Nov. 17, 2006

TheACC.com introduces you to the league's
athletes, coaches and administrators each week.

Bill Faircloth
Wake Forest
Assistant Athletic Director for Football
Hometown: Clinton, NC
Favorite Flavor of Ice Cream: All kinds...that's my problem

Bill Faircloth has had many roles at Wake Forest: student-athlete, coach and assistant athletic director. He has been an integral part -- the heart and soul -- of Wake Forest football for 29 years.

What has your role in this program been over the years?
I graduated from Wake Forest and always wanted to come back and I got the opportunity to come back in 1978 when John Mackovic became the head coach here, he was a former teammate of mine. I've been here for about 29 years.

First I came back as an assistant coach and I coached outside linebackers and I did that for six years. I worked with John Mackovic for three years, then Al Groh for three years. Then I got the opportunity to become the Assistant Athletic Director, primarily dealing with academic counseling for the department. Then I was in charge of team travel and I think we had an athletic dorm at that time and I was in charge of that. I have been here with John Mackovic, Al Groh, Bill Dooley and Jim Caldwell and now Coach Grobe.

I've dealt with a lot of capacities in the football department, academic counselor, team travel. I was also in charge of video for eight years. I did summer camps and really just the day by day operation of the football office.

So what did you do prior to returning to Wake in 1978?
I entered Wake Forest in the fall of 1960 and graduated in `64 and there were some rough teams at those times and bad years. But I did get the opportunity to play with Brian Piccolo for three years and I was the captain my senior year in `64. Then I went to the University of Alabama and got my Master's in education. From there I became a teacher and an assistant football coach at Catawba College. I was the Assistant Football coach and Head Track coach then my last three years I became the Head coach for football. I stayed at Catawba for 10 years. I became an assistant coach with Mike McGee at Duke for two years, `76 and '77, and in `78 I got to come back to Wake Forest as an assistant coach.

What has been the biggest change or difference at Wake since you started here?
There are a lot of changes. As far as players, they're bigger, faster and probably a whole lot better then when I was in school in the `60s. As far as the department, it's grown. Most athletics departments have really grown as far as numbers of people. When I first came back to Wake Forest, we must have had about 20-30 people in the athletic department and now it's probably over 100. I think it's been good not only for athletics but also for the university and the ACC.

Who was your most influential role model in sports?
My most influential role model I guess was when I was in about 5th or 6th grade, they had a recreation program for grade school kids in my hometown led by a guy named Ren Hook. Every Saturday morning we would have a little school for football and it would change for basketball season, then baseball. And that man got me really into sports. We lived right beside the high school and that might have had something to do with it also. I just always wanted to be in sports and become a coach from that experience.

What's your most memorable moment in sports?
There are a couple. In my senior year, we beat South Carolina to end a 17-game losing streak. It was homecoming and it was my last home game so it was really great.

A week later, believe it or not, we played NC State and the game was set for a Friday night, it was November 22, 1963. This was my last football game and we went down on Thursday night to Raleigh and then on Friday morning we were in the motel and it came over the television that President Kennedy was shot. We went on to play that game, it was my last game, and I'll never forget The Star-Spangled Banner that night. That was the only college game played that weekend.

Bill (pictured left) enjoys the Demon Deacons' success with his son Barry, who is Wake's Associate AD for Developement.

A couple more moments were in `78 when we beat Auburn here. Auburn was ranked 8th in the country at the time I think we were ranked 15th. We were down 23 points at halftime and came back to win that game. As a coach, that's very memorable.

To be honest with you, these last two games, Boston College and Florida State are right up there at the top, too.

You played during the Brian Piccolo years. What is your most memorable moment with him?
Brian was a year behind me. I was a senior and he was a junior. As a matter of fact, he scored all of our points in the South Carolina win my senior year. He was quite a person. In the movie "Brian's Song," the actor portrayed him perfectly. He was just like him. I was very fortunate to play with Brian. He was a happy go lucky guy and always played jokes on you in the locker room. You would come in sometimes and your helmet or shoulder pads would be missing and you would always know who had them. He was always a practical joker.

Why did you choose to attend and then coach at Wake Forest?
There were a couple of reasons I wanted to attend. I was already accepted to North Carolina as a walk-on football player and I happened to play in an All-Star game during the summer. Wake Forest saw me and my twin brother (I do have a twin brother) and they decided to give us a scholarship so I decided to come to Wake Forest.

And as far as why I wanted to come back, when I was here, we had some rough years football wise. Like I said, I always wanted to be a coach and I always wanted to come back to Wake and see if we could have a better team and be a part of the athletic department.

How special is it to be a part of this team's unexpected success this year?
It's very special, it's been a lot of hard work by a lot of people and now you can see it's paying off. This year has been very special. Hopefully we can keep it up.