Duke's Cutliffe National Coach of the Year

Durham got another feather in its cap last week as Duke head football coach David Cutcliffe was named the 2013 National Coach of the Year by the Walter Camp Foundation. Cutcliffe's win further solidifies Durham as City of Champions, a title the city gets from the dominance of so many of the sports teams and squads that call the city home.

Credit: Duke Photography via GoDuke.com

The Walter Camp Coach of the Year is selected by the nation’s 125 Football Bowl Subdivision head coaches and sports information directors.

“Coach Cutcliffe is more of a mentor than a coach to me and the rest of my teammates,” redshirt junior quarterback and team captain Anthony Boone said.  “It’s been great, just learning how to be a better quarterback and a better man. What makes him special is that he actually cares; that he’s a genuine guy. Everything he says, you can take to heart.”

The ACC’s Coach of the Year in 2012 and 2013, Cutcliffe guided Duke to its first ranking in the BCS standings and jumped four spots to No. 20 following last week’s 27-25 road win over North Carolina.  Also ranked 20th in this week’s Associated Press national poll, the Blue Devils will face top-ranked Florida State in the 2013 ACC Championship Game on Saturday at 8 p.m. at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C.  The game will be televised nationally by ABC.

Duke will face Texas A&M in the Chick-fil-A Bowl at the Georgia Dome. Kick off is at 8 PM on December 31st.

Learn more about visiting Durham online and be part Duke's football action here next season.

Duke to Attempt World Record for Largest Cardboard Fortress

On Friday, Sept. 20, a crew of Duke University employees and students will attempt to build the largest fort made entirely of recycled cardboard in Durham, NC.

Participants hope to break the world record by using 3,500 cardboard boxes, gathered from academic buildings and student move-in, to erect the structure.

The event begins at 9 a.m. on the West Campus quad in front of Duke Chapel. Media members are invited to cover the event and interview participants from 2-3 p.m. Parking will be available in the Bryan Center surface lot. More information on the effort is available here.
     
Organizers will be on hand, including Arwen Buchholz, program coordinator for Duke’s recycling and waste reduction office. Buchholz can be reached prior to the event at (919) 660-1448 or email.

Learn more about why Durham is a creative hotspot.

Lucky Movie Fan To Win Duke-Carolina Tickets

UPDATED 9/30/13:

• Film Premiere at The Carolina Theater at 7 PM. 
• Tickets are available at the box office. 
• People can enter to win the tickets until October 1. 
• One winner gets two tickets to both Duke-Carolina Men's Basketball games.

When Durham-based filmmaker Hassan Pinto produced the movie Duke - Carolina, The Blue Blood Rivalry  (Duke-Carolina), he knew he was chronicling one of the greatest rivalries in all of sports - the one between Duke and UNC men's basketball programs.

Now, as the movie nears it's theatrical premier at Durham's Carolina Theatre on October 1, Pinto and his company, GreatestFan Films, want to be sure that not only does the world know, but that some lucky fan and a friend get to experience these games for themselves. "To one very, very lucky fan we are giving a pair of tickets to each of the 2014 Duke-Carolina games at Cameron Indoor and The Dean Dome. We're announcing that winner at the premier of the movie in Durham," Pinto said.

"People around the world know about this rivalry - it's that epic,"said Pinto, and the rivalry is, indeed, significant. Beyond the hype, there are some significant facts.  The two teams have met 236 times since 1920. UNC has won more times than has Duke, but Duke has won the last two match-ups. Games are attended by celebrities, broadcast nationally, and generate massive amounts of revenue for the schools and their sponsors.

"When we made this movie, we wanted to be sure, absolutely sure, that we were able to connect people to the story," Pinto added.  "What is the best way to do that? We make sure some lucky fans get to see this for themselves," Pinto said.

In advance of the premier, the company is releasing short interviews with some of the current team players, as well some alumni.  None of the footage in these clips shows up in the movie, and the clips are about anything but sports. "We want fans to get to know these players as people, too.  They are warriors on the court, but we, and the players themselves, want people to know more about them off the court," said Pinto. In each of the clips is information about how to enter to win the tickets. These clips will be linked on the movies Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ pages. Full contest rules are available Greatetfan’s Blue Blood TV page on Google+.  Fans can text to enter by sending "blueblood" to 919-490-8602, and also by emailing their name and mailing address to info@greatestfan.com with the subject line Blue Blood Raffle.

