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Uncle Drew
03-12-2008, 06:57 PM
I don't know how many native North Carolinians post here at DBR. My wife was born in Indianapolis but has lived in Chicago, Palm Beach and Atlanta. I have trued to explain to her what a big deal the ACC tournament is at least in this state. She swears I am telling a lie when I say this. But I remember from kindergarten all the way through high school teachers would have the TV on in the class room on ACC tournament Friday. Sure in high school there were a few communist, pinkos who didn't care about it and thus didn't have it on. But does anyone else remember watching the ACC Tournament IN CLASS almost like a on going news event in school?

BCGroup
03-12-2008, 07:07 PM
I was a junior high school teacher from 1982-88. I always signed up for a TV the first day back, because we didn't have one for every classroom. You bet we watched the tourney.

weezie
03-12-2008, 07:07 PM
Very good! I was reaching for the dictionary when I realized you were talking in "northcarolinian" :D

yancem
03-12-2008, 07:11 PM
I don't know how many native North Carolinians post here at DBR. My wife was born in Indianapolis but has lived in Chicago, Palm Beach and Atlanta. I have trued to explain to her what a big deal the ACC tournament is at least in this state. She swears I am telling a lie when I say this. But I remember from kindergarten all the way through high school teachers would have the TV on in the class room on ACC tournament Friday. Sure in high school there were a few communist, pinkos who didn't care about it and thus didn't have it on. But does anyone else remember watching the ACC Tournament IN CLASS almost like a on going news event in school?

I don't remember every watching the tournament at school (actually my junior year my chemistry teacher was the basketball coach so maybe that year), but I do remember skipping school to watch the games when Duke played early.

JStuart
03-12-2008, 07:14 PM
Back when I was in grade school, I thought the Acc Tournament was the reason transistor radios were invented, especially the earphone attachment. Those of us that had one sure brought them to class on opening Thursdays. (yes, Virginia, the first day with 4 games was on Thursday, with the Finals on Saturday Night; back when there were 8 teams, and a full round-robin. No play-in Les Robinson Invitational games then!)
JStuart

hurleyfor3
03-12-2008, 07:18 PM
But does anyone else remember watching the ACC Tournament IN CLASS almost like a on going news event in school?

Yes. My senior year in high school, someone brought a teevee into our school's senior lounge on ACC Friday. Very few of us seniors went to class that afternoon. This transgression largely went unpunished.

zingit
03-12-2008, 07:34 PM
I've lived in Raleigh my whole life (well, until I went off to Duke), and we did watch a game in class once, in 7th grade. So let's see, that'd be 2000. That was only time that happened, though.

dukegirlinsc
03-12-2008, 07:37 PM
South Carolina girl here!

If we DIDN'T watch the ACC tourney in school, most of us skipped to go home and watch it. Luckily, my dad taught at my high school, and would always let us watch it in there.

It's a pretty big deal. :D

Uncle Drew
03-12-2008, 07:37 PM
I remember my soph year of high school not only watching but BETTING on the games in class. I won $200 off UNC fans that year. Maybe that's why the 1986 team is still my favorite ever!

RelativeWays
03-12-2008, 07:55 PM
NC REPRESENT! Yep, the ACC tournament weekend is a big deal and yes we watched the games on Friday. We had an Economics teacher who loved to say "there are 2 billion Chinese people who don't care about about the ACC tournament." He soured somewhat when a student told him that there were thousands of ACC fans who don't care about 2 billion Chinese. Those were the days were everyone hated UNC and Dean Smith, I call them the good ol days. How I long for them.

-jk
03-12-2008, 08:07 PM
The Way Back Machine takes me to: Sail with the Pilot (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4gptzlIGow). All the way!

(Anyone got a better one?)

-jk

godukerocks
03-12-2008, 08:36 PM
I had a Math teacher last year that was an old crook who knew nothing about sports, but let us watch the FSU-Clemson game between lunch and next period. (Everyone in my class was either a criminole or gator fan) It was a great game, and I'll always remember how mad our next teacher was when we were late. (He is a military boot camp officer now...)

Bob Green
03-12-2008, 09:03 PM
When I was in High School (74-77), my parents allowed me to stay home from school to listen to the games on the radio.

merry
03-12-2008, 09:09 PM
When I first moved back to the Triangle in 1992, ACC Friday was a really big deal. At the time a huge proportion of the people where I work were State grads and there were quite a few UNC as well, plus some Duke and others. Depending on who played at what time of day, groups of people frequently "went out for a long lunch", and radios were tuned in to the games in just about every occupied office. I was in a meeting once when the person running the meeting stopped the proceedings to turn on a TV in the conference room to check the score/outcome of the NCSU game.

Now between so many more transplants to this area and my company being a lot bigger, I am actually in a work group where I am the ONLY person who went to an ACC school! And with expansion the tournament's not quite the same so more teams have their first game on Thursday. It's still a big deal, just not quite as pervasive a big deal as it once was.

merry
03-12-2008, 09:09 PM
Oh, and when I lived in Maryland I always took ACC Friday off to "do the taxes" (easier to explain)

feldspar
03-13-2008, 12:46 AM
When I was a junior in high school in Winston-Salem, my Algebra II teacher scheduled an exam on the Friday of the ACC Tournament during Duke's game. She was not a college basketball fan (or any sport, for that matter), so rolling a TV in the classroom was out of the question.

Luckily, it was still fairly cold that March, so I wore my Starter jacket to class, looped my headphones through the sleeve of the jacket, tuned my radio to the local sports station and sat with my hand on my ear for the duration of the test. Not only did I ace the exam, but Duke won the game.

