Being a Duke basketball fan goes beyond what happens on the basketball court. It’s more than the record-defining wins or the heartbreaking losses. Generations have experienced the legacy associated with the sport, celebrated it in its best moments and cried in its worst. Supporting Duke basketball is a defining thread that brings people from all walks of life together.
Francis Bogside, an Irish pub in San Antonio, brought generations of Duke graduates together on Final Four weekend. Energy filled the air that only Blue Devil basketball can excite. Mothers pushed babies around in strollers while small children ran excitedly around the courtyard. Classmates who had not seen each other in years reunited all across the venue. Alumni and fans gathered around the little street corner in San Antonio to cheer on the Blue Devils in their 18th Final Four appearance.
“A lot of people think about their identity as either ‘I'm an American or I'm a woman,’” Lauren Wiggs, Trinity ‘04, said. “For me, being a Duke alumna is one of those first criteria.”
Her identity as a Duke fan has been a part of her life for as long as she can remember. Wiggs’ grandparents met at Duke in the 1950s, and she got married in the Duke Chapel. Her family has spent decades cheering on men’s basketball.
She attended her first Final Four in 1986 at only four years old. Now, nearly 40 years later, it was a no-brainer that she would attend the Final Four once it became clear that Duke would play in it. Wiggs and some of her friends booked their flights as soon as the Blue Devils secured their Elite Eight victory over Alabama. She has always enjoyed watching “the decades of history” that the program carries, especially because it has so much to do with her own family history.
Family ties run deep for many Forever Crazies, including Rachel Flemming, a former Duke cheerleader. When it came time for Flemming, Pratt ‘12, to attend college, she followed her older brother to Duke. He joined the marching band, so she joined the cheer team. The opportunity to travel to various bowl games and other athletic events brought the siblings closer and amplified their love for Duke sports, especially basketball.
Fleming’s favorite memory came from cheering at the national championship game in 2010 when the Blue Devils, led by current head coach Jon Scheyer, defeated Butler.
“I remember sitting on the court and gripping my poms,” Flemming said. “I still get nervous watching videos of that shot. I know it’s not gonna go in, but I still remember how I felt in that moment.”
In the years since her graduation, she and her brother have continued to travel to basketball games just as they did in college, supporting Duke across the country.
“It's more than just basketball,” Flemming said. “It's the community and the camaraderie of the Duke spirit.”
Paul Knickerbocker, Pratt ‘00, has used traveling to basketball games as a way to reconnect with his former classmates.
“I just used it as a vehicle to reunite with friends and have that common thread, to share that common experience,” Knickerbocker said.
After enjoying his experience in the Final Four in Phoenix last year with fellow alumni — despite the team’s absence — Knickerbocker decided to follow the Blue Devils around this year in the hopes that the 2024-25 squad would work its way to San Antonio. Although his road experience with the Blue Devils was “hectic,” Knickerbocker enjoyed attending the alumni events in the different cities he went to and explained that supporting Duke gives him “a sense of belonging.”
“It’s something that you feel that’s bigger than yourself,” he said.
Several other alumni echoed the sentiment that for them, Duke basketball is like another home, something to support and hold onto in the good times and the bad.
“It gives you something to look forward to every year,” Brian Steward, Trinity ‘87, said. For many fans, the calendar revolves around watching Duke basketball, around watching each and every game with eager anticipation.
It doesn’t hurt that fans rarely have to watch their team suffer through long losing stretches.
“It’s nice to be part of the group,” Knickerbocker said. “And it’s part of the winning group.”
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Knickerbocker’s friend and fellow alum Noah Geisel described being a Duke basketball fan as “belonging to greatness.” He graduated in 2001, the year the team won its third national championship.
In his four years at Duke, Geisel only missed two home games at Cameron Indoor Stadium. From the beginning of this season, he knew “in his heart” that he would be traveling to San Antonio for the Final Four to support his team, just as he had in his college days.
“You don't have to be great at basketball to be a great Duke basketball fan,” Geisel said.
And for many of these alumni, that is the crux of Duke’s basketball appeal. Though most will never get the chance to play on the court of Cameron Indoor, they all have the chance to cheer loudly in the stands, to hex opposing players as they attempt to inbound the ball, to put their arms around each other and sing the alma mater with pride after every win and even each loss. Those memories leave many alumni eagerly anticipating the chance to come back for more.
“I’ll probably die early of a heart attack,” Roshan Yadama, Trinity ‘15, joked of his commitment to watching Duke basketball and the nerve-wracking emotions it induces.
Still, Yadama, like so many, counts his days spent at Cameron Indoor as among the best in his college experience. The Blue Devils earned their 2015 championship banner in Yadama’s senior year.
“It’s been elite since the beginning,” Yadama said.
This year's Final Four came a week after Yadama’s college reunion week. While back in Durham, he and his former classmates planned their trip to San Antonio, for Yadama’s first time experiencing the Final Four in person.
Other Forever Crazies are far more seasoned in their Final Four appearances.
Wilton Alston, Pratt ‘81, traveled to his first Final Four in 1999 and watched the Blue Devils lose to UConn in the championship matchup. Although the experience of watching Duke lose was “gut-wrenching,” he still found himself enjoying the weekend. From that point on, Alston and his brother have made it a yearly tradition to attend the Final Four, even when Duke does not make it. Attending over 20 Final Fours has made him appreciate even more the trips when the Blue Devils do make an appearance.
Whether alumni had attended one Final Four or the last 20, San Antonio brought up some of the best memories from their undergraduate years. Even with the loss to Houston, wherever the team goes in the coming years, these alumni will be there to support them and continue on the tradition of excellence that Duke basketball inspires.
“It’s a great thing,” Steward said. “It’s a great tradition.”