The Duke Law School team, circa 1980

[DevilHorse]

I can toss in a lateral that Terri Chili was at the Fuqua School of Business next door during that time period (Graduate of 1982?!). (might have been a stealth recruit)
However, it is quite possible that he enrolled in the Duke Business School, but graduated from the Fuqua School of Business because it was 'Named' during that time period.
I know, doesn't count for the question. But I digress..

Larry
DevilHorse

[jimsumner]

Vince Taylor '82 played for two seasons with the Knicks. Didn't score as much as Melchionni, though. He's now an assistant to Johnny D. at UCF.

Checking the alumni register, Scott Goetsch '79 JD '82 was in law school in 1980. Gminski's backup, so he would be familiar with his moves. If there were three all-conference players in addition to Marin and Melchionni, Goetsch wouldn't start, but would be a pretty decent sixth man.

Taylor only played 31 games in one season. Lots of guys didn't meet that 4,000-point threshold, Mark Alarie, Roshown McLeod, Kenny Dennard, Mark Crow, Tate Armstrong, Joe Kennedy, Marty Nessley, David Henderson, way too many others to mention.

I'm pretty sure the late Doug Kistler had the briefest NBA career of any former Duke player. Kistler played 13 minutes in five games for the 1961-'62 Knicks, scoring eight points.

I'm pretty sure Pete Kramer became a lawyer but I have no idea where he went to law school. He finished at Duke in 1975 so not sure if the timeline works anyway.

[jimmymax]

This thread reminded me of the book The Secret Game which I really enjoyed. I'm sure it's been discussed on the boards before, I can't recall. I probably commented.

https://northcarolinahistory.org/enc...-game-of-1944/

[gep]

This weekend we are burying the ashes of my father Paul Carrington, a long-time Duke law professor and actually Dean of the school from 1978-1988. He was 90 years old when he died in August and had been quite infirm the past several years. He had a good innings and so his death is sad but definitely not a tragedy. I'm quite okay and, in fact, as perhaps others have found, the death of a superannuated parent has allowed me to reengage with the memory of who he used to be when I knew him best...and that's actually quite nice. All that's an aside, however, to a note we got from another Duke law professor:

"Early in his tenure, (Paul) sought additional basketball tickets for the Dean’s Office to use when alumni were passing through Durham. The Athletic Director resisted to which Paul issued a challenge. Duke athletics would make available 4 Cameron seats if the law school team selected by Paul beat Duke’s starting five. Paul mentioned in making the challenged that two of the law school’s team members had a combined 14 years of NBA experience and the other three had garnered all conference recognitions before entering law school. The game was never played; the law school got the tickets."

Question A: Who were the NBA players at the law school?
Question B: Who were the all-conference honorees?

I know the answer to A but not B. FWIW, beyond these two, there are at least two other Duke bball greats who went on to get a Duke law degree.

I'm so very sorry for your loss. I don't have any earlier Duke basketball info, but I did relate to your comments about your dad. My dad passed at 94, and he really had a good, long, experience-filled life. I also find myself remembering him when we knew each other best. Nice...

[johnb]

This weekend we are burying the ashes of my father Paul Carrington, a long-time Duke law professor and actually Dean of the school from 1978-1988. He was 90 years old when he died in August and had been quite infirm the past several years. He had a good innings and so his death is sad but definitely not a tragedy. I'm quite okay and, in fact, as perhaps others have found, the death of a superannuated parent has allowed me to reengage with the memory of who he used to be when I knew him best...and that's actually quite nice. All that's an aside, however, to a note we got from another Duke law professor:

"Early in his tenure, (Paul) sought additional basketball tickets for the Dean’s Office to use when alumni were passing through Durham. The Athletic Director resisted to which Paul issued a challenge. Duke athletics would make available 4 Cameron seats if the law school team selected by Paul beat Duke’s starting five. Paul mentioned in making the challenged that two of the law school’s team members had a combined 14 years of NBA experience and the other three had garnered all conference recognitions before entering law school. The game was never played; the law school got the tickets."

Question A: Who were the NBA players at the law school?
Question B: Who were the all-conference honorees?

I know the answer to A but not B. FWIW, beyond these two, there are at least two other Duke bball greats who went on to get a Duke law degree.

I’m not a lawyer, but I play with lawyers on weekends. In this case, we don’t know the exact meaning of “early in his tenure” and “law school team.” Given that it’s a recollection, based on hearsay, he could have made that request at any time he had a leadership position. The request seems more likely to have gotten denied after about 1985–were there sellouts in 82?

More important, if I’m creating a “law school team,” without anyone calling me on the rules, I’d probably include every player who was currently enrolled or had graduated, who’d ever gone to a single law school class (perhaps from the business school), who’d been accepted to the law school but did something else (like Spanarkel), as well as guys like Snyder and Bilas, who may not have enrolled yet but who had likely already planned their enrollment as they considered taking the Duke assistant jobs (and maybe even when they were undergrads). If you stretch into the late 80’s, the Duke law team would be facing some stiff competition, but then again, the point wasn’t to play the game but to show the connection between bball, and the professional schools, a connection that K has deepened, I think, especially through the biz school.

