There was a time when Duke and NC State had a football rivalry. With the exception of the war year of 1944 Duke and State played each other every season from 1924 through 2003.
This shouldn’t surprise anyone. The two schools are only about 25 miles apart. They were both in the Southern Conference for a quarter-century or so and both were founding members of the ACC in 1953.
There were some classic games, some shoot-outs, some defensive struggles, Ace Parker and Dick Christy and Roman Gabriel and Steve Jones and Ted Brown and Ben Bennett, Mike McGee and Bill Cowher, stunning last-second wins on both ends. We even had a 43-43 tie with an ending so controversial that Duke head coach Steve Spurrier was suspended for a game for complaining about a call.
How can you mess that up?
Enter the ACC, or more accurately the expanded ACC. When the league went to two divisions, the decision was made to split up the Big Four, Duke and North Carolina in the Coastal, NC State and Wake Forest in the Atlantic, a decision that had no geographical or historical logic. Duke and Wake Forest had an annual cross-over game, North Carolina and NC State the same.
Duke and State have played four times since 2003, four games between two teams in the same conference 25 miles apart. The last time State visited Duke was 2013, Dave Doeren’s first year in Raleigh. Duke won that game 38-20, with defensive back DeVon Edwards scoring three touchdowns, one on a kickoff return and two on interceptions.
Is that a rivalry?
Mike Elko was asked that question earlier this week.
“I think proximity creates rivalries. I think proximity creates rivalry because there's such a familiarity. Our guys know their guys. There's a connection through recruiting and there's a connection through playing each other in high school. This is probably the one thing to get on the grand stage for a second but like the conferences, keeping the conference a little bit more regional, like making sure that we keep in mind this part of football a little bit which is these games are a lot of fun for the kids.
“When they get to go and play the schools that are right down the road and the kids that they're going to bump into all spring and when they're out in Raleigh, and vice versa -- those things matter. I think anytime you have proximity, I think you add a little bit to the game for sure. So, I don't know that it's necessarily counting your rivals, or how many rivalry games you have. There's a little bit of an added meaning when you're playing the team that's 20 minutes down the road.”
With the divisions gone NC State, UNC and Wake were going to be Duke’s “primary” partners going forward, an arrangement that presumably will survive this most recent expansion.
What about this year?
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to JimSumnerSports to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.