An open letter to the Duke student body

On Saturday, I attended the Duke football game to watch YOUR Duke Blue Devils defeat Tulane 48-27. As the Duke players and coaches ran on to the field before the game, I can only imagine their disappointment to see how few students were there to support the team. In fact, there may have been more Duke football players on the field than Duke students in the stands. What a pathetic showing by the Duke student body! You missed a great football game, by the way; it was a gritty and dominating performance by an enthusiastic, talented and proud group of young men. It is hard for me (and many other loyal Blue Devil fans) to understand how the same students who are willing to sleep outside in tents for weeks and weeks to watch a Duke game in Cameron are unwilling to cross Towerview Drive to watch a Duke game in Wallace Wade. Your fellow students on the football team surely need and deserve the same rabid support you give those on the men’s basketball team. In fact, they might need it a bit more this year as the football team makes a run at a bowl bid!

The next home football game is Saturday, Oct. 15 versus the Florida State Seminoles. I hope you will join me and many other Duke fans in Wallace Wade for this game. Get there early to cheer on your classmates as they run out of the tunnel, and stay until the final whistle to (hopefully) celebrate another Duke victory! Your support can turn the Duke student section into a true “12th man” advantage at Wallace Wade, just as you have done as the “sixth man” at Cameron.

Go Devils!

Kathy Cleaver, former Duke employee and current Duke parent

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