Holliday: A broadcaster's view of the North Carolina-Duke rivalry
WRAL Sports contributor and former WRAL Sports director Bob Holliday recounts his experiences covering North Carolina-Duke games at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Posted — UpdatedI’m not that old, really! But my first visit to Duke was so long ago the venerable building in which the Blue Devils play was known as Duke Indoor Stadium.
It wasn’t until halftime of that game in January of 1972 that the building was renamed for the university’s long time athletic director Eddie Cameron.
I covered that game in the radio booth, high in the rafters. It was so high, you had to climb a ladder to get from the highest seating level to the broadcast origin area!
The first thing I noticed was the energy in the building. The 1972 Blue Devils were a .500 team, and yet the Duke students were on their feet the entire game, clapping and chanting, “Let’s go Duke! Let’s go Duke!
The band, which former Duke coach Vic Bubas had helped repurpose after seeing the Cal Bears’ famed “Straw Hat Band” created rhythm. I mean those drummers in the Duke band actually created a cadence for point guard Gary Melchionni. It was a beautiful thing to watch seeing Melchionni, whose skills in my view were never fully appreciated, dribble and set up the Duke offense as we heard “Bum bum bum; bum bum bum."
It was as if those Duke drummers were controlling the tempo. They set out a deliberate beat. Melchionni was right in tune with it. Head coach Bucky Waters loved it as well. Waters was facing the No. 3 team in the country; a UNC squad with future NBA Hall of Famer Bob McAdoo, and future Hall of Fame coach George Karl. Waters did not want his team getting into a “track meet“ (his term) with Carolina.
The game was tied 74-74 with 5 seconds left. The inbounds pass somehow found Robbie West, a reserve guard who had scored all of 142 points in his entire Duke career. Yet, West made a clean catch and his 20-footer was nothing but net! What an unlikely win for a very average Duke team against a UNC club that went to the Final Four; and all of this in the very first half of basketball played under Cameron’s name.
I am convinced this is where the legend of the old building now named Cameron began to rebound. The late Vic Bubas had gone something like 100-6 in his tenure. Bubas’ teams had great talent. That commodity began to wane in the following years. And fortunes began to sag.
There were certainly roller coaster ups and downs for the next 10 years. But this was the day, in 1972, where Duke students demonstrated they can lift an average team to victory, even against a national championship contender. I have never forgotten that game.
Broadcasting in Cameron
Historically, Duke has required all broadcasters to work upstairs, out of concern that courtside microphones might pick up inappropriate chants from the ever-creative Duke student body.
But in 1976, long before the students became known as the “Cameron Crazies,” I did sideline reporting for the Tar Heel Sports Network. Rights holder Jim Heaver, also a very gifted producer, had the idea – with Duke’s approval – to wire a microphone for me in the student section.
Just before tipoff, play-by-play man Woody Durham asked me for a report. I told him it was going to be a close game, and I vividly remember telling him this, “Woody, it could come down to one jump ball!” Yes, we still had the jump ball in 1976.
Was I right? That UNC team had four members of the 1976 U.S. Olympic squad, which won the gold medal in Montreal. But the Heels won that day in Durham just 89-87! Think about that!
This was a rebuilding Duke team now coached by Bill Foster. Most of the players that would lead Duke to glory a few years later were still being recruited. And yet powerful UNC, a top five team all year, barely won. I have only one explanation. The power of Cameron.
Footnote, the Duke students sitting around me were very cordial to me during my periodic sideline reports and there were no untowardly incidents. But I was the last to work downstairs at Duke. For my remaining years on the Tar Heel Network – I moved to WRAL-TV in 1981 – I did my on-air game analysis upstairs, like every other broadcaster.
The slowdown no one can forget
Duke became a national power under Foster in the late 70s. For me, the guy that made Duke go was Jim Spanarkel, now an analyst for CBS’ coverage of the NCAA Tournament. His senior night in 1979 saw one of the most memorable games I can ever remember.
Duke scored first and set up its zone defense with Mike Gminski down low. UNC coach Dean Smith immediately went to his four-corner offense.
It wasn’t that Smith actually wanted to run that the whole game; he was simply trying to make Duke come out of its zone and play man to man. Except the Blue Devils didn’t budge.
UNC, in effect, held the ball for more than 12 minutes. Finally, with about 7 ½ minutes left in the half of a 2-0 game, 6’9 center Rich Yonakor decided to shoot-I have no idea why. His 17-footer missed everything. All of sudden, Duke students started chanting, “Air Ball, air ball, air ball.” Gminski, also now an analyst, has said on air he believes this was the first time that chant was ever used by fans. I would agree.
Duke scored after the air ball and led 7-0 at half. The second half was played at a normal tempo, Final score Duke 47, North Carolina 40.
In 1980, Yonakor paid one final visit to Cameron. In those days, the Duke students usually just chanted, "U-G-L-Y you ain’t got not alibi, you’re ugly, Carolina ugly!"
But they drummed up a new cheer for the guy known in Chapel Hill as “Chicky.” It was actually an up-tempo air ball cheer.
When Yonakor got into the layup line, he heard a thunderous, “Air ball!” clap clap. “Air ball!” clap clap. “Air ball.” Clap. Clap.
Maybe that cheer fired up the Tar Heels. They won that game at Duke, 82-67.
Brief behavior issues
Notoriety for the Cameron Crazies began to grow in the early 80s, in part, I think because of the influence of Dick Vitale. I believe he was the first to use that term.
