Call me crazie

I’ve always found sports culture remarkably peculiar.

Take basketball, for instance. Before I came to Duke, I had never voluntarily watched a full basketball game. It just never made sense to me how people could be so invested in the sport. The same applied for football, baseball or really any sport for that matter. All the sporting events I had watched were all because I was in my high school’s marching band. I went there to play music for the team and the crowd, and I cheered when everyone else cheered. Frankly, I usually had no idea what was going on so I cheered when it seemed like the right thing to do.

Funny enough, however, unlike me, a lot of my friends were sports fanatics. I always thought that they were a bit ridiculous. How could you be so emotionally invested in The Lakers or The Spurs? Are you friends with Kobe? Do you all get together at Starbucks sometimes and catch up for old times’ sake? Do you know his middle name? Do you even know anything about him beyond his apparently incredible stats? (For your information, his middle name is Bean, according to the Internet). How could you be so enthusiastic about the sport when you’re not even the one playing?!

However, when I came to Duke, everything, and I mean everything, I thought about sports completely changed.

I remember my first exposure to Duke basketball as a freshman last year. It was at Countdown to Craziness and everyone was raving about how excited they were to see Jabari Parker play. All I knew was that he was some big-name basketball recruit in my class who I had seen a few times here and there. He, along with the other players on the team, was hard to miss given his literally towering presence on campus. I’ll never forget seeing Cameron Stadium fill up and experiencing, for the first time, the Cameron Crazies.

Since then, I’ve come a long way in terms of my appreciation for sports. I witnessed Duke’s amazing football season, the Atlantic Coast Conference Championships, the Chik-fil-A Bowl and countless basketball games for both the men’s and women’s teams. Yet, in retrospect, it wasn’t seeing Jabari play, Tricia Liston break the three-point record or even Duke hold off Florida State in the first quarter of the championships that enthralled my interest in Duke sports. Rather, it was the crowd—the overwhelming excitement, the outrageous costumes and posters, the body paint and the hilarious and perfectly aggressive chants.

A few weeks ago, a friend and I were talking about why we chose to apply to and attend Duke. As cliché as it sounds, it is one of my favorite questions to ask. I’ve heard all sorts of answers and reasons ranging from the bitter “I wanted to go to Stanford but I didn’t get in” to “I’ve wanted to go to Duke my entire life.” For me, I wanted to go to a school that people were proud to attend. Even after graduating, I wanted to be able to wear sweaters and drink from mugs with my alma mater’s name boldly and maybe even a bit pretentiously emblazoned on them. I believe Duke’s sports culture is a testament to that school pride.

This year, I have found myself screaming at the top of my lungs at football games and going crazy over even a mere scrimmage match. It’s funny to see how much I’ve changed. I am finally beginning to understand the once seemingly insane logic behind my sports-crazed friends back home. For those of you who are like my freshman self and feel rather indifferent about the sports culture at Duke, I urge you to venture out to K-Ville a few hours before a game. It’s not entirely about the sports. Rather, the painted bodies, the lively atmosphere and the immense line of students waiting to get in all make it explicitly clear that Duke students are proud to be Duke students.