You’ve got all the graduation requirements down—you’ve driven backwards around the east campus circle, you’ve pulled an all-nighter at Perkins, you’ve danced to “Heart Vacancy” on every elevated surface in Durham, and you’ve eaten a lifetime supply of Mount Fuji sushi in a single semester… but have you made the ultimate sacrifice? Have you bled blue, painted your body blue, and watched your fingers turn blue on a bitterly cold winter night, all in the name of a school spirit? Here it is, beloved fans! Why you can’t call yourself a true Duke student until you’ve spent the night in K-Ville:
1. You get to take on the guise of the Cameron Crazie! With copious amounts of face paint, fuzzy blue hair, and spirit flowing out your fingertips, his story becomes yours. You and all the other exuberant characters that have ever held a spot in the student section (like Patrick King, the infamous “Speedo Guy”) become part of the tradition that ties together generations of Duke students.
Watch the video here!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PEXG0mZKcw
2. That uncle, the one who spends all of thanksgiving glued to the football game on television? You’re suddenly his favorite niece.
3. You get to say you did it! The bewildered looks and the “You did WHAT?!”s never grow old every time you casually drop “Oh yeah, I spent a month in a tent” into conversations with people who are not in tune with Duke Basketball culture.
4. The ridiculous stories. On top of your badge of honor, you have the stories that go along with it. Like returning early from Winter Break to set your tent up before everyone else got back… and before the snow had had a chance to melt. Or the time you spent an entire Tuesday night playing Jenga and belting 90s songs with your fellow comrades. And you can’t forget the time you were only granted a grace period after a tornado warning had been sent out at 4 AM, despite the fact that the shelter you created from a tarp, 3 traffic cones, and duct tape had flooded with water hours ago. (all true stories)
5. You can call Dominoes and ask them to “please deliver a pizza to #4 in K-Ville” and they know exactly where to go.
6. The incredible, energetic people you meet. You have the opportunity to meet people in your community that you very likely would have missed out on meeting any other way. I joined a tent in which I knew nobody and ended up with some of my most meaningful relationships at Duke. It’s impossible not to smile when so many happy, exuberant, excited people surround you!
7. The student section. All those incredible people I just talked about, they come inside with you! The reason that USA Today has called Duke “one of the toughest road games in the country” is because all these people squeezed in like a bunch of sardines create a force with which to be reckoned. You can’t just buy a front row ticket! That sacred space goes only to those who have sacrificed and earned that privilege.
8. All the face-paint possibilities. Need I say more?
9. You get to be in the presence of legends like Coach K, who became Division I’s “most winningest” coach after breaking the record of 903 wins! Not to mention the number of players drafted into the NBA. Kyrie Irving went #1 in the draft to Cleveland after his freshman year, despite an injury that only allowed him to play 11 season games!
10. Crazy Towel Guy. One of Cameron Stadium’s less intimidating legends, he never misses a game. With his pants buckled up past high his belly button and emblematic towel in hand, he above all others knows how to work the crowd!
11. Your front row seat at the UNC-Duke game is worth more than a super bowl ticket. And you get in for free.
12. Seeing those seven-foot skyscrapers we call basketball players from afar about campus, and feeling like your own sacrifice has somehow (perhaps minuscule… but still) contributed to the success of the team. And then you suddenly find yourself talking with one of them when he comes to visit your tent because your number in line is the same as the number sported on the back of his jersey. And because all players love their fans J http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvLWTqmUR8g
13. This is the stuff that college nostalgia is made of. The night of the UNC-Duke game was the best part of my freshman year. It was an incredible game in which we came back from a 16 point half-time deficit, and it was also the most I have ever felt a part of Duke. The atmosphere on the quad as we all rushed out to light the bonfire was electric. It may be cliché, and shamelessly so, but that game was a moment I lived. And it will forever stand out as a gem in my treasure chest of memories.
PHOTO SOURCES
a. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PEXG0mZKcw (all four photos)
b. Author’s photo library
c. Author’s photo library
d. http://www.bruinsnation.com/2011/4/3/2089391/sfatpauley-et-tu-den-leader…
e. http://chasefoto.com/limitedarchive/h354D7BCF#h354d7bcf
f. http://sportschump.net/tag/ncaa/
g. Author’s photo library
h. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jefftrost/4293219670/
i. http://dukeblueplanet.smugmug.com/keyword/crazy%20towel%20guy#!i=1197100074&k=iGPxY
j. Author’s photo library
k. http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/11336044/article-Duke-students-light-up-the-night