The Duke-UNC rivalry, like any rivalry, has its ups and downs, but the ups are really something.
Take 1961, when Art Heyman brawled with most of UNC’s team, including then-coach Frank McGuire, who Heyman gleefully claimed he hit in the family jewels (Heyman said that years later, he ran into McGuire, who said, “It still hurts, Arty.”)
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When Mike Krzyzewski took over in 1980, he was not willing to accept a secondary role to Dean Smith, and things immediately ramped up. But the high points in the Coach K era may have been the 1987-88 season, and from 1991-1993, when the Triangle behemoths won three straight national titles, two by Duke and one by the Heels.
In 1988, though, the rivalry was as close to the Heyman level of intensity as it could be, because, for whatever reason, those two particular teams did not like each other at all.
Duke was built around Danny Ferry, who chose the Blue Devils over the Tar Heels, while UNC was built around JR Reid, a flat-topped bundle of hostility.
And to make matters worse for Reid & company in 1988, Duke won in Chapel Hill, in Durham, and in the ACC Tournament. There were triple crown T-shirts printed up.
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It seemed like each game got more intense, and Reid got scarier, but the Tar Heels just could not get over the hump. Duke won 70-69 over there, and in Cameron, the Devils won 96-81.
This video is from the win in Cameron. There just wasn’t much that UNC could do. The margin was too wide to classify it as a rivalry classic, but the atmosphere was superb, and the effort magnificent.
Duke would win again the next week in Greensboro, 65-61, to complete the trifecta.
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