Wake Forest University had a football player once…who majored in speech. He wrote letters to his friends in philosophy class…and was always late for practice until Coach Bill Tate came to Wake Forest. He played Tanglewood Barn Theater once as Turk in Come Back Little Sheba, baggy drawers, broomstick spear and all.
Brian Piccolo also gave the Deacs a “winning” season. He won the ACC and national titles in rushing and scoring. He went to the Bears, where George Halas took him in hand, and the combination of Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers did pretty well together.
Brian’s Song could be a sad song, but he wouldn’t have wanted it that way. Brian was determined, competitive, and he never gave up. He had faith in himself, his friends, his own ability. He had an infinite capacity for loving others…his wife, Joy, their three children, Lori, Traci and Kristi, “Saint” Grace, “the world’s greatest mother-in-law,” and sister-in-law Carol, who needed…and got…unstinting affection and love. Brian made her cross a little easier to bear.
Brian died, but he gave it a good fight. And that’s what he should be remembered for. Not the tragedy of his dying, but the triumph of his living.
The Brian Piccolo Dormitory was originally dedicated September 4, 1982 and was intended as a state of the art facility to house Wake Forest athletes. In 1991 the NCAA legislated that athletic dormitories had to be open to all students so it now houses a variety of students from Wake Forest. The dorm is situated in a beautiful wooded area of the Wake Forest campus next to another dorm dedicated to Arnold Palmer.
