I miss when the four ACC schools from the state of NC were all relevant, both in conference and nationally
My hope is this will be a nostalgic thread for days of yore. I hope this won't come across as a "get off my lawn" thread or "let's complain about how much better it used to be." Rather, it can be a place to reflect on the round robin ACC, home and home series with other P5 schools like Arizona and Michigan, our "rivalry" with Maryland, or whatever else might be near and dear to your hearts.
Honestly, what made me think about this was the "remember Terry Holland in the Food Lion commercials" comment a week or two ago.
Saturday afternoons used to be the Jefferson Pilot ACC double feature, at 1 and 3:30 (as best I recall). Not every Duke game was on TV in the 80s, but the ones that were had to be appointment television.
The ACC Tournament was Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Friday felt like a holiday, with four games starting at noon.
No one had ever heard of a "one and done," but every once in awhile players would go pro before their senior year. Not at Duke, of course, because we attracted players with different values.
Cutting my teeth on Duke basketball in the eighties, Coach K couldn't get over the hump and win the big one. Dean was the old guard. Lefty Jimmy V, Bobby Cremmins... Every game seemed loaded with meaning, emotion, and intensity.
I guess it is impossible to look at these things without contrasting them with the current state of the basketball universe, but my hope is that this thread will be a place to share memories and not to just trash the current NCAA environment.
Thanks in advance for participating. We have another off-season that feels much longer than it should be.
Let's go Duke!
I miss when the four ACC schools from the state of NC were all relevant, both in conference and nationally
Big Four Tournament.
I was just thinking that. I was born after the Dixie Classic, but I remember the Big Four Tournament. Wake was usually very tough in those. Just checking and they were only 10-12 in those, but won 4 of the Big Four Tournaments, including 3 in a row. They handed David Thompson and #1 ranked NC State their first loss in 35 games in 1975, but went just 2-10 in conference. Skip Brown, Rod Griffin and Jerry Schellenberg.
I miss reports of Nick Horvath dominating in summer pickup games.
Reynolds, Cole, Carmichael...heck even U Hall.
Being in the student section in the mid eighties when it surrounded the court (and even had a section above, if I recall correctly).
Being in Duke Indoor Stadium at 6:00 on a weekday evening (in the '60s), watching the freshmen Blue Devils game prior to the varsity team game (which began around 8:00).
Back in the day...it was the 60s, I was a kid watching Duke play basketball coached by Vic Bubas.
Bob Green
I remember back when I could easily name the starting five for each ACC school, and probably at least half their bench.
I came to grad school at Duke in '82. The administrative secretary complained to me how they had this losing b-ball coach who insisted on playing man-to-man when they obviously didn't have the talent to pull it off.
Of course things got better over the next few years years. But still not crazy like it is now. I still remember walking into Cameron and Coach K's office was there, door wide open. I stuck my head in and he and his assistants were pouring over newspaper articles, presumably reading about potential recruits. I probably couldn't get within 20 yards of him now.
Of course as a grad student all games were free. I would show up just before game time and walk in and sit under the basket and watch players like Ferry, Dawkins... Those were the days my friend.
Back in the day, you could see players in the now designated Cambridge Inn, that is, I think it's still there. They actually sat with each other and said hello to we mere plebeians.
Nothing incites bodily violence quicker than a Duke fan turning in your direction and saying 'scoreboard.'
April 1987. Part of the show he had a spinning song wheel and would play whatever came up. He dedicated a song to North Carolina's own Ava Gardner. And Nick Lowe opened.
I miss the late 1980s when everyone thought Coach K could take our team to the Final 4, but may never get a NCAA Championship.
~rthomas
I miss these things. If you know, you know.
S8933-2.jpg
I miss the smell of momeograph.
https://turtledove.fandom.com/wiki/M...ator%20process.
In the early 80's I worked for the Sports Information office. During the game I would keep stats and another guy would do the play-by-play - on a regular typewriter. At halftime I'd take the stats summary sheet and his pxp and run down through the crowd, push through the student section to a back room where we'd run off 50 copies of each on the mimeograph machine. I then ran them to the press room.
Basically, the reporters wrote the second half of their stories at halftime. This gave them time at the end of the game to do their story and adjust the length based on the column space they would have the next day.
Also, eating pregame meals with Bob Harris (the best), Dickie V, and whoever was broadcasting that night.
I think that was Cameron, not Page. I know I went to an Elvis show in Cameron about that time, where he had the wheel. Did some acoustic covers of the Dead. Also asked for a female drummer from the audience to join him on stage, and the friend I was with was exactly that - she BOLTED up to the stage and got to play a song with Elvis
I know not the gist of the thread, but fun to relive another type of 80s Cameron memory!
First game I ever went to was in the 70’s. I miss BOG, the air horns, tennis balls - and the skull caps with thermometers on them in the red mocking Lefty.