First Krzyzewskiville And First Game

Photo : courtesy of Kimberly Reed '86

In March 1986, shortly before the Duke-UNC game, tents started popping up outside Cameron Indoor Stadium for the first time. Kimberly Reed '86 and several of her Mirecourt classmates came up with the idea of tenting while trying to decide when to line up for the Carolina game.

Rather than endure the usual wait in line for hours, Reed and her friends decided to pitch a tent next to the stadium. The concept caught on, and by game time seventy-five tents were up. NBC, which televised the game, featured the tenters on its evening news telecast. The first K-ville residents were rewarded with an 82-74 Duke victory.

The image comes from Reed's scrapbook, which she lent to University Archives in 2002.

Trinity College, which would become Duke University in 1924, played its first intercollegiate basketball game March 2, 1906. Trinity was host to Wake Forest College in the Angier B. Duke Gymnasium, later known as the "Ark" for its narrow walkway that forced students to enter "two by two."

Photo: Duke University Archives

The more experienced Wake Forest team won 24-10. The Trinity players had only learned the game from Coach Wilbur "Cap" Card in the weeks before the contest.

The Chronicle on March 6 reported that the game "was an unusually clean one from start to finish.... [D]efeat was due largely to the inexperience of the team...." Trinity ended its first season 2-3. Card coached the team for seven seasons to a record of 30-17.

--Tim Pyatt '81, University Archivist