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Anybody who claims to remember the last time Wake Forest won a football game as it did on Saturday is probably either very loyal or very lying.

Sam Swank's 41-yard field goal with three seconds left delivered the 30-28 win over Mississippi in the first game in the Deacon Tower era. The finish marked the first time since Sept. 15, 1973 that the Demon Deacons made a lead-changing field goal in the final 30 seconds to prevail. Back then, Chuck Ramsey connected from the same distance and with the same amount of time on the clock as Swank did against the Rebels, and the Deacs beat Florida State 9-7.

Let's just say that one wasn't a meeting of giants. It was the only win of the season for the Demon Deacons, who went 1-9-1, never scored more than 14 points in any contest and were shut out four times - all by margins of 37 or more. The Seminoles were worse. They finished 0-11, never exceeded 17 points of offensive production and finished the year by losing to South Carolina and Florida by a collective score of 101-12.

Chuck Mills was in his first of five seasons as Wake's coach. In the rest of his tenure, he went 10-43-1, but he gained a second life in coaching at Division III Southern Oregon, where he enjoyed five winning seasons in the 1980s. He's still going at age 79 and living in Hawaii.

Mills is a highly entertaining fellow credited with the following description of the average football fan: "He's the person who sits 40 rows up in the stands and wonders why a 17-year-old kid can't hit another 17-year kid with a ball from 40 yards away. Then he goes out to the parking lot and can't find his car."

The 1973 season would prove to be the last for FSU coach Larry Jones, and the school turned to Darrell Mudra of Western Illinois University. Bobby Bowden didn't get the job until 1976.

Ramsey enjoyed an eight-year career as a punter for the New York Jets after a stint with the Chicago Fire of the World Football League.

As for the present, Wake, which stayed in the 20th spot, remained the ACC's only representative in the Associated Press poll. The Deacons are off this week and return to competition at Florida State on Sept. 20. The starting time of that game is expected to be announced today.

Contact Rob Daniels at 373-7028 or rob.daniels@news-record.com