Johnny Moore - The Blue Divide: Duke, North Carolina, and the Battle on Tobacco Road

To all the coaches and their staffs, players and their families, and generations of students and fans who have participated in or witnessed firsthand undoubtedly the greatest rivalry in the history of college basketball.

This book is dedicated to the love of my life, Robin, and my wonderful daughters, Beth and Sarah.

Johnny Moore

To the relatives and special friends from both sides of the Blue Divide, who root like hell for their teams but never let Duke-Carolina come between us. You know who you are!

Art Chansky

Contents

Foreword by Jay Bilas

Coming to Durham from Los Angeles in the fall of 1982, I was well aware of how good the basketball program was at the University of North Carolina. The Heels were coming off a national championship in the spring, and everybody knew Dean Smith. Carolina was the gold standard.

What I didnt understand was the depth of dislike between Duke and Carolina. I didnt really get at the time how Duke always felt slighted and what a measuring stick the Tar Heel program was for Duke fans. It hit me in 1985 in the Carmichael Auditorium locker room.

The year before, we lost a crushing game on the road in double overtime, and those of us in the locker room were reduced to tears. The next year in 1985, I was a junior, and Duke was highly ranked going into Carmichael to play the final Duke-Carolina game in that building.

We won.

This time we were all happy and celebrating in the locker room when we noticed some of the older guys standing around with tears in their eyestears of joy. One of us remarked, Hey, crying was last year. You guys know we won, right? Johnny Moore from our sports information office stopped us and said, You dont understand. We havent won here in 19 years. Gminski, Banks, Spanarkel, Armstrong, DeVenzio, Denton. Those guys never won here.

Wow. That one stuck with me.

Moores statement was added to two other stories in my memory bank from the prior year when Duke beat No. 1 North Carolina in the ACC Tournament. I dont remember the score of many games, but I remember the score of that 1984 Duke-Carolina game because when we returned to Durham I saw it on bumper stickers on every car that said Duke Blue 77Carolina Blue 74. We players were insulted. At that time Carolina didnt print up bumper stickers over beating Duke. This shouldnt be such a big deal, and we needed to make it a more normal occurrence.

The second memory was following that 7774 win in the ACC Tournament. That was another joyous locker room, and several members of Dukes administration came into the locker room to join in. Duke chancellor Kenneth Pye, who was like Winston Churchill to me, came up, shook my hand, and said, Son, you see Carolina blue like a bull sees red. It remains the coolest compliment I have ever received. The problem was: it wasnt really true. As a player, I wanted to defeat North Carolina because they were so goodnot because of some Hatfield and McCoy feeling of hatred. If you beat Carolina, it said something really good about you, that you were capable of beating anyone. But beating Carolina had different meaning to many of the people around us.

The Dean E. Smith Center opened in January of 1986, and I had the good fortune to play in the first game in the building. Both teams were undefeated and title favorites, and the buildup to the game was massive. We walked into the building and we had never played anywhere that big. It was all light blue. Carolina beat Duke 9592 that day, and after the game somebody lamented our foul trouble and that we didnt get a good whistle. Johnny Dawkins said, What did you expect? Did you think we were getting calls in here? They just named the building after their coach!

Today the rivalry is expertly packaged and marketed with beautiful montages set to music that are evocative of greatness and the dislike between the competitors. But that doesnt change the fundamental nature of Duke-Carolina. As a broadcaster I have been fortunate to gain a different and more informed perspective of each program. Both sides have been very kind to announcers coming in to learn about their programswhether it was Hubert Davis going to a Duke practice or me going over to a Carolina practice. Duke and Carolina not only recruit the same type of player, but they often recruit the same players. So the player that Duke fans dislike intensely would have been loved in a Duke uniform and vice versa. When you get an inside view, you see the quality people in each program, that the programs are more alike than they are different, and the incredible respect and admiration for the competitors in both programs.

Any objective view of these two programs clearly reveals that they are two of the best organizations in sports, not just college basketball. And the two programs feed off each other. Each program has been elevated by the other and has reached heights it would not have reached without each other. Sure, there are cycles where Duke will win six out of seven, or Carolina will win six out of seven, but the most amazing stat I saw last season was that with all the games the two had played over the years there was one point separating them in total score.

I understand desperately wanting to win and being devastated when you lose. But I dont understand any suggestion of hatred in this rivalry. Hating to lose and hating your opponent are two different things. There is nothing to hate about Duke, and nothing to hate about Carolina. Nothing.

When I step back and think about this rivalry, the two words that come to me first are respect and grateful. I am grateful to have played in these games, to have competed against Dean Smiths teams with great players like Michael Jordan, Sam Perkins, Brad Daugherty, and Kenny Smith. And I couldnt have more respect for the Carolina program and the people who have worn the uniform and walked the sideline. Even today at 50 years old, I am still asked what it was like to play in the Duke-Carolina game. No disrespect intended, but people dont ask me what it was like to play against N.C. State, Wake Forest, or Virginia. They ask what your record was against Carolina and how you played. Even if Duke won a title or went to the Final Four, you were still judged by your performance in games against Carolina, and I know its the same for UNC.

I am honored and grateful to have been a small part of the greatest rivalry in college basketballDuke vs. Carolina.

Jay Bilas

ESPN college basketball analyst

Duke forward, 198286

Introduction: Strangest Blue Collaborators

Why in Blue Heaven and Hell would we, Johnny Moore and Art Chansky, collaborate on a Duke-Carolina book? Whenever a book is written about Duke or Carolina basketball, it is usually authored by an alumnus or a fan of one school or the other. No matter how unflappable they might think they are, there will be a bias in the book for one shade of blue.

That was the point of writing The Blue Divide .

We have been friendly rivals for more than 35 yearssince Johnny was the assistant sports information director at Duke and Art was sports editor of the Durham Morning Herald after graduating from UNC. Moore went on to become the producer of the Duke radio and TV networks and publish Blue Devil Weekly , and Chansky left the newspaper business to write books.

Johnny went to Guilford College, where he was trained in his profession, but has been a lifelong Duke fan since he grew up in a divided household. His mother loved Carolina and thought Billy Cunningham was the greatest player ever. His father was a die-hard Dukie. The family attended the Duke-Carolina football game in 1959, a 500 shellacking by the Tar Heels on Thanksgiving Day. Five-year-old Johnny cried all the way home while being comforted by his mother, who was trying not to smile too much.