Duke Blue Devils
From Duke Wiki
Duke University's 26 varsity sports teams, known as the Blue Devils, compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The name comes from the French Chasseurs Alpins soldiers in World War I that wore a distinctive blue uniforms with flowing capes and berets. For this reason, they were nicknamed "les Diables Bleus" or "Blue Devils."[1]
Duke's teams have won eight NCAA team national championships. The women's golf team has won four (1999, 2002, 2005 and 2006), the men's basketball team has won three (1991, 1992, and 2001), and the men's soccer team won a championship in 1986. Duke's major historic rival has been the Tar Heels of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, especially in basketball (see "UNC-Duke rivalry").
In the past ten years, Duke has finished in the top 30 every year in the NACDA Director's Cup, an overall measure of an institution's athletic success. Most recently, Duke finished eighth in 2006 and fifth in 2005.[2][3] Duke has the smallest undergraduate enrollment of any institution that has been in the top 35 the past two years. Furthermore, Duke is the only school besides Stanford that has finished in the top ten in the past two years that has fewer than 15,000 undergraduates.
Duke teams that have been ranked in the top ten nationally in the 2000's include men's and women's basketball, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's lacrosse, women's field hockey, and men's and women's golf. Eight of these teams were ranked either first or second in the country during 2004-5.[4] Overall, 94% of Duke's varsity athletes graduate, the highest percentage of any Division I school.[5]
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[edit] History of the mascot
As World War I ended, Duke's Board of Trustees, then called the "Trinity College Board of Trustees," lifted their quarter century ban of football on campus leading to an interest in naming the athletic teams.[6] The team was then known as the Trinity Eleven, the Blue and White, or the Methodists (as opposed to the Baptists of nearby rival Wake Forest University). Because of the ambiguity, the student newspaper, the Trinity Chronicle (now called The Chronicle) launched a campaign to create a new mascot. Nominations for a new team name included Catamounts, Grizzlies, Badgers, Dreadnaughts, and Captains. The Trinity Chronicle editor narrowed the many nominations down to those that utilized the school colors of dark blue and white. The narrowed list consisted of Blue Titans, Blue Eagles, Polar Bears, Blue Devils, Royal Blazes, and Blue Warriors. None of the nominations proved to be a clear favorite, but the name Blue Devils elicited criticism that could potentially engender opposition on campus. That year, the football season passed with no official selection.
During the 1922-1923 academic year, campus student leaders and the editors of the two other student publications, The Archive and The Chanticleer, decided that the newspaper staff should decide the name on their own because the nomination process had proved inconclusive. Editor-in-Chief William H. Lander and Managing Editor Mike Bradshaw began referring to the athletic teams as the Blue Devils. Though the name was not officially used that year, no opposition to the name arose (surprising many). The Chronicle's staff continued to use the name and eventually, “Blue Devils” caught on.
[edit] Men’s basketball
| Retired basketball jerseys[7] | ||
|---|---|---|
| Number | Player | Year |
| 10 | Dick Groat | 1952 |
| 43 | Mike Gminski | 1980 |
| 24 | Johnny Dawkins | 1986 |
| 35 | Danny Ferry | 1989 |
| 25 | Art Heyman | 1990 |
| 32 | Christian Laettner | 1992 |
| 11 | Bobby Hurley | 1993 |
| 33 | Grant Hill | 1994 |
| 44 | Jeff Mullins | 1994 |
| 31 | Shane Battier | 2001 |
| 22 | Jason Williams | 2003 |
| 4 | J.J. Redick* | 2007 |
| 23 | Shelden Williams* | 2007 |
| * indicates announced future retirement | ||
Duke men's basketball is one of the best-known teams in college sports, and its rivalry with North Carolina is similarly praised. The fourth winningest college basketball program of all-time, the team's success has been outstanding over the past 25 years under coach Mike Krzyzewski (often simply called 'Coach K').
