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jacalcio18
01-15-2009, 11:22 AM
I know Duke students were able to drop off posters or whatever at the Athletics Department every Monday or every first week of the month and the whole basketball team would sign it for free. Does anyone know if this still happens and where and when to drop off a poster?

Cameron
01-15-2009, 11:27 AM
You can actually purchase an autographed team poster for $20 through the Blue Planet magazine if you really wanted one. I subscribe to Blue Planet and that's been a feature within it for the past two years.

Pretty neat that Duke is so in touch with its fans. When Duke launched the new Blue Planet website, wanting for its team to become more accessible and in tune with its fans, the university really meant it.

Dukie4Life
01-15-2009, 11:30 AM
I love DBP! Although I'm sure if you don't want to purchase a poster and you are close enough to campus I would call Kenny King or Chris Spatola's office and see if they still are doing that. Chris is the Director of Basketball Operations and Kenny handles all of the players schedules. Good luck and let me know!

allenmurray
01-15-2009, 12:08 PM
My understanding is that they are doing far less of it than they used to. Our church is holding an auction for our youth group to take a trip to Greece. We have these auctions every other year. In the past Duke has always donated to us a signed basketball (we provided the ball, they provided the signatures). This year we were told that the requests had been too overwhelming/time consuming and that they would be glad to give us a poster that had been done in a pre-season signing session.

Mind you, I'm not complaining. We're very greatful for the poster, and it will bring in a good bit of money. I also understand how overwhelmed the Basketball office probably has gotten with similar requests. Just letting you know that I think they have cut down on it dramatically.

My son (now 14, 10 at the time) got a signed basketball by bringing a ball with him and hanging out behind Cameron as the players left after practice. It was on MLK birthday, so he was out of school. It was also an incredibly cold - at least by NC standards, high teens/low twenties - day. The players were incredibly gracious. One of them did talk with me for a few minutes about the problem of them signing stuff (especially the big name players or teams in a year of a national championship) being aprached by folks who then later sold the items on ebay. He said he was much more likely to stop and sign something for a kid than for an adult.

Cavlaw
01-15-2009, 12:16 PM
I never tried to get the entire team, but I dropped off a Duke basketball (the ones with the white panel for signing) on a couple different occasions to get K's signature. I went in wearing my letter jacket, was very polite to everyone in the office, and left the ball along with a letter that made my request and explained who the ball would be a gift for (once for my father and once for my high school coach - I never kept one for myself). They told me they would let me know when it was ready, and I got a call within a week each time.

allenmurray
01-15-2009, 12:22 PM
I never tried to get the entire team, but I dropped off a Duke basketball (the ones with the white panel for signing) on a couple different occasions to get K's signature. I went in wearing my letter jacket, was very polite to everyone in the office, and left the ball along with a letter that made my request and explained who the ball would be a gift for (once for my father and once for my high school coach - I never kept one for myself). They told me they would let me know when it was ready, and I got a call within a week each time.

I imagine that may still be true. K's secratary or staff can catch him in a spare moment and explain the request. Getting all 15 players together is probably a bit more complicated, and outside of orchestrated signing days may be hard to do.

biscuit30
01-15-2009, 01:14 PM
I mailed in two pictures to be autographed. The first one was just for K to sign and the other the coaching staff. I didn't have a problem at all, was told to do early before the season got going.

MulletMan
01-15-2009, 03:34 PM
If you want somethign to be signed, you need to have it in by Labor Day weekend (general rule of advice... not some hard and fast policy). In recent years the office has tried to limit this sort of thing to one big signing session before the school year begins or shortly thereafter. (Hence why there are signed posters laying around as mentioned above.)

Your best bet is to see if you can find someone to take you into Schwartz-Butters, find LA and speak to her about it.