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More UNC-Duke Stories
February 5, 2004 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 5, 2004
Hitching A Ride To Cameron
My freshman year at Carolina, my roommate, Kenny Hudgins, and I, hitchhiked from Chapel Hill to Durham to watch the Heels play Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Kenny was from Richmond, Va., and was good friends with John Kuester, who played guard on the basketball team and had given him the tickets. It was a sunny day as we made our way to Duke; I had made a sign with the word "Durham" on it to hold up for passing motorists to see. We finally made it to the game and found that our seats were behind the basket near the top of the arena. The game was close all the way, and with just seconds left, the Blue Devils were ahead and preparing to inbounds the ball. The Duke crowd was hysterical - they smelled an upset. That's when Bobby Jones stepped in front of the Duke player, intercepted the ball and drove down court for an uncontested layup to win the game. The silence from the Duke fans was deafening. The only noise was from our small group of Carolina fans in the rafters, cheering another victory over the Dookies. In my excitement, I flung my cardboard sign toward the court, and it sailed into the crowd like a Frisbee. This win, coming the same year as Carolina's amazing comeback victory over Duke earlier in the season, are two games Carolina fans will never forget.
Graham Williams
Union, S.C.
Class of '77
Staying Until The End
I too was a student at Carmichael at the infamous 8 points in 17 seconds game in 1974. About 10 other guys and I from the dorm were together. They were all frustrated at losing and left early. I am a diehard and refused to leave. My heart sank as Walter Davis took the shot. I sensed it was off not knowing it would bounce off the backboard and through the net. Pandemonium set off! This is my most exciting sports moment ever. It was fun going back to the dorm and see all the guys frustrated because they had to watch overtime on TV instead of staying courtside. I still get choked up when I hear Woody yell " Unbelievable" after the shot was made.
George Floyd
Lake Waccamaw
Missing Out in Spain
The most fond memory of Duke vs UNC that I have is the Spring of 2001. I attended UNC from 1998-2002 and during my fouryears of college and the huge rivalry of the two schools, Carolina only beat Duke one time - the Spring of 2001. I wish that I could say that I was in Chapel Hill to celebrate, but I wasn't. You see, that spring I was a student in the Study Abroad program to Sevilla, Spain. I lived in Sevilla for almost 5 months and thinking back, I only got homesick one time...the night that I was woken up by my cell phone ringing off the hook. All my friends back at home finally decided to call me half way across the world. Why? They had to let me know that UNC had finally beaten Duke!!! All I wanted was to be in the Thrill to celebrate our victory on Franklin Street.
Julie Robinson - Class of 2002
Cameron's First UNC-Duke Game
During the 1939-40 basketball season I visited Durham as a senior on the New Hanover High School basketball team. We were there to receive our annual whipping from Bones McKinney, the Loftis brothers and the rest of the best high school team I've ever seen...Durham High. Somehow our coach got the entire team tickets to the Duke-UNC game. Imagine being able to do that today!! To this day I can visualize George Glamack (the "Blind Bomber") shooting that graceful hook shot, which he commenced with his back to the basket and in the vicinity of the foul line. It was only years later that I realized that we'd been also privileged to visit the Indoor Stadium during its' first year of operation.
Bradford Tillery...UNC Commerce School; 1947
Two Memorable Moments
1 - It was the Duke game in Carmichael in 1974 and I had decided to take my 18 month old daughter to her first Duke / Carolina game. She was initially "interested" in all of the music, noise and commotion but by the latter stages of the the second half was wet, tired and irritable. With 17 seconds left in the game and Carolina trailing by 8 points, I was irritable myself, so told my wife that we were heading home. As we strolled across campus, a roar went up from an adjacent dorm. "Do you think anything happened at the game?" she asked. "No! We were down 8 with 17 seconds left." I replied. Needless to say, I was stunned to turn on the TV when we got home and learn that I had walked out on the greatest Carolina comeback ever.
2 - My second memory, and a more favorable one, was the game in the Smith Center when Eric Montross was bloodied but unbowed. I was in Washington, DC for a meeting and had gone looking for a sports bar to watch the game. I found one in a Marriott Hotel and wandered in just as the game started. It was only then that I realized that this was the location of the Washington area Duke alumni gathering for games. Imagine being in a mini version of Cameron with a twenty something crowd of Duke fans. There was one other Carolina fan in there and when we finally pulled the game out, the two of us enjoyed a raucous few moments while watching about two hundred sullen Duke fans file out.
Bob Orr, Raleigh, NC