Originally Posted by
jimsumner
The specific incident I recall was in the spring of 1969, my freshman season. It wasn't actually an NCAA game but rather one of those barnstorming games played by seniors after the end of the season. This one was in Duke Indoor Stadium and Claiborne was one of the participants. At one point a young man, middle-school age, perhaps high-school clearly yelled at Claiborne "go home n****. He was sitting alongside a woman I presumed to be his mother.
Now this was not a game that was part of the regular-season ticket package and I'm sure many of the fans were not regular attendees and many likely were not Duke fans.
But this happened no more than 10 feet away from me. I very loudly suggested to the young man something along the lines of "no, you go home," perhaps accompanied by a common but vulgar hand gesture.
They left.
I can't remember much of what I did last week but I vividly remember this. Seared in my memory.
My first game at DIS, aka Cameron was Duke versus Alabama, December 1968. Claiborne was the only black player on either team.
Looking at Duke's schedule the only teams during Buddy Womble and my tenures at Duke that might have put five black players on the court at the same time would have been Michigan, Dayton, perhaps Penn.
I don't remember that but I do recall an international track meet at Wade between a U.S. team and a Pan-African team. No surprise that a lot of the U.S. athletes were African Americans. A group of African Americans in the stands, many of whom appeared to be around college age, held up a sign keeping a running score that read something like "Sons of Africa" versus "Sons of Europe." It seemed relatively good-natured.
But these were pretty tense times to attend college. The Vietnam War raged, the Kent State shootings took place during my sophomore year and George Wallace running for president bookended my Duke years.