Wake Forest University’s mascot, the Demon Deacon, rides into games on a motorcycle wearing a black and gold tuxedo, and a top hat on his oversized head. For this month's Carolina Curious, WFDD’s Amy Diaz spoke with an archivist at the university to find out how it came to represent the school.
According to WFU's Director of Special Collections and Archives Tanya Zanish-Belcher, there were actually several other iterations of the mascot before Demon Deacon caught on — including a tiger back in the 1890s.
“We were known as Wake Forest, the Baptists since we were a Baptist School, the Fighting Deacons, the Deacon Warriors, and the Old Gold and Black," she said.
These names were all used in the school newspaper and written by student journalists. Zanish-Belcher said she thinks the editors and reporters at the time were looking for ways to describe the foo