The week that was. And what a week it was.
Full disclosure. I’ve never actually watched a complete Gameday. I find many of ESPN’s talking heads to be insufferable blowhards in love with the sound of their own voice,’
But that’s men. And it isn’t the first time I’ve been out of touch with the zeitgeist.
And from that I can tell the Duke community held up its end of the bargain. Lots of Duke fans got up early on Saturday morning and brought their clever signs and cheers to a national TV audience.
That has to be a good thing.
And then Wallace Wade. I’ve never seen the old gal as energized as Saturday, the closest I’ve seen to the full Cameron experience.
Truth be told I’ve been to games at Duke with more fans. Back in the day when the concourse didn’t have all those buildings Duke could and did put temporary bleachers all around. Duke had a posted attendance of 51, 500 in 1971, my senior year, for a game against the Tar Heels that didn’t go well for the home team.
Duke actually had announced crowds of 57,500 and 56,500 for games against North Carolina and Choo-Choo Justice in 1949 and 1947 respectively. The Rose Bowl game had 56,000.
That’s a lot of temporary bleachers.
But that was before my time. And these games weren’t on national television, at night, with a full moon, perfect weather and light sticks or whatever the fans were using.
It was a tremendous atmosphere.
Until the game started.
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