Outside Cameron, fans try to freeze time
Going into an emotional goodbye for Coach K’s final game at Duke
DURHAM – Monique White has been a Duke fan since she was 8 years old, sneaking out of her room after bedtime and watching games from the hallway.
“My grandfather and my mom were big fans, so we used to watch the games together,” said White, now 44. “I would sneak after my bedtime and lay in the hallway and watch them while they were watching.
“I’ve been a fan ever since, hard to let go of.”
White, and plenty of other Duke fans here at Cameron Indoor Stadium, won’t be letting go of Duke fandom but will have to let go of seeing coach Mike Krzyzewski in this building.
The stories like White’s are plentiful. Duke fans and students came to Cameron early, first for College GameDay but, intrinsically, to soak in every moment before the Blue Devils play North Carolina this evening at 6 p.m.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said White, who came down from Hampton, Va. “You think about, ‘Oh it’s so much money, you’ve gotta do this,’ but I mean, you think about it, you’re never going to get another opportunity like this again, to see the greatest of all time to do what he does and hopefully propel us on to the next step.”
T.J. Sacco first attended a Duke game with his father in 2009, when the Blue Devils beat Stephen Curry and Davidson.
He wrote his name on a banister in the upper level of Cameron and was eager to see if it’s still there.
“We wrote our name on one of the banisters up there because we sat so high up. I’m hoping to go back up there and see it,” the 29-year-old Sacco said. “We always try to come to games. We’re local, we live in Pinehurst.”
Sacco paid $9,600 total for his two tickets, and he brought his dad back.
As the tip-off time came closer, it was natural to want to slow down time and preserve the moments.
“Just trying to soak it all in. This is crazy,” White said. “I plan to go to the ACC tournament next week, but there’s nothing like this.
“You don’t want it to be over, but hopefully – even with all of the celebration and all that, what I really want is to get that win.”