in second place in the

Southern Conference The Southern Conference (SoCon) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I. Southern Conference football teams compete in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly ...

, defeated

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

in the first

Gator Bowl The Gator Bowl is an annual college football bowl game held in Jacksonville, Florida, operated by Gator Bowl Sports. It has been held continuously since 1946, making it the sixth oldest college bowl, as well as the first one ever televised natio ...

game, and was ranked No. 19 in the final

AP Poll The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broadca ...

. The team defeated No. 16 Clemson in the final game of the regular season, and its three losses were to teams that were ranked in the final

: No. 1

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

, No. 13

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...

, and No. 14

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

. Five Wake Forest players were recognized the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

on the

1946 All-Southern Conference football team The 1946 All-Southern Conference football team consists of American football players chosen by coaches and sports writers on behalf of the Associated Press (AP) and United Press (UP) as the best at each position from the Southern Conference during ...

: backs

Nick Sacrinty Nick Sacrinty (June 10, 1924 – April 16, 2008) was an American football quarterback. Collegiately he played at Wake Forest from 1943 to 1946 and was inducted into the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame in 1982. He played for the Chicago Bears i ...

(first team), Richard Brinkley (second team), and Nick Ognivich (third team); end John O'Quinn (third team); and guard Robert Leonetti (third team). The team played its home games at

Groves Stadium Truist Field at Wake Forest is a football stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The stadium is just west of Gene Hooks Field at Wake Forest Baseball Park, home of the Wake Forest baseball team. It is primarily used for American football, and ...

Wake Forest, North Carolina Wake Forest is a town in Franklin, Granville and Wake counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina; located almost entirely in Wake County, it lies just north of the state capital, Raleigh. At the 2020 census, the population was 47,601. That is ...

Schedule

References

{{Wake Forest Demon Deacons football navbox Wake Forest Wake Forest Demon Deacons football seasons Gator Bowl champion seasons

Wake Forest Demon Deacons football The Wake Forest Demon Deacons football team represents Wake Forest University in the sport of American football. The Demon Deacons compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Atla ...