Installment #2 of The ACC of bygone days: As a young Carolina fan in the 1970s I felt strong negative feelings about State and Wake. I am just such an age that in my own high school playing days, when allegiances and admiration and enmities were most profoundly stamped, dook was a perennial also-ran.
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#DeepChatham they were little more than a bother and the only fans to be found was an occasional Methodist minister. “Wake is fake and Duke is puke but the team I hate is NCState” is a bumper sticker embedded in real historical context. I share this attitude with Roy Williams and many others who disagreeably recall the Wolfpack Coach Norm Sloan’s loud plaid jackets, his wife’s national anthem, and the Thompson/Burleson years.
Of course I could go on, as could many reading this, about the fervor and fever we felt. The ACC season was our twice-a-week church, preaching and prayer-meeting, and the tournament was our revival such was the crying and sweating and shouting that went up. Sadly football has risen while basketball waivers at present and years back expansion diluted the fire in the hard court sermonizing.
I still bring an attitude to games with those original members and though they are long gone I will always wish ill upon teams from sub carolina, the dirty red chickens. There WAS a heyday — we sailed with the pilot “through storm and wave.” The heydays to come look pretty uncertain as great change is upon us and instability is the rule for now it appears. In a backwards way it was almost good to see state college have some success recently (and then flop again) - they’ve been down so very long. Is Wake next? Hope they both remain in their proper secondary spots. And dook can just go to hell like usual too. Loving our heroes and hating the villains is harder when they’re literally here today and gone tomorrow. I’ll be sailing just the same.
