The 1940s were a simpler time. Not in every way, of course, but at least in the way that you could fool a high school kid into attending Wake Forest by showing him around … Duke.
This is a real story, insofar as it’s been told over and over again by some of the folks involved, and was chronicled in a recent biography of football coach Douglas “Peahead” Walker entitled, naturally, Peahead!
In 1947, Bill George was a 6-foot-4, highly prized high school football player from Pennsylvania. Walker (to repeat: “Peahead”) was the coach at Wake Forest College, which was still actually in the town of Wake Forest. He was worried that George might not be impressed. So he picked him up at the Raleigh train station, put him in the back of a Cadillac, and drove him to Duke University instead. Someday, Walker told him as they gazed up at the majestic Duke Stadium, you will play here. George was sold.
Of course, once George got to Wake, the story unraveled. After a few weeks, he asked Walker where the pretty buildings were. “Them buildings, they’re on the West Campus,” Walker told him, according to Peahead! “That’s for upperclassmen. This here’s the East Campus.” Later, when George played a game at Duke, he realized he’d been duped. I didn’t lie to you, Walker supposedly told him. I told you you’d play here one day.
Ha! That’s sort of mean!
Anyway, George went on to be an All-Pro in the NFL, and Walker became the winningest coach in Wake Forest history. But he’s more remembered for his intense practices, colorful personality, flashy neckties, and bizarre nicknames. (Butterfingers! Hogjaw! Amoeba Brain!) All that, and an ever-present wad of cash in his pocket, which he once used to pay off his players, who voted 30-1 to skip the inaugural Gator Bowl in 1946 because they preferred to go home over the winter break to earn some spending money. Wake went. They won.
Walker’s legendary luring of George overshadows another failed recruitment effort: At one point, Walker saw Arnold Palmer on campus at Wake and asked him if he’d like to play football. Palmer stuck to golf. Wonder what became of him.
Growing up in North Carolina, the swelter of a late Southern summer was all about finding the best ways to cool off.
North Carolina pharmacists may not prescribe Pepsi anymore, but the sweet treats at these historic soda fountains can still cure a case of the blues.
The National Register of Historic Places has documented some 95,000 structures, sites, and districts across the country. In North Carolina, around 2,900 properties — from churches and cotton mills to farms, homes, and schools — have earned this designation. Now, these special spots representing our state’s history are known nationwide.
Boiled, brittled, or bagged at the ballpark, there’s a peanut for practically every time and place. We’re proud that so many of them come from eastern North Carolina — ranked fifth in the nation for peanut production — where a whole lot of legumes find purchase in our sandy soil.
