Skip Prosser's death

(Ziggy, I know this post belongs on the NCAA page, but how about leaving this here a day or two so it can't get more coverage, please.)

For those of you not living in or around Winston-Salem, NC, there was a tragic death that occurred today. The head coach of Wake Forest University's basketball team, Skip Prosser died around 11am on Thursday from an apparent heart attack. I'm not a grad, nor a fan of WFU, but Skip and I have mutual friends, so I got to know about the man, how special he is, and how much he will be missed by a multitude of people.

Here's an anecdote about the kind of person that Skip is:

Our mutual friends let him know that I (being a Tarheel) had incredible mid-court seats for the UNC/WFU game at Lawrence Joel in 2005. I was informed that he joked about it and said he would let me get through the turnstiles and keep my seats so long as I didn't wear anything Carolina-related. I wasn't planning on doing that anyway, so I showed up to the game with an innocuous grey longsleeved t-shirt. During warmups, I was standing up looking at the players and waiting to see if Skip would look my way, which he finally did. I pointed to my shirt and threw up my hands as if to indicate 'Does this meet your approval?' He smiled (while still chewing his gum) and gave me a thumbs-up. As it turns out Wake beat us because they never missed a damn free-throw (broke an ACC or maybe even an NCAA record for most consecutive free throws made), but knowing that the coach for the opposing team is such a class guy, it took the sting off ( at least a little bit).

It was a tough day for a lot of folks in Winston-Salem, Wake fans or not, so I just thought I'd give Skip a nod of the head for a job well-done, and hope to enlighten you guys who live outisde of the area, who may have caught a brief byline about Wake Forest's coach dying, that this was a really good guy and basketball, in general, is the worse off without him.

Good story. It's sad to lose people when they're still capable of doing something positive. RIP.

Hmm. wikipedia says that he was the only one to bring 3 different teams to NCAA Tournament in his first season(Loyola in Maryland, Xavier, Wake Forest)

From everything that I've read, he was really a great guy.

My prayers are with his family, friends and team.

I'm shocked at this loss. So sorry for the wake fans and his family.

Wow, just wow. That's shocking. I hope we do a tribute to him at the first home game.

I've been on a cruise for the last week, so I had no chance to see this, and when I got home I saw it in the paper, and well was shocked. I'm not a Wake Forest Fan one bit, but you don't wish death on no one, he was a great coach that took some not-so talented team of Wake Forest and made them good. It was a sad loss to Wake Forest, the ACC, and the NCAA as they lost a truly good coach...

R.I.P. Skip Prosser

My prayers are with his family, his friends, his team, and everyone who appreciated him.