Duke Blue Planet BLOG

Imagine getting a dozen 18-22 year-old college athletes to don cowboy hats and western-style gear and pose for a photograph. Imagine asking one of them to, tuxedo-clad, lay across a piano. Imagine convincing Coach K to wear a Duke Blue judge’s robe and pretend to preside over a courtroom. Heck, imagine asking any of them to sit still for three hours. Each of these feats has been both attempted and accomplished by Mickie Krzyzewski in her 26 years of involvement with the production of the annual Duke Basketball team poster. 
  
In 1980, the Krzyzewskis’ first year at Duke, Tom Mickle’s Duke Sports Information Department came up with an innovative idea to create an atypical team poster, featuring the student-athletes out of uniform and portraying them as people rather than just basketball players. That year’s poster, “A Portrait of Champions,” featured the players in white tuxedos and the coaching staff in black, positioned on an elegant staircase. When Mickie heard that this would be taking place, she was immediately interested and, given her background in the arts, believed that she could be helpful.  
 
Her interest led her to attend the poster shoot itself and, while she remained quiet, her mind reeled with suggestions to improve the shot. At that time, she did not want to overstep any boundaries or insult the expertise of those conducting the shoot. But, after she had gone home that day, she continued to feel like this was something with which she could help. While she did and still does love the 1980-1981 poster and loved the Sports Information Department’s concept, she kept thinking about how her suggestions, however seemingly subtle they may have been, would have made something good even better. Because she and Coach K had always agreed that they shared a career as a basketball coach, she decided to ask for a meeting with Tom Mickle.  
 
In her meeting, she told the Sports Information director that she felt like she could help and even offered some evidence to support her claim. She stood and walked over to the “Portrait of Champions” hanging on the wall and she pointed out the things that she would have added or changed. Mickle was impressed by her obviously keen eye and immediately put her in charge of the team poster. 
 
Mrs. K’s first poster was for the 1981-1982 team and was entitled “The Defense Never Rests,” referring to the aggressive man-to-man defense that her husband and the Duke staff wanted to instill in their team. Since the coaches were included in the early posters, this is the year that featured Coach K as the “judge with the blue robe on.” 
  
Through the years, the poster shoot and resulting poster has produced some of the great stories in Duke Basketball lore: 
  
*The 1984-1985 team was granted permission to boldly go where no man has gone before when their poster “The Right Stuff” was shot in the Museum of Life and Science’s space exhibit.  
  
*There was the 2002-2003 team’s “Duke Rocks” poster which proved to be the most challenging to shoot because of the setting. No, the players were not superimposed on those rocks, they were really there. In fact, the poster was shot in a rock quarry that produces the stones used to construct Duke’s characteristic mosaic building exteriors. 
  
*There was the 1986-1987 poster, “Taking Care of Business,” that had to be re-shot because Mrs. K had been out of town for the original photo shoot and the team had found themselves unable to behave. It is difficult to imagine that the likes of future NBA General Managers Billy King and Danny Ferry and Harvard Head Coach Tommy Amaker would act up. But they were young once too and, well, the cat was away. 
  
*There was one of the most artistically striking posters: 1989-1990′s “Red, White, and True Blue” that few are aware features the poster title and date written in Coach K’s handwriting. 
  
*And then, there was the notorious 1987-1988 poster, “Tradition,” that actually had to be burned in bulk because it was deemed illegal by the NCAA who stated that it contained too many corporate logos (A total of two — one on a pair of shoes pictured in the photo). If you have one of these, it is truly a limited-edition collector’s item.  
 
The most impressive thing about the now-27 years of the Duke Basketball annual poster tradition is how truly different they all are, each with its own individual look and theme, and each specifically created to match the personality of that particular team. 
 
Many teams produce a yearly team photo and often include a theme or saying for the year, but few possess the commitment to theme and really the artistic beauty of a Duke Basketball poster. The primary reason for this is the commitment Mickie Krzyzewski has put into the project over the years. As the team’s mom away from mom, she wants her boys to look good and goes through painstakingly long photo shoots and studies of proofs to ensure that they do.  
 
Nowadays, while Mickie is still very much involved, it is Coach and Mickie’s daughter, Debbie, who is primarily in charge of the team poster. When asked how long Debbie has been involved with the poster, Mrs. K indicated that she could not remember a time when her daughters had not been involved, whether it was coming up with the theme, the location, or even just offering opinions on which photo best captured the team’s collective “look.”  
 
Debbie’s first lead effort with, “Old School,” is both appropriately titled for this team and, quite frankly, beautiful to look at. When the poster was unveiled to the team for the first time, there was an audible gasp heard from the players. The setting is a stunning example of the gothic architecture that is so readily associated with the Duke campus, the letter jackets and title allude to a commitment to the values that define the Duke Basketball tradition, and the faces of each member of the 2007-2008 team exude visible pride.  
 
Mrs. K has a difficult time identifying her “favorite” poster. If you ask her which one she likes the best, she will say, “This year’s”: the same response she gave last year, five years ago, ten years ago, and in 1983. What she does say is that the poster tradition has produced two primary things over the years: a sense of pride and an archive. “More than a standard team photo,” she says, “the poster reflects who these teams were and are. The poster has become such a tradition that it is something that the guys look forward to year to year. They are excited and cooperative. And they want theirs to be the best.” According to Mrs. K, this year, once again, it is.