WINSTON- SALEM, NC — Jack McGinley wasn’t exactly sure where Omaha was in the spring of 1955.

All he knew is that he wanted to get there.

“Early in the season, a roommate of mine said, ‘Boys, we’re going to Omaha,’” recalled McGinley, a sophomore pitcher on Wake Forest’s baseball team at the time. “I was like, ‘Omaha? Where’s Omaha?’ But like every other team, we had aspirations of going.”

Omaha, of course, is the home of the College World Series.

McGinley and his teammates didn’t just get there. They won the whole thing.

The Deacons won the 1955 College World Series, the 1st national sport in any sport by an ACC team, by defeating Western Michigan 7-6 in the final game.

Sixty-eight years later, Wake Forest has returned to Omaha for another shot at the title. This current group of Deacons will begin play against Stanford on Saturday at Charles Schwab Field.

McGinley, the winning pitcher in the 1955 clincher, and other members of the championship have maintained a close bond over the years. Several of them were in attendance last weekend when Wake swept Alabama in their best-of-3 Super Regional series.

Catcher and cleanup hitter Linwood Holt said he isn’t surprised to see his alma mater back at the College World Series.

He’s only surprised that it took this long to happen.

“I would have thought they would have done it sooner, but it’s a tough road. It really is,” Holt said. “You’ve got to have a good team and on top of that, a little bit of luck goes a long way as well.”

Wake’s stroke of good fortune in 1955 came off the end of Holt’s bat in the top of the 8th against Western Michigan. 

A first-team All-American who led the ACC with a .352 average that season, he came up with the score tied and a runner on 3rd. Although he didn’t make solid contact on a 3-2 pitch, he got enough of it for a single that drove home Luther McKeel with what turned out to be the winning run.

“Over the years it became more of a line drive,” Holt, who is now 89 and living in retirement between his homes in Florida and Clarksville, Va., said with a chuckle. “Actually it was a pretty wicked bloop over the shortstop’s head. It wasn’t a powerful blow by any means. But I’m happy to claim it.”

The championship victory was the Deacons’ 2nd and most hotly contested of their 3 meetings with Western Michigan in Omaha.

Wake jumped out to a 3-0 lead after 3 innings, but fell behind after the Broncos answered back with a pair of 3-run rallies in the 4th and 6th.

McGinley came out of the bullpen to end the 2nd threat and prevent further damage. He then shut out Western Michigan over the final 3 innings to give his team a chance to come back.

His teammates lifted him onto their shoulders in celebration after third baseman Billy Ray Barnes – who was also a star on the football team and played in the NFL for the Philadelphia Eagles – made a difficult play in the hole and threw to first for the final out.

It was McGinley’s 3rd victory of the CWS, a mark that has been surpassed by only 1 pitcher – Oregon State’s Kevin Abel in 2018 – since.

“I won 5 games in the postseason that year. That’s what stands out to me,” said McGinley, also 89, who spent his post-baseball career coaching and teaching high school and middle school in Fayetteville, NC. “How did I do that?”

McGinley started and pitched a shutout in Wake’s opener in Omaha, beating Colgate 1-0. That, however, is where the Deacons’ national championship run nearly came to a screeching halt.

Because the school was still affiliated with the Baptist Church at the time, it had a prohibition against playing any athletic events on Sundays.

That wouldn’t have been a problem had Wake’s 2nd-round game against Colorado College been played as scheduled. But because it was postponed by rain, it was pushed back a day until Sunday.

Going on the premise that it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, athletic director Paddison Preston told coach Taylor Sanford to go ahead and play.

“I was afraid they were going to fire Pat Preston over that thing,” Holt said. “Winning that game saved us. Had we lost, I think he’d have been in big trouble.”

But they did win, with Lowell “Lefty” Davis beating Colorado College 10-0 before heading back to campus because he couldn’t miss any more class. 

After the Deacons were sent to the loser’s bracket of the double-elimination tournament by dropping a 9-0 decision to Western Michigan, they bounced right back to win the rematch 10-7 with McGinley picking up his 2nd win, then beat the team now known as Oklahoma State 2-0 to earn a 3rd, winner-take-all meeting with the Broncos.

“We felt like we were in the right place at the right time,” McGinley said. “Our hitting was timely and our pitching was good. When we got to Omaha, everything just fell into place and the little old boys from North Carolina that nobody knew anything about came home with the trophy.”

For one thing, their school’s campus isn’t even in the same place. 

Wake Forest University was actually located in Wake Forest, NC at the time, just north of Raleigh. The move to its current location around 100 miles to the west in Winston-Salem didn’t happen until a year after the baseball team won in Omaha.

And unlike the 1955 team, which flew under the radar for most of the season despite going 29-7 overall (10-3 ACC), this 2023 squad came into the NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 overall seed.

But those aren’t even the biggest differences. As Holt is quick to note, the greatest disparity is the size of the players.

“I can’t believe how big the guys are today,” he said. “I was 6-1 and weighed about 192 and I was the 2nd biggest one on our team. Goodness gracious, now that’s like a midget.”

As big as the players are physically, their stature as a team still doesn’t measure up to their predecessors from 68 years ago.

“They won it all,” Deacons coach Tom Walter said. “We’re still in the rearview mirror looking at those guys. But I know they’re pulling for us.”

And they are.

For all the support Wake has gotten in its run up to the CWS, including a packed house at David F. Couch Ballpark for a regional game against Maryland that didn’t start until 10:30 p.m. because of bad weather, no one wants to see the Deacons win the national title more than McGinley, Holt and their teammates.

The 1972 Miami Dolphins are so protective of their status as the NFL’s only undefeated championship team that they famously pop open bottles of champagne to celebrate when the last unbeaten team finally loses each year.

The remaining members of Wake’s 1955 team, by contrast, are eager to finally get some company as champions.

“It’s been long enough,” Holt said. “We hope they bring the trophy back home as champions.”

Cover photo and box score photo courtesy of Wake Forest Athletics.