THE Rivalry

        Each college and university has its rivals. Arch enemies to the end. Bitterness and acrimony to the hilt.
Alumni in a froth. Students besides themselves. Television agog over the ratings.

        So many rivals. In-state. Inter-state. Intra-city. Public schools versus public schools. Private schools versus private schools. Catholic schools versus Catholic schools. Public versus private. Public versus Catholic. Private versus Catholic.

        Some are sport specific. Football. Basketball. Women's Basketball. A number of schools have multiple rivalries.

        There are trophies involved. There are mascots taken. There are symbols marred or destroyed. There is storming the field or court after a victory. Riots occur, win or lose.

        I can recite so many. Alabama-Auburn. Army-Navy. Georgia-Florida. Oregon-Oregon State. Stanford-California. UCLA-USC. Harvard-Yale. UConn-Tennessee in Women's Basketball. Smaller schools are no exception, i.e. Amherst-Williams and Hampden-Sydney versus Randolph-Macon come to mind.

       They have their names. The Civil War. The Red River Rivalry. The Bedlam Brawl. The Holy War. Every one has its own unique level of intensity.

       However, thee is one rivalry, at least for me, which captivates me season after season. It is sport-specific. Both teams get a home game out of it and sometimes end up playing each other in a post-season tournament. Television makes a spectacle out of it--a big leap from its formative days when the game was only shown regionally. And the teams are normally, year in and year out, at the top of the sport.

       That rivalry is Duke University playing the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Men's Basketball. Or simply-Duke-Carolina. Located only 10.5 miles apart. Duke is a  private, elite academic institution. UNC is a top flight public research university. Students who attend each college differ greatly in their diversity and aspirations.

       To me, there is simply no rivalry which matches the fervor of its games. Packed houses always at the 9, 000 seat barn called Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham and first at Carmichael Arena and now at the gleaming nearly 22,000 seat Dean E. Smith Center, a monument to what the game of basketball means to the UNC faithful and to its legendary coach.

       Media names are big, too. Billy Packer, the long-time network analyst. Dick Vitale, he of the North Jersey bombast. Jay Bilas, a Dukie who actually played in the series, as did Hubert Davis who had a stint at ESPN, the current televisor of the games. Former Duke coach Bucky Waters. Mike Gminski, another Duke player. Their analysis made the event even more colorful. And the play-by-play announcers are legendary--Dick Enberg, Dave O'Brien, Dick Stockton, Tim Brando and my favorite, Jim Thacker who worked for the great C. D. Chesley and Jefferson Pilot Sports.

       Those coaches who have been involved since the start of the intensification of the games in the 1950's are among the giants of the sport. Carolina first had Frank McGuire and his New York pipeline of players, succeeded by Kansan Dean Smith, once the winningest coach at the highest level of play, followed by his longtime assistant Bill Guthridge and then eventually procuring another aide, Roy Williams, a national championship coach at the University of Kansas, itself an epic locale in college basketball . At Duke, Vic Bubas and then Mike Krzyzewski, now the winningest coach who has won Olympic Gold and who is either revered or hated.

        Then the players themselves were of the highest caliber. Michael Jordan. Christian Laettner, Kyrie Irving. Charlie Scott. Phil Ford. James Worthy. Art Heyman. Len Chappell. J.J. Redick. Grant Hill. Charlie Scott, Bobby Hurley. Royalty. Epic players on a big stage.

        Tonight at 9:00 another chapter in the long-storied battles waged by the two very different champions of NCAA Basketball begins. Although it is merely a regular season Atlantic Coast Conference clash, don't tell that to those animated, agitated and seated in the blue of the Smith Center with the millions watching. I will be enjoying it all, now in High-Definition TV, a far cry from Thacker-Packer intonations  in black and white back in my childhood home of Highland Park.

       You can say your rivalry for your school is the best. I cannot disagree. For me, it is Duke-Carolina with rapt attention. Hands down.