To this day, I carefully budget my vacation time so I can have the day off for the ACC Tournament (and the first two days of the NCAA Tournament). Not gonna let The Man hold me down anymore. :D

Bulldog
03-13-2008, 01:16 AM
Longtime reader, first post

I was born and raised in NC, but I now go to college in Connecticut. About a month ago, I tried to explain to some friends from other parts of the country that ACC Friday was my favorite day of the year and that we always watched the tournament games in school. Only the teachers that were real jerks wouldn't let us watch. No one really believed me, and I was surprised that none of my friends had examples of similar events in their home states.

Uncle Drew
03-13-2008, 02:01 AM
Longtime reader, first post

I was born and raised in NC, but I now go to college in Connecticut. About a month ago, I tried to explain to some friends from other parts of the country that ACC Friday was my favorite day of the year and that we always watched the tournament games in school. Only the teachers that were real jerks wouldn't let us watch. No one really believed me, and I was surprised that none of my friends had examples of similar events in their home states.

Bulldog welcome to the board. And thanks for backing me up on this. NC natives are raised on college basketball. Just like BBQ its a state tradition and growing up most everyone was a NCSU or UNC fan. There were a few Duke fans, but we didn't have much to cheer about in the mid 70's and early 80's. Looking back I'm not sure how teachers didn't get fired, but I honestly think they presented the whole thing as a tradition and history in the making for students to watch on TV. All through middle and high school MOST teachers had a set or even radio playing the game in class. Now you have to keep in mind it didn't start until noon, so the first part of your day wa spent learning.


I will never forget an avid prim and proper teacher in high school by the name of Mrs. Sharpe watching her tarheels one ACC Friday. I'm pretty sure it was Kenny Smith who got his shot blocked, but regardless she shouted, "that's a damn foul" in front of the class. I've tried to explain to people from other parts of the country that where they are from there are Presbyterians, Catholics, Babtists, Muslims, Jews, Lutherans. In NC we have two more religions by the names of Duke and UNC. And ACC Friday is a religious holiday. I can truly say it's the one time I actually tune in to watch UVA, FSU or Boston College play on purpose. Because as a Duke fan most of us want the higher seed to win in UNC's bracket to give them a tougher road and we want the lower seeded team (or the one that Duke matches up with better) to win on the Duke side. As Merry said it's actually sad with all the transplants coming to the area it isn't as big a tradition as it used to be. And adding to the ACC to make 12 teams has tarnished the event even more IMO.

DukieInKansas
03-13-2008, 02:12 AM
I only spent my Duke years in NC, but loved the fact that they watched the games in school. I had my boss going for a while when I started talking about my 3 day religious holiday in early March. She would even let me leave work to go home and watch Duke play during the day. So I take a break from taxes to watch basketball.

balkan boy
03-13-2008, 02:39 AM
I grew up in Richmond and we almost always watched game 1 on Friday in school. Loved it and went straight home afterwards to catch the second game.

balkan boy

riverside6
03-13-2008, 07:41 AM
We definitely had a few years where teachers would bring in a TV, same for the NCAA tournament as well. Now that I'm older, of course today and tomorrow and next Thursday and Friday are days off for me every year.

When in school I also pulled off the radio in the coat pocket with the earphone up the sleeve. You then simply cup it and rest your head conveniently on your hand to hear all the action :).

CameronBornAndBred
03-13-2008, 08:21 AM
Growing up in Durham, every room in Hope Valley Elementary school had a class watching the games on TV. On that Friday, we knew that no work was going to be done. I think even the teachers who weren't fans knew it would be pointless to try to keep the attention of a bunch of kids who knew that Duke, State or Carolina was playing. As the ACC tourney expanded, and the field of 64 opened up, people weren't as religious about it, but usually if one of the three local teams were playing, there would be a TV on and class canceled even in high school.
If Duke has an afternoon game nowadays, I will still take off work for it.

Indoor66
03-13-2008, 10:09 AM
Growing up in Durham, every room in Hope Valley Elementary school had a class watching the games on TV. On that Friday, we knew that no work was going to be done. I think even the teachers who weren't fans knew it would be pointless to try to keep the attention of a bunch of kids who knew that Duke, State or Carolina was playing. As the ACC tourney expanded, and the field of 64 opened up, people weren't as religious about it, but usually if one of the three local teams were playing, there would be a TV on and class canceled even in high school.

Yeah, but after Duke kept winning they burned the school down....:mad:

DevilCastDownfromDurham
03-13-2008, 10:30 AM
Born and raised in Durham and you'd better believe the ACC tournament was on in school every year. Sometimes a cool teacher would put it on or use it as a carrot to get us to do our work quickly (i.e. "if y'all finish up by noon we can watch the tournament for the rest of class"). More often it would be on in the teacher's lounge, the library, etc. and students would watch during lunch, free period, long "trips to the bathroom" etc. I still do everything I can to take that Friday off and have a bunch of people over for the games. Frankly, for me the NCAA's always seem a bit anti-climactic after the "real" tournament.

CLT Devil
03-13-2008, 10:51 AM
Growing up in Charlotte, the first Friday of the ACC tourney might as well have been a teacher work day at school. From about 6th grade all through HS we would have some sort of minimal assisgnment to do while we watched the games on TV. Every now and then there would be a teacher who wouldn't have the games on, and kids would moan and groan enough that we'd be allowed to go to another class and watch if interested.

The ACC was HUGE back then, and still is. I've got a lot of Tarhole friends that are playing hookie tomorrow...and their bosses completely understand and dont question it.

Also, I was one of a few Dukies at my school so I would either win big or lose big to Tarhole fans, as I was the sole target of their ribbing and bets.

Let the games begin!