Of course, if I’d ever had a senior admin/academic role at Duke, I’d definitely have asked for the tickets so that I could go to all the games. A separate argument would be that those visiting alums (or whoever I’d bring in my admin role) would be getting encouraged to donate to my place, but they’d likely also take a look at the Iron Dukes.

Anyway, I bet it was nice to hear these different recollections—sorry for the loss, but it does sound like he lived a full life.

[Spanarkel]

"Yes, I've done well at Merrill Lynch, and I enjoy calling a few March Madness games every spring.
My only regret in life was being a teammate of Mike O'Koren at Hudson Catholic."

[Indoor66]

"Yes, I've done well at Merrill Lynch, and I enjoy calling a few March Madness games every spring.
My only regret in life was being a teammate of Mike O'Koren at Hudson Catholic."

You were always the best.

[chrishoke]

This thread reminded me of the book The Secret Game which I really enjoyed. I'm sure it's been discussed on the boards before, I can't recall. I probably commented.

https://northcarolinahistory.org/enc...-game-of-1944/

Thanks for that. I just downloaded the book and look forward to reading it.

[rasputin]

Gary Melchionni (Lee's dad) is in fact the second one, and I think that he was also in the DLS Class of 1980. He was nowhere near the player that Marin was, but he did play some NBA games...which I believe is more than anyone else on the 1979-1980 Duke team (besides Gminski) can say. He was only 29 years old when he graduated.

Gary was a classmate of mine, Duke Law class of 1981.

[Spanarkel]

I found this blurb on the Duke School of Law website from a 1983 graduate, but so far it hasn't helped me at all with this search:

"I played intramural basketball in college, so when I went to law school I decided I’d love to do it at Duke. I signed up for the law school team and all the first years were put together as a B team,” he said. “I found out why [the others] were on the A team. A lot of them were former college basketball players for Princeton, UCLA, or NC State.”

[Spanarkel]

I found this blurb on the Duke School of Law website from a 1983 graduate, but so far it hasn't helped me at all with this search:

"I played intramural basketball in college, so when I went to law school I decided I’d love to do it at Duke. I signed up for the law school team and all the first years were put together as a B team,” he said. “I found out why [the others] were on the A team. A lot of them were former college basketball players for Princeton, UCLA, or NC State.”

[Tripping William]

I found this blurb on the Duke School of Law website from a 1983 graduate, but so far it hasn't helped me at all with this search:

"I played intramural basketball in college, so when I went to law school I decided I’d love to do it at Duke. I signed up for the law school team and all the first years were put together as a B team,” he said. “I found out why [the others] were on the A team. A lot of them were former college basketball players for Princeton, UCLA, or NC State.”

There was truth to this in the subsequent decade. For example, I played intramural ball a handful of times against a guy who played guard for 16-seed Princeton the year they almost beat 1-seed Georgetown in the R64.

[duke79]

This weekend we are burying the ashes of my father Paul Carrington, a long-time Duke law professor and actually Dean of the school from 1978-1988. He was 90 years old when he died in August and had been quite infirm the past several years. He had a good innings and so his death is sad but definitely not a tragedy. I'm quite okay and, in fact, as perhaps others have found, the death of a superannuated parent has allowed me to reengage with the memory of who he used to be when I knew him best...and that's actually quite nice. All that's an aside, however, to a note we got from another Duke law professor:

"Early in his tenure, (Paul) sought additional basketball tickets for the Dean’s Office to use when alumni were passing through Durham. The Athletic Director resisted to which Paul issued a challenge. Duke athletics would make available 4 Cameron seats if the law school team selected by Paul beat Duke’s starting five. Paul mentioned in making the challenged that two of the law school’s team members had a combined 14 years of NBA experience and the other three had garnered all conference recognitions before entering law school. The game was never played; the law school got the tickets."

Question A: Who were the NBA players at the law school?
Question B: Who were the all-conference honorees?

I know the answer to A but not B. FWIW, beyond these two, there are at least two other Duke bball greats who went on to get a Duke law degree.

Very sorry to hear about your Dad. My condolences to you and your siblings and other family members. I had the privilege to be a student at Duke Law School from 1980 to 1983, when your father was the dean. Unfortunately, I did not have him as my first year professor for civil procedure ("civ pro" in the vernacular of law students). I believe he just taught the "small section" of civ pro that year (80/81) and most of the other first year students had another professor for that course. Your father was one of the leading legal scholars in the country in the area of federal civil procedure. He had a long, distinguished and productive career as a scholar, professor and dean. He undoubtedly had a major impact on the quality, reputation and increased visibility of the law school around the country and we all owe him a large debt of gratitude.

I never heard that story about the season tickets to the basketball games but it was a brilliant move on your dad's part! I do remember Scott Goetsch being at the law school (class of '82, I believe) and there were some other good former college b-ball players but I'm not sure the law school team would have been beating the Duke varsity team during that period. LOL.

Again, my thoughts go out to you and your family members!