Duke has won three NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championships and been in 12 Final Fours. Seventy-one players have been drafted in the NBA Draft. Additionally, Duke has had an Academic All-American on the team fourteen years. Duke has 16 ACC tournament championships (1960, 1963, 1964, 1966, 1978, 1986, 1988, 1992, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006), the most of any team in the ACC. Duke also has won the regular season 18 times (1954, 1958, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1986, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2006). [8] Duke is second, behind only UCLA, in total weeks ranked as the number one team in the nation with 110 weeks.
[edit] Coaches
Former coaches that coached at least five years include: Wilbur Wade Card (1906-12) - first coach of program; Eddie Cameron (1929-42) - namesake of Cameron Indoor Stadium; Gerry Gerald (1943-50); Harold Bradley (1951-59) - coached legend Dick Groat; Vic Bubas (1960-69) - led team to two Final Four’s and a runner-up award, coached Duke greats Art Heyman, Jeff Mullins and Bob Verga; Bill Foster (1975-80) – took team to National Championship game and an Elite Eight, coached Jim Spanarkel and Mike Gminski.
National Coach of the Year honors for Duke Coaches include Bill Foster (1978) and Mike Krzyzewski (1986, 1989, 1991, 1992, 2000). ACC Coach of the Year honors include Harold Bradley (1959), Bill Foster (1978), Vic Bubas (1963, 1964, 1966), and Mike Krzyzewski (1984, 1986, 1997, 1999, 2000).
[edit] Players
National players of the year honors include Art Heyman (1963), Johnny Dawkins (1986), Danny Ferry (1989), Christian Laettner (1992), Elton Brand (1999), Shane Battier (2001), Jason Williams (2001, 2002), and J.J. Redick (2006). ACC players of the year include Art Heyman (1963), Jeff Mullins (1964), Steve Vacendak (1966), Mike Gminski (1979), Danny Ferry (1988, 1989), Christian Laettner (1992), Grant Hill (1994), Elton Brand (1999), Shane Battier (2001), and J.J. Redick (2005, 2006). ACC rookies of the year include Jim Spanarkel (1976), Mike Gminski (1977), Gene Banks (1978), and Chris Duhon (2001).
[edit] Chronological History
adapted from Duke University Archives[9]
- 1906 - Wilbur Wade Card, Trinity College's Athletic Director and a member of the Class of 1900, introduced the game of basketball to Trinity. The January 30 issue of The Trinity Chronicle headlined the new sport on its front page. Trinity's first game ended in a loss to Wake Forest, 24-10. The game was played in the Angier B. Duke Gymnasium, later known as The Ark.
- 1920 - The Trinity team won its first title, the state championship, by beating the North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering (now NC State) 25 to 24. Earlier in the season they had beaten the University of North Carolina 19-18 in the first match-up between the two schools.
- 1930 - Bill Werber, Class of '30, became Duke's first All-American in basketball. The Gothic-style West Campus opened, with a new gym, later to be named for Coach Card.
- 1940 - The Indoor Stadium was opened. Initially it was referred to as an "Addition" to the gymnasium. Part of its cost was paid for with the proceeds from the Duke football team's appearance in the 1938 Rose Bowl. In 1972 it would be named for Eddie Cameron, head coach from 1929 to 1942.
- 1951 - Dick Groat became the first Duke player to be named National Player of the Year.
- 1954 - Duke left the Southern Conference to become a charter member of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
- 1963 - The Duke team under Vic Bubas made its first appearance in the Final Four, losing 74-71 to Loyola in the semifinal. The next year, Bubas' team reached the national title game, losing to the Bruins of UCLA, who claimed 10 titles in the next 12 years.
- 1974 - The basketball program got victory number 1000, making Duke the eighth school in NCAA history to reach that figure.
- 1978 - In a stunning turnaround, Coach Bill Foster's Blue Devils, who had gone 2-10 in the ACC the previous year, won the conference tournament and went on to the NCAA championship game, where they fell to Kentucky. Mike Giminski ('80) and Jim Spanarkel ('79) ran the floor.
