The so-called “Battle of the Blues” is about to tip off between Duke and UNC-CH and by the time I finish this column, another epic battle on Tobacco Road will be underway. (Astute readers will notice that this blog will NEVER refer to UNC-CH as “Carolina.” The last time I checked, there were many schools in the UNC system who are called by the same moniker; UNC-Charlotte, UNC-Greensboro, UNC-Wilmington, etc. I am not going to elevate one over the others.)
I can’t tell you the number of Tarhole fans I’ve come across the last few days who can’t believe that I am not joining them in hatred for Duke. And frankly, I have also come across more than a few NC State fans who feel the same way. All of these people are in need of a history lesson.
While Duke and UNC-CH is the preeminent rivalry in the ACC (and the nation) it was not always this way. Starting in the 1950’s and ending sometime in the late 1980’s, NC State and UNC-CH were the two teams who ruled the ACC. Don’t take my word for it, look at the facts;
With State’s last ACC basketball title in 1987, the Wolfpack tied the Tarholes at 10 ACC titles each. Duke only had seven titles and didn’t tie State until 1999.
With the 1983 national championship, NC State won its second title in nine years. Duke would not tie this record until 1992 and would not exceed it until 2001. UNC-CH won their second national title in 1982 and then exceeded both State and Duke in 1993.
Let me be clear – I know that all of the history I just posted is more than 20 years old. For a variety of reasons, NC State didn’t keep pace and has missed our window to be a nationally relevant basketball program. Duke and UNC-CH rule the roost and will for the rest of our lifetimes and beyond.
But the history demonstrates that while Duke and UNC-CH have always been rivals, the enormity of the rivalry is largely a product of what Duke has done under the tenure of Coach K.
I am sick to death of Duke and Coach K. He’s a foul-mouthed whiner. But I am sick of them in the same manner that I am sick of the New England Patriots – I hate sports dynasties and teams who win all the time. If Duke starts losing every game tomorrow, they will merely recede to the level of relevance they had during my childhood.
When I was a kid, we fought like cats and dogs on the playground over State and UNC-CH. No one was a Duke fan and the little private school in Durham was an afterthought. So any hatred I may feel for Duke is merely because of their current domination.
Compare and contrast that with how I loathe everything that comes out of Chapel Hill. If the Tarholes were to start a 1000 game losing streak tomorrow, I would pull just as hard for them to lose number 1001 and want them to lose the next thousand after that.
UNC-CH fans are the jerks we have to share our wonderful state with. Many of them certainly didn’t go to the school, yet are the first ones in your face with their little t-shirt they bought on sale at Wal-Mart. (And then of course, come football season, we hear their familiar refrain – “I only pull for the Tarheels in basketball.”)
Duke people come down from New Jersey and points north, spend their four years and leave. There just aren’t as many of them, and were they to stop winning tomorrow, they would retreat into the little hole they came out of.
So yes, I will ALWAYS pull for Duke over UNC-CH. (Come to think of it, I would pull for a team made up of Taliban members over UNC-CH, but that’s another column.)
Let’s go Duke! (and then lose all the rest.)
5 responses so far ↓
Angie // March 9, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Thank you to the Duke fans who distributed the Carolina blue ribbons in memory of Eve Carson. That was extremely touching for the two groups to come together as a community.
southernmaledemocrat // March 9, 2008 at 12:45 pm
^I was going to blog on that, and still might. While the gesture was nice, I am a little tired of the whole -
“let’s mourn collectively via a sporting event” thing.
Every team in the ACC had to wear a little black ribbon on the uniforms this year - “for Skip.” After the Virginia Tech shooting, they put a black ribbon on the field in Blacksburg and most every school sewed a little black strip on to their coaches’ shirts. Same thing for the fire that killed the Clemson and USC students.
All of these actions are done by 99% of people who had no personal tie to the victims. Yet somehow, we have reached a point in our society where such collective mourning is encouraged.
My personal opinion is that the gesture is a bit hollow and is mostly for show, because people now “expect” it.
The other problem is that there are no ribbons when another poor minority is murdered. What we are seeing with Eve Carson is the same as what we saw with Natalie Holloway. The more the victim is a cute, young, upstanding member of society, the “bigger” the tragedy is portrayed.
Angie // March 9, 2008 at 1:23 pm
You are absolutely right about the amount of attention Natalie Holloway, Jon Benet Ramsey, and now Eve Carson receive in contrast to all the other young people who have been murdered. That part is an atrocity. And yes, if the fans at the UCLA/Cal game had been wearing light blue ribbons, I’d agree that it was a hollow gesture. However, I’ll choose to believe this was more sincere. Sometimes we are a community.
That Girl // March 10, 2008 at 8:49 am
Another recent case to note was the young female North Carolina Central student who was brutally murdered. Funny how we didn’t see anyone wearing ribbons, lowering flags and offering huge rewards then. Our society has GOT to stop the double-standard of how lives are valued in senseless crimes. A life is a life in these kind of cases and it shouldn’t matter what color your skin is, how much money your family has or how cute you are. We should mourn the lives of our youth equally.
John Herr // April 6, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Eve Carson was the student body president and, living in CH I know this, had touched an enormous number of people’s lives PERSONALLY. The media frenzy IS a bit of a double-standard, but in this case, that is only 2% of the story. The world TRULY lost an already accomplished and up-and-coming STAR in the world. That much is obvious.
Finally, your reaction to THIS event is one I did have for JBR, and others, but not THIS event. Your reaction is as much a knee-jerk reaction as any. A bit of thought, and research, clearly indicate this.