ED VENIT
“Viking Guy” > Washington, DC
Duke ‘98, G’07 > phD in Biology
Background Info
I came to Duke in the Fall of 1994 as an undergraduate. I changed my major about six different times, finally settling on Biology in my junior year. I completely fell in love with Duke during my time as an undergrad, and when I graduated in 1998, I just couldn’t leave. So, I got a job on campus working first as a research assistant, then as an administrator. In the Fall of 2001, I started a PhD in Biology, studying under the same professor who had been my advisor in undergrad. My dissertation work explored division-of-labor systems in colony-forming marine animals, and I like to think that I contributed something to the general advancement of human knowledge. Just as I fell in love with Duke as an undergrad, I fell in love with Durham as a grad student. Both are incredibly special places. I finished up my PhD in the Spring of 2007, and I am now working as a consultant at an Advisory Board Company in Washington, DC.
Most Memorable Duke Game (Seen In Person)
Oh man, there have been so many! My favorite has to be my final game in Cameron as an undergrad, the 1998 UNC game. Duke (led by Wojo, Langdon, Brand and Battier) was #3 in the country, UNC (with Jamison, Carter, Cota and Haywood) was #1. The Crazies had been camping out for six weeks in some exceptionally miserable weather, and K-Ville was churned into a muddy morass. The anticipation had built, and we were psyched. And UNC came out and promptly stomped us for the first 28 minutes. With 11:38 to go, we were down by 17 and barely clinging to hope. Then something amazing started happening. Wojo fed Brand for a layup, then we got a defensive stop, then a three, then another layup, another stop, and so on. Suddenly, we had clawed our way back into the game. And as we crept closer and closer, the Crazies began to swell. This sound wasn’t like anything I’ve heard from the Crazies before or since — there were no distinct cheers, and there was no change between offense and defense. This was a just continuous, sustained, earth-shattering, guttural ROAR — a noise that was so all-encompassing that you literally could not hear yourself yelling into it. And is just didn’t stop, not even for timeouts. The Crazies were determined to throw every ounce of their being into crushing UNC. McLeod blew past Jamison for a layup to tie the game at 75-75, then Carrawell took the lead with a little floater in the lane with a minute to go. I thought my head might explode. Haywood bricked two free-throws in the final seconds, and then suddenly I found myself swept onto the court in a rush of humanity. It was one of the most ecstatic moments of my life.
Where did the concept of “Viking Guy” originate?
He just sort of happened. Viking Guy didn’t exist when I was an undergrad. I was just a regular Crazie. When I started grad school, my mom asked me to wear something on my head so that she could pick me out from the crowd on TV. I told her I had this shiny viking helmet left over from a Halloween costume, which should be pretty easy to pick out. I guess it worked. I later added the Wojo jersey in honor of my fellow 1998 classmate and a fake gold chain for no good reason at all. The sunglasses, of course, were necessary to preserve my anonymity and protect my secret identity as a mild-mannered grad student. That was the one rule for standing in the front row of the grad section: you needed to wear sunglasses just in case your advisor saw you on TV.
What motivated “Viking Guy” to be front and center leading the Crazies every game in Cameron?
Too much beer? Honestly, I don’t really know why or how it happened. I certainly didn’t set out to create Viking Guy or to be a Cameron ringleader. I just started showing up for game a few minutes before everyone else. Then I met Jeff Kovacs (“Mullet Man”), who is an absolute force of nature and a truly passionate heckler. The grad students lacked leadership in Cameron at that time, so we just sort of stepped in and filled the vacuum. It turned out to be a lot of fun, so we just kept doing it. We met a lot of terrific people and developed some lifelong friendships. Before we knew it, the whole experience had taken on a life of its own. Sitting here typing this, I still can’t really explain why we kept doing it. I guess it was just really, really fun. All of this, of course, taught me a valuable lesson: Never show up early for anything, or pretty soon you will find yourself on national television, wearing a ridiculous costume, telling the point guard from Butler that he looks like Smeagol.
Cameron In Three Words?
I’ll do it in five: “Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate” (“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here” — the inscription over the Gates of Hell in Dante’s Inferno)
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Duke Basketball In Three Words?
Not a chance
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