- 1981 - Mike Krzyzewski became head coach.
- 1988-92 - Coach K's teams made the Final Four in 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, and 1992. For a while, some commentators took to calling it "The Duke Invitational."
- 1991 - NCAA Championship #1
- 1992 - NCAA Championship #2
- 2001 - NCAA Championship #3. Coach K was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
- 2003 - Duke won the ACC tournament for an unprecedented fifth straight year (1999-2003).
[edit] Coach K era
Coach K has had unprecedented success since obtaining the coaching reign in 1981. His leadership has propelled the Duke Men’s Basketball team into the national spotlight and proved vital as he was selected to coach the United States national basketball team, which includes the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Some of his Duke teams’ accomplishments include: the only team to win three national championships since the NCAA Tournament field was expanded to 64 teams in 1985; ten Final Fours in the last 20 years as well as five in a row from 1988 to 1992; ACC Tournament Championships five years in a row from 1999 to 2003; twenty 20-win seasons in the past 22 years; number 1 rankings in 13 of the past 20 seasons; nine straight Sweet 16 appearances (ongoing); seven players named Naismith College Player of the Year in the last 20 years; eight National Defensive Players of the Year; twenty AP All-Americans.
Former Duke stars such as Grant Hill, Danny Ferry, Christian Laettner, Elton Brand, Shane Battier, Carlos Boozer, Chris Duhon, Mike Dunleavy and Jason Williams have gone on to play in the NBA after Coach K’s tutelage. Many of Coach K's assistants, such as Mike Brey, Tommy Amaker, Quin Snyder, and Jeff Capel, have become head basketball coaches at major universities.
[edit] Football
The football team has been one of the least successful football programs in Division I-A over the past ten years, and was unable to beat any other ACC team in 2005. However, it has not always been this way.
The most famous Duke football season came in 1938, when Wallace Wade was head coach and the "Iron Dukes" were born. Wade shocked the college football world by leaving Alabama for Duke in 1930, later rationalizing the move by saying that Duke shared his belief that a school should provide its athletes with a strong academic background. Wade's success at Alabama (three national championships) translated well to Duke's program, most notably in 1938, when his "Iron Dukes" went unscored upon the entire regular season. Duke reached the national championship game, their first Rose Bowl appearance, where they lost 7-3 when University of Southern California scored a touchdown in the final minute of the game on a pass from a second string quarterback to a third string tight end. Wade's Blue Devils lost another Rose Bowl to Oregon State in 1942, this one held at Duke's home stadium in Durham, North Carolina due to Pearl Harbor.
The football program also had a string of successful years in the late 1980's when the team was coached by the now legendary Steve Spurrier. Spurrier lead the Blue Devils to three consecutive winning seasons from 1987-1989, culminating with the Blue Devils sharing the ACC title in 1989 and playing in the All-American Bowl, where the Blue Devils lost to Texas Tech.
The team also rose to prominance in 1994, the first season under coach Fred Goldsmith. The team raced out to an 8-1 record, and was briefly ranked as high as #13 in the country before losing the last two games of the season 24-23 to North Carolina St. and 41-40 to arch-rival North Carolina. The 1994 team played in the program's first New Years Day Bowl game since 1962, falling to Wisconsin 34-21 in the Hall Of Fame Bowl, now know as the Outback Bowl.
Duke is consistently ranked at or near the top of the list of Division I-A schools which graduate nearly all of their football players. Duke has topped the list 12 years, earning it the most Academic Achievement Awards of any university. Notre Dame has been honored six times, while Boston College and Northwestern have won the award four times each.[10]
[edit] Women's Golf
While the men's basketball team gets the most press, the women's golf team has recently been the most successful team on campus. In the 2000-2005 seasons, Duke's head-to-head record was 796-45-3, a winning percentage of .945.[11] The team won national championships in 1999, 2002, 2005, and 2006, as well as 10 consecutive ACC championships from 1995-2005. A number of successful professional golfers have gone through Duke's program. Jenny Chuasiriporn and Brittany Lang finished as runner-ups in the U.S. Women's Open while still undergraduates in 1998 and 2006, respectively.