Remember the early 80s were a bit of a rough time for Duke with the transition from Bill Foster to Mike Krzyzewski. Deep-pocketed alumni wanted Krzyzewski fired in 1983. Athletic director Tom Butters extended his contract. In 1984, Duke basketball began an upward surge, which other than Krzyzewski’s medical sabbatical year in 1995, has never reversed course.
Maybe the Crazies, during the tough years, developed some bad habits. They threw things like car keys, pizza boxes and even unmentionables.
In 1984, Maryland star forward Herman Veal had been involved in what was described as a dormitory incident. He got quite a surprise when he was introduced at Cameron. Veal was showered with condoms and women’s underwear.
I can still see building operations supervisor Tom D’Armi and his staff cleaning up the court. Veal and Maryland won the game, but Washington Post columnist Robert Novak wrote a scathing column that was read by Duke alumni all over the East Coast. They were quite displeased.
To the credit of Krzyzewski, he took ownership of the students’ misbehavior. The Duke staff reached out to students and strongly appealed to them to stick to chants and signs with no projectiles. As a neutral observer, I have not witnessed any thrown objects since those days in the early 80s. Also, the Crazies are really good just with chants and signs.
The Tent City
To fully appreciate Duke’s preparation for the Carolina game, you have to visit the tent city that emerges about six weeks before the Tar Heels visit. In 2001, I visited that cluster of humanity – which ultimately became known as Krzyzewskiville – with Duke star Shane Battier. The rapport between Battier and the tent dwellers was palpable.
Duke players understand the sacrifices their fellow students make to get a seat for college basketball’s greatest regular season game. It's a powerful motivator.
Typically, the students form groups for the midwinter campout. Rules are at least one person from the group must occupy the tent at all times.
I will say, the tents I saw that night with Battier were well equipped; lots of technology for studies and communication, games, food, probably some beverages and warm clothing! It does get cold at night in the North Carolina winter. The students break camp only as Carolina comes to town.
However, the doors to Cameron don’t open until two hours before tipoff. One night in my TV days, I entered the building at the same time as the Crazies. OMG! They were running and yelling as they rushed to their section of seats. Noise! Energy!
Understand this: Most students will actually stand the entire night, before, during and after the game, except for a small sit down during halftime. The building, upon the mass entry of the Crazies quickly reaches extremely high decibel levels and remains there until the National Anthem.
The noise spikes again during player introductions.
The energy, the connection between the Duke team and its fans, can be very hard to overcome. Duke has beaten Carolina 15 times in Cameron over the last 25 years. But, four of UNC’s wins came when the incomparable Tyler Hansbrough was playing. Without Hansbrough, UNC has exactly six wins in Durham over the last quarter century.
Credit to Duke for keeping media seating courtside, except, of course, for live play-by-play broadcasts — as opposed to North Carolina and State, which have banished most media to the upper deck.
The long press table at Duke starts about 7 feet behind one basket, spans 94 feet alongside the court, and then extends another 7 feet beyond the second basket. Movement in this area can be rather complicated.
In my TV days, I would sit behind the Duke basket, turning my chair to avoid getting a stiff neck as I charted the game. Not ideal, but I had to sit somewhere that would enable me to leave swiftly, to do a live shot or to discuss coverage strategies with folks back at the station by phone outside. Given the noise in Cameron conversations inside were impossible.
Now though, I write columns for WRAL.com and am usually assigned a seat near midcourt. The view is amazing! You can see everything. But getting into and out of these media seats defies description.
There are breaks in the press table that extends about 110 feet. But only a few. There are 20 seats between each break in the table.
Media members who have a seat at the end of a break, and these seats are highly coveted, can pretty much come and go as they please.
However, anyone who is about five or six seats from the break has some difficult terrain to negotiate. For the Carolina game, not all students can find room in the grandstand. There are two or three more rows of students standing in what passes for an aisle between press row and the grandstand. Movement is difficult.
Most reporters have to meander through all this humanity, squeezing by the people already sitting in their seats on press row, and the students in the aisle behind. It can take a couple of minutes to make this journey, especially for one sitting 10 seats in, halfway between the two breaks in the table. It’s an incredible seat if you can just get to it.
Finally, you arrive at your seat and thus begins the second challenge. One must ask the Cameron Crazies standing approximately 6 inches behind the assigned media seat to move back please. The students always respond and move back. Always. However, as soon as the media member is seated, they ask you to move forward. Negotiations can be pretty delicate since leg room under the table is pretty limited.
Once a former Duke player sat next to me on press row. After a minute or two he said “Wow! I had no idea it was like this over here.” Exactly. Nobody does. The former player quickly found himself a spot behind the Duke bench.
Ingress and egress on press row is really tight. Four or five years ago, I would crawl over people or even crawl over the table. I'd also visit the press room at halftime to get stats and a fresh water. Now, I just sit tight until the game ends.
Ah yes, the game ends!
When Duke wins, media have about 30 seconds to escape the press table and scurry down the sidelines to avoid the big event. Because when Duke wins, which happens almost every game in Cameron, Duke players and coach Jon Scheyer will take a victory lap.
They run the full 360 around the court high-fiving every Duke fan they can reach.
Those still stuck on press row suddenly find themselves in the middle of a sandwich, as both players and fans reach as far as they can – over you or around you – to make contact with one another. It’s a fantastic tradition. It's amazing to watch it unfold, but if you’re in the middle, you can’t wait for it to end.
Saturday’s opponent certainly has the ability to quiet the crowd and maybe prevent the post-game, high-five celebration.
But the history of the past 25 years, minus Hansbrough, suggests this Saturday night will end with a victory lap, celebrating Duke’s unique connection with its amazing fans.
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