This generation of Duke students grew up in an era of line monitors and PG-rated Cameron Crazie jokes.
It hasn't always been so tame inside Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Thirty-three years ago, the national media scorned the Crazies for perhaps their most controversial antic to date. On Jan. 14, 1984, Duke lost 81-75 to Maryland, a team that featured a player named Herman Veal, who had been accused, though not convicted, of sexual assault.
In response, Blue Devil fans not only taunted him, but also threw ladies underwear and contraceptives onto the floor of the court.
That seemed to cross a line.
Ken Denlinger of The Washington Post penned a column the next day calling out the Crazies, and so began an internal revision of the way Duke basketball fandom operated.
Terry Sanford, Duke's president at the time, penned a stern letter to the student body in The Chronicle Jan. 17 encouraging the Crazies to be "clever but clean."
"We are, I am sorry to report, gaining an unequaled reputation as a student body that doesn't have a touch of class," Sanford wrote. "I hate for us to have the reputation of being stupid."
Duke students took note of what came to be known as the "Uncle Terry" letter. For the next home game, a week later against North Carolina, the Crazies played Mr. Nice Guy.
Some fans donned angel halos as a token of sarcastic insult. The Crazies politely objected to the referees' calls with chants of "We beg to differ!" They greeted the opposition with “Hi [insert first name of Tar Heel Player]!” That tradition still lives on today.
Equally significant, Duke opted for control of the Crazies via the establishment of line monitors. Line monitors came to be thanks to a resolution by the Duke student government, then known as the ASDU, and today they oversee entrance of Duke students into men's basketball games, including tenting in Krzyzewskiville.
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