[edit] ACC Athletes of the Year
The following Duke athletes have been honored as ACC Athletes of the Year. The men’s award, the Anthony J. McKelvin Award, began in 1954. The women’s award, the Mary Garber Award, began in 1980.
| Male Athlete of the Year | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Athlete | Sport |
| 1954 | Joel Shankle | Track & Field |
| 1956 | Dave Sime | Track & Field/Basketball |
| 1960 | Mike McGee | Football |
| 1963 | Art Heyman | Basketball |
| 1964 | Jeff Mullins | Basketball |
| 1988 | Danny Ferry | Basketball |
| 1989 | Danny Ferry | Basketball |
| 1990 | Clarkston Hines | Football |
| 1991 | Christian Laettner | Basketball |
| 1992 | Christian Laettner | Basketball |
| 1999 | Elton Brand | Basketball |
| 2001 | Shane Battier | Basketball |
| 2006 | J.J. Redick | Basketball |
| Female Athlete of the Year | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Athlete | Sport |
| 1998 | Vanessa Webb | Tennis |
| 2003 | Alana Beard | Basketball |
| 2004 | Alana Beard | Basketball |
[edit] All-Americans
There have been numerous All-Americans in Duke University history. As of March 2006, 307 athletes have been honored 469 times as All-Americans.[12] In men's sports, this status has been achieved 297 times by 204 athletes. In women's sports, it has occurred 172 times by 103 athletes. The breakdown for men's sports is as follows (times, number of different athletes): baseball (13, 8); basketball (55, 31); cross country (3, 2); fencing (9, 5); football (60, 53); golf (12, 9); lacrosse (57, 37); soccer (42, 28); swimming and diving (3, 3); tennis (26, 15); track and field (17, 13). The breakdown for women's sports is as follows (times, number of different athletes): basketball (14, 8); cross country (8, 6); fencing (3, 2); field hockey (19, 12); golf (31, 16); lacrosse (23, 11); rowing (5, 3); soccer (10, 8); swimming and diving (1, 1); tennis (36, 22); track and field (15, 9); volleyball (7, 5).
[edit] Olympians
| Duke Olympians [13] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Athlete | Sport | Location | Country | Medal/Note |
| Joel Shankle | Track & Field | 1956 Melbourne | United States | Bronze in 110 Hurdles |
| Dave Sime | Track & Field | 1960 Rome | United States | Silver in 100 Meters |
| Jeff Mullins | M Basketball | 1964 Tokyo | United States | Team Won Gold |
| Bob Wheeler | Track & Field | 1972 Munich | United States | Semifinals in 1500 run |
| Al Buehler* | Track & Field | 1972 Munich | United States | Team Manager |
| Tate Armstrong | M Basketball | 1976 Montreal | United States | Team Won Gold |
| Cameron Hall | M Basketball | 1976 Montreal | Canada | Team Placed 4th |
| Nancy Hogshead | Swimming | 1980 Moscow | United States | United States Boycotted Games |
| Nancy Hogshead | Swimming | 1984 Los Angeles | United States | 3 Gold Medals and 1 Silver Medal |
| Dan Meagher | M Basketball | 1984 Los Angeles | Canada | Team Placed 4th |
| Tom Kain | Soccer | 1984 Los Angeles | United States | Injured, Did Not Compete |
| Bert Govig | Wrestling | 1984 Los Angeles | United States | Injured, Did Not Compete |
| Al Buehler* | Track and Field | 1984 Los Angeles | United States | Team Manager |
| Al Buehler* | Track and Field | 1988 Seoul | United States | Team Manager |
