This Just In – When I typed in the title for this column, my computer reacted. “Word (Not Responding)” It’s a shock, I know.
We’re getting ready for a UNC-Duke must-win matchup on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. and I am reflecting on my experience with this gold standard rivalry that captured my heart when I first landed in Chapel Hill in 1978 and has held it ever since.
Some people look back on their lives on New Year’s Eve and resolve to do this or that better in the new year. I suppose I do some of that, but this game each year triggers so many memories for me (almost entirely positive) that I cannot help but look back and appreciate the sustained level of excellence brought to us by our dearest rival, Mike Krzyzewski.
Try to imagine Luke Skywalker’s journey to becoming a Jedi Master without the epic conflict with Darth Vader. Impossible, right? As with Vader, the important character development was that Luke believed, despite all of his conflict with his father, that there was good in him and that he could still access it.
With a great story, we must have movement from darkness to enlightenment, so, he cut off Luke’s hand, tried repeatedly to electrocute him, but he came around eventually. Ahhh. Hollywood.
As fans, we’ve made Coach K out to be the bad guy and I’m sure he’s loved that over the years. He’s spoken often about his deep respect for Carolina, its coaches and for the enviable achievements of the program and its players.
Coach K’s “villainy” is limited to the athletic program. I’ve never looked at him as a person I wouldn’t want my kids to be around, for example. He’s not a chair-throwing, abusive person. He wouldn’t have lasted so long and achieved so much if he was a bully like that. He certainly had a reputation for a temper that he probably wished was better controlled, but I am confident that there’s a flip side to that which would scarcely find the light of day in media coverage.
Students whose parents are paying exorbitant amounts of money for tuition and housing will sleep outside in a tent for any given January to score tickets to the UNC-Duke game at Cameron Indoor Arena. There’s no explaining that. There’s no comparison with any other rivalry in sports.
What makes me wistful about this is that it feels like paying attention to this sort of thing harkens back to more innocent times…when it was okay and expected that we’d be consumed for the month of March by its nicknamed “Madness.”
Now, we seem to be staring down the barrel of actual madness. The most gigantic problem with that picture is that we aren’t certain of the one thing that makes a sports rivalry work: the rules. We always felt that Coach K (to our frustration) was better than anyone at working the refs…pressuring them to lean in his direction with calls.
Like a great litigator, Coach K could push hard, but when the call was made, he respected the authority of the refs. That display of respect is vital in our society and I miss our expectation of it…even from our most fire-breathing rival in sports or any other aspect of American life. We’re out of balance. It’s unnerving and scary.
I’m looking forward to Saturday’s game and the escape for a couple of hours from the day’s politics. I hope for a game free of controversial calls and full of great plays. I’m an optimist. Go Heels, Beat Dook!
(Featured image via Todd Melet/Chapel Hill Media Group)
Jean Bolduc is a freelance writer and the host of the Weekend Watercooler on 97.9 The Hill. She is the author of “African Americans of Durham & Orange Counties: An Oral History” (History Press, 2016) and has served on Orange County’s Human Relations Commission, The Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina, the Orange County Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, and the Orange County Schools’ Equity Task Force. She was a featured columnist and reporter for the Chapel Hill Herald and the News & Observer.
Readers can reach Jean via email – jean@penandinc.com and via Twitter @JeanBolduc
Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
Comments on Chapelboro are moderated according to our Community Guidelines