Former Wake Forest track & field standout and Hall of Famer Hunter Kemper qualified for his fourth consecutive trip to the Olympic Games after finishing fifth in the ITU World Triathlon Championship Series. Kemper earned the automatic bid to the London Olympics as the first American to cross the finish line.

Inspiration often comes in unlikely places. For Paul Loeser, a senior cross-country runner, his epiphany hit while on Los Angeles’ Skid Row. Loeser was working with Athletes in Action’s Urban Project when he got the idea to replicate a program he saw there when he returned to Winston-Salem.

For the 26th straight year, Wake Forest student-athletes came together to help needy families as part of the Santa’s Helper program. This year, 172 student-athletes, coaches and athletic staff wrapped and delivered presents to 166 families with 586 children and wrapped additional presents for 47 other families with 170 children.

Wake Forest has accepted an invitation to play Mississippi State in the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tenn. The game will be played on Friday, Dec. 30 at LP Field and will kickoff at 6:40 p.m. The game will be televised on ESPN.

Austin da Luz won an NCAA soccer championship playing for the Wake Forest men in 2007. His father, Tony, has been trying to join that club, and he’ll get his best chance this weekend, when he leads the Wake Forest women into the College Cup semifinals in Kennesaw, Ga.

November 30 marks the 40th anniversary of the release of Brian’s Song. Thanks in part to the movie, Piccolo’s legacy endures, inspiring Wake Forest students in philanthropic and volunteer efforts. Learn more about Piccolo and see the results of the voting for favorite football movies.

After a resounding 3-0 victory over Central Florida in the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals, the women’s soccer team advanced to their first College Cup (the final four), which will be held on Dec. 2 and 4 in Kennesaw, Ga.

When Abe Elmore (’55) rolls into the parking lot at BB&T Field in his “Deac Mobile,” it’s time for old friends — self-described as “has-beens,” mostly former athletes and fraternity brothers from the Old Campus — to gather round and give thanks for each other and for being Demon Deacons.

November 30 marks the 40th anniversary of the release of Brian’s Song. The 1971 movie first aired on ABC and starred James Caan as Wake Forest alumnus Brian Piccolo and Billy Dee Williams as pro football hall of famer Gale Sayers. The Emmy-winning movie was such a success on television that it was later released [...]

Notre Dame will play Wake Forest in football on Saturday, which — based on those schools’ performances in Graduation Success Rate — is the premier showdown of the college-football season. Read more from the Wall Street Journal.