| Christian Laettner | M Basketball | 1992 Barcelona | United States | Team Won Gold |
| Mike Krzyzewski* | M Basketball | 1992 Barcelona | United States | Assistant Coach, Team Won Gold |
| John Moore | Rowing | 1992 Barcelona | United States | 8th in Men's Pair |
| Randy Jones | Bobsled | 1994 Lillehammer | United States | 13th in 2-Man |
| Grant Hill | M Basketball | 1996 Atlanta | United States | Team Won Gold |
| Curt Clausen | Track & Field | 1996 Atlanta | United States | 50th in 20k Race Walk |
| Leslie Marx | Fencing | 1996 Atlanta | United States | Top 16 in Epee |
| Horace Holden | Canoe/Kayak | 1996 Atlanta | United States | 11th in 2-Man Whitewater Slalom |
| Will Martin | Yachting | 1996 Atlanta | United States | 23rd in Single-Handed Dinghy |
| Carla Overbeck* | W Soccer | 1996 Atlanta | United States | Team Won Gold |
| Liz Tchou* | Field Hockey | 1996 Atlanta | United States | Team Placed 5th |
| Randy Jones | Bobsled | 1998 Nagano | United States | 5th in 4-Man |
| Crawford Palmer | M Basketball | 2000 Sydney | France | Team Won Silver |
| Greg Newton | M Basketball | 2000 Sydney | Canada | Team Placed 7th |
| Curt Clausen | Track and Field | 2000 Sydney | United States | 22nd in 50k Race Walk |
| Evan Whitfield | M Soccer | 2000 Sydney | United States | Team Placed 4th |
| Vanessa Webb | W Tennis | 2000 Sydney | Canada | Competed in Doubles |
| Carla Overbeck | W Soccer | 2000 Sydney | United States | Team Won Silver |
| Lynda Blutreich* | Track & Field | 2000 Sydney | United States | 11th in Javelin Qualifying |
| Randy Jones | Bobsled | 2002 Salt Lake City | United States | Silver in 4-Man |
| Curt Clausen | Track & Field | 2004 Athens | United States | 32nd in 50k Race Walk |
| Carlos Boozer | M Basketball | 2004 Athens | United States | Team Won Bronze |
| Jilian Schwartz | Track & Field | 2004 Athens | United States | Competed in Pole Vault |
| Gail Goestenkors* | W Basketball | 2004 Athens | United States | Assistant Coach, Team Won Gold |
| Randy Jones | Bobsled | 2006 Torino | United States | His Fourth Olympics |
Note: * indicates Duke coaches at time of participation in Olympics
[edit] External links
[edit] Notes
- ↑ King, William E. Why a Blue Devil?. The Duke Dialogue. 28 Feb 1992.
- ↑ Sports Academy Directors' Cup (2006). National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics. 29 June 2006.
- ↑ Sports Academy Directors' Cup (2005). National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics. 2005.
- ↑ Duke Athletics: Rankings. GoDuke.com. URL accessed 6 Jun 2006.
- ↑ Colgate ranks highly in NCAA's new academic measurement. Office of Communications and Public Relations. 4 Mar 2005.
- ↑ King, William E. Why a Blue Devil?. The Duke Dialogue. 28 Feb 1992.
- ↑ Retired Jerseys. D'Amico Information Systems, LLC. URL accessed 6 Jun 2006.
- ↑ ACC Champions. Accessed on 29 June 2006.
- ↑ Above the Rim: Chronology. Duke University Archives. URL accessed 7 Jun 2006.
- ↑ SMU Receives 2006 AFCA Academic Achievement Award. American Football Coaches Association. 2006.
- ↑ Golf-first ranking. Golf Digest. Sept 2005.
- ↑ Duke University All American's. Goduke.com. URL accessed 30 June 2006.
- ↑ All-Time Olympians. Goduke.com URL accessed 30 Jun 2006.
