Because I like to ruffle feathers

I contribute regularly to the Fuqua Times, Fuqua's weekly magazine. This week, I submitted the following article. While I did contemplate hiring a bodyguard (as much for the protection as for the view), I was pleasantly surprised by the reactions. Scott was sure that I was going to burn networks, and maybe I have, but I've also received a lot of e-mails from people who agree with me. I had to share...

I Don’t Heart Duke Basketball

Welcome to ACC Country, where rivalries run blood deep and team colors are more sacred then religion. Perhaps the deepest seated rivalries in the ACC run along Tobacco Road, the 75-mile stretch of I-40 that starts in Winston-Salem and ends in Raleigh and whose history first began when tobacco tycoons RJ Reynolds and Washington Duke battled it out for cigarette market share in the late 1800s.

So, naturally, many people were baffled when this Wake Forest graduate told that she was attending Duke for graduate school. The question continues to pop up in interviews. And my answer is always the same: I have internal conflict. Because while I love Fuqua, I can never, I will never love Duke basketball.

However, by attending Duke University, it is assumed that I must love Duke basketball. The assumptions started the first day of FY orientation, when we were all herded, wide-eyed and bushy-tailed, into a room where we were taught several Duke basketball cheers. I stood there, fuming, with my arms crossed, refusing to participate. Or when I received dirty stares from those in the student section at last years’ Wake-Duke game in Cameron (granted, I was dressed in all gold, screaming at the top of my lungs for the Deacons, but really?). Fast forward to SY, where I get quizzical looks from classmates when I mention I’m rooting for Clemson over Duke. Does it really surprise people that there are many students at Fuqua who despise the Blue Devils?

While I could give concrete reasons for this animosity, it really comes down to something much more irrational – emotion. For four years, I was bred to hate our rivals, who include Duke and Carolina. And we were truly rivals, as the Deacons were just coming off their back-to-back ACC Championships when I started (something that won’t be repeated this year, unfortunately). Like any true fan, we smeared it in our rivals’ faces when we won and hated them when we lost. How can anyone erase four years of wonderful college memories, rooting for the beloved Deacons? How can you replace hanging out in bars with the basketball team players? This is my alma mater, after all. Nothing will ever come between me and Wake Forest.

I can understand getting excited about Duke basketball if your alma mater wasn’t a big basketball school. And I don’t deny that it’s an experience to be squeezed into Cameron, deafened by the jeering crowd. And yes, I camped out last year, but it was just for the experience. I’ve done this basketball thing all before so I just can’t get excited about the Blue Devils…except when they lose. So, Orientation Leaders, please don’t force-feed cheers to the new class. And let’s make Fuqua a safe place for those whose loyalties lie elsewhere.

I love Fuqua and I will be proud to call myself a Duke Alumna when I graduate. But I will never cheer for the Blue Devils. I am, and will forever be, a Demon Deacon.

Laura is currently petitioning ESPN to star in a “Never Graduate” commercial, featuring pudding wrestling with the Deacon, the Devil and the Ram. Hunky male applicants for these roles are now being accepted.