As a young boy, I spent my sick days home from school cozied up on the couch watching the official NCAA 1991 and 1992 Championship Videos, which chronicled Duke’s stellar runs through the NCAA Tournaments that I was too young to remember. But one thing I will certainly never forget is the titles of those two videos — Duke is King and Blue Reign.
As if the regal word “Duke” and the use of royal blue wasn’t enough, all of the magic and mystique associated with majestic kingdoms was easily conjured in my imagination by the two movie titles. Years later, I now find myself as one of many inhabitants of Duke’s Gothic Wonderland and the aura of the campus fuels my childhood thoughts of Duke as a kingdom.
Ask any Disney-loving youngster and you will soon discover that the most important part of a kingdom is its castle. A symbol of strength, resilience, grandeur and pride, the castle is the kingdom’s crown jewel. And while Duke’s Chapel may bear the closest physical resemblance to a castle for the University, its true castle stands in the hallowed and indiscrete Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Granted, the moats and buttresses are replaced with Krzyzewskiville tents and vintage steel rafters, Cameron Indoor nevertheless has been a stronghold for Duke Basketball over the past seven decades. Just ask any opponent that tries to assail the castle and defeat Duke on its home court. They quickly realize that the castle’s strength isn’t in its original 1940 construction of stone, brass and oak, but rather its loyal subjects — teamed with Coach K’s 13 uniformed men –to passionately defend it against any foe. These subjects, known as the Cameron Crazies, are deservingly heralded as the best fans in the country and have helped Duke defend its home court in 720 of 868 battles, including 168 of the past 181.
So how did the Cameron Crazies become the most acclaimed college basketball fans in the country? Their secret to success is the perfect combination of their perpetual passion, creativity, unwavering support and research they put into their opponents for every game.
The wild antics of the student body led the famous sportscaster Al Maguire to sport a pith helmet and whip, calling the place “a zoo” in a 1986 telecast. Costumes, posters, and props are commonplace among the crowd. In 2005, 266-pound UNC big man Sean May said of an incident with the Crazies, “A dude dressed up as me and he was following a Happy Meal on a fish hook. That had to be funniest. I’ll never forget that till the day I die.” Many opposing players, like May, are victims of the distractions caused by the playful harassment of the Crazies. Junior Dave McClure remarked, “Cameron has a way of constantly surprising you.”
The students also put their exceptional study skills to work in preparation for game time, digging up whatever info they can find on their opponents. Indiana’s D.J. White recalled the Crazies knowledge, saying, “They knew my real name. My real name is Dewayne. They knew my mother’s name, my father’s name. Somebody knew my girlfriend’s name. That threw me off. I don’t know how they knew that. It was weird.” The objective of the Crazies is to rattle their opponents with their wit, research and sheer loudness, and they are typically very successful.
The undying dedication of Duke’s most loyal faction is readily observable in their eagerness to weather the winter chill in the world’s most famous tent-city, Krzyzewskiville. The tradition of pitching a tent outside Cameron Indoor can be traced back the Bill Foster era of the late 1970s when students would campout overnight to be in the front of the student section. However it wasn’t until the mid-1980s that K-Ville became a regulated and administered campus activity. Every year since, the green lawn outside of Cameron Indoor has become colored with numerous tents, an undeniable sign to all passersby that the Crazies, as Gerald Henderson noted, “Take the game as seriously as we do.”
This year’s first tent for the March 8th matchup with North Carolina set its stakes in the ground on December 6th, approximately 93 days in advance of the game. This enthusiasm to help Coach K’s troops defend the home court propels the team to excellence. Sean Dockery understood the dedication and sacrifices of the tenters before the Maryland game in 2006, saying, “We saw the Crazies camping out. We just wanted to do this for them — they’re out there in the rain. Playing in front of them is a feeling so emotional I can’t explain it.” Traditionally, Coach K and members of the team will show their gratitude to the tenters each year with dozens of pizzas, photo-ops and conversations.
Yet, even the students that do not tent often wait in line for perhaps more than 24 hours for a choice spot in the student section. The ability for the Crazies to have prime-time seats (read: standing bleachers) is truly unique and sets Cameron apart from all other collegiate venues. The reservation of the seats closest to the court was in the original design of Duke Indoor Stadium by Horace Trumbauer in 1940. Although one of the smallest now, the Indoor Stadium was by far the largest ever built in the South at that time. NC State’s Reynolds Coliseum and UNC’s Carmichael Auditorium were later designed and built to resemble the atmosphere in Cameron. However, unlike our local rivals, Duke officials have opted against building a larger arena and allocating the courtside seats to high-paying boosters. The choice to stay true to the original design and prime placement of the students is a principle reason why Cameron Indoor has consistently been ranked among the top venues in all of sports.
ESPN’s Pat Forde understands this special position for the student body and its impact on creating Cameron’s electric environment. He wrote of Cameron as a “wonderfully quaint building where the home school buys into the wonderfully quaint notion that the student body deserves the best seats. And the student body responds by creating the best atmosphere in the game.” The ability for the students to be an arm’s reach away from the players and to make the court vibrate with stomping chants provides an atmosphere that is often replicated but never duplicated.
Indeed, the past couple decades have seen a rise in imitators of the Cameron Crazies. According to Dick Vitale, a TV analyst who has witnessed games in all of college basketball’s best venues, “The Cameron Crazies set the tone and are emulated throughout America.” Michigan State has the Izzone (named for Coach Tom Izzo), Illinois boasts the Orange Crush and Wisconsin has its Grateful Red. Although the names are equally distinctive, it is impossible to match the intimacy, tradition, authenticity and ingenuity that define Cameron and the Crazies. For example, one of the most widely used chants, “air ball,” was a Cameron original, created during a 1979 home game against UNC. Also, numerous student sections across the nation bounce up and down prior to tip-offs and produce a constant yell during every defensive possession – both hallmarks of the Crazies in cozy Cameron.
As a result of the Cameron energy, originality and resourcefulness, opponents are outmanned from the start of the game as they face the six Blue Devil starters. Coach K, who recently stated his goal of preserving Cameron as Duke’s home forever, has always accredited his team’s success to the strength and support of the Crazies, Duke’s sixth man. He stated, “The Cameron Crazies, for me, have always been a part of the team. I call them the Sixth Man and I think they give us unbelievable support in tough moments. They are funny. They create a music or atmosphere in Cameron that is conducive to having a great game. They are not there to watch the game. They are there to be a part of the game. They take the game to another level and then they take our team or a person to another level.”
The importance and responsibilities that Coach K assigns to his loyalists are eagerly accepted and passionately fulfilled. The result? Arguably the most anticipated, difficult and feared road game for opposing teams — “the toughest road game in America” according to USA Today — the hardest castle to beset. When the Crazies are on guard and Coach K’s charges take the court, the Blue Devils reign and Duke is king.