There was a screening of the film held for players, alumni and school officials, and professional athletes in Durham on March 4th, 2013.

Tickets go on sale for the October 1 premier on September 25th, 2013.

Stay on top of everything that is happening in Durham with the Durham Event Calendar.

Nasher Museum Celebrates Summer with Art, Dance, Music, Food

This summer, the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University will present four new exhibitions and a series of free programs, including gallery talks, craft and drawing sessions, contemporary dance, guest chefs in the café, live music, book discussions and more.

“Our summer exhibitions, from old masters to young emerging artists, offer something exciting for every visitor,” said Sarah Schroth, interim director and Nancy Hanks Senior Curator of the Nasher Museum. “We are proud to present programs -- our widest variety ever -- that encourage people with many interests to come visit us.”

The museum’s original traveling exhibition, “Wangechi Mutu: A Fantastic Journey,” is on view through July 21. The accompanying catalogue is now available at the Nasher Museum Store. The 176-page book includes many images that highlight the most important and iconic works Mutu has created since the mid-1990s. It also portrays the installation at the Nasher Museum, which includes new collages, a monumental wall drawing, videos and selections from the artist’s sketchbooks. The catalogue includes scholarly essays by Trevor Schoonmaker, Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Curator of Contemporary Art at the Nasher Museum, art historian Kristine Stiles and critic and musician Greg Tate, paired with an illustrated chronology of Mutu’s work.

For the first time, the American Dance Festival (ADF) brings a 2013 season performance to the Nasher Museum with “This Land Is Your Land” by Seattle choreographer and ADF faculty member Mark Haim on June 25 and 26.  The work, which debuted in Paris in January, is set to a country music score and is based on a simple, continuously mutating walking pattern with 14 performers. Tickets are $15 and available from Duke University Box Office online or by phone, 919-684-4444.

More than 70 works of art spanning six centuries are featured in “The Human Position: Old Master Works from the Collection,” opening June 20. The exhibition includes paintings, sculptures and works on paper from the 14th through the 19th centuries, all from the Nasher Museum’s collection and rarely on view. Artists include European old masters, including Italian Renaissance and baroque painters such as Titian’s contemporary Bonifacio de’Pitati, Spanish court painters Vicente Carducho and Francisco Rizi, French neoclassical artists François Gerard and Merry-Joseph Blondel, master printmakers Dürer, Callot and Rembrandt, and many more. “The Human Position” is on view through August 26.

A contemporary installation, “The Cinematic Impulse,” explores the relationships between cinema, visual art and culture. Artists use a variety of visual strategies to recognize the effects of Hollywood, from photography and video art to film. “The Cinematic Impulse” includes works by Isaac Julien, Christian Marclay, Robin Rhode, Cindy Sherman, Xaviera Simmons, Eve Sussman and more, drawn from the museum’s collections. The show opens June 29 and will be on view through Sept. 8.

An intimate group show featuring works by Pedro Lasch, Susan Harbage Page and Yinka Shonibare focuses on the human consequences of the creation and regulation of borders. The show complements the upcoming exhibition “Lines of Control: Partition as a Productive Space” (Sept. 19-Feb. 2, 2014). Page and Lasch examine the experience of crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, documenting in visual terms the effect such journeys have on material objects and, by extension, their human carriers. Shonibare’s installation, “Scramble for Africa,” assembles 14 mannequins around a table with a map of Africa at its center. The work reimagines the Berlin Conference (1884-85) that resulted in a continent separated and parceled out among European powers, creating divisions that led to conflict and bloodshed.

“Summer Days Nasher Nights” continues every Thursday night and some Wednesdays and Sundays with guest chefs in the café, live music, wine tastings, free films and book discussions. Visitors can explore exhibitions through “Summer Make and Take,” hands-on activities on Tuesday mornings and early Thursday evenings.

The Nasher Museum, at 2001 Campus Drive at Anderson Street on the Duke campus, is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday; and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. The museum is closed Mondays. Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and members of the Duke Alumni Association, $3 for non-Duke students with identification and free for children 15 and younger. Admission is free to all on Thursday nights. Admission is free to Duke students, faculty and staff with Duke Cards. Admission is also free to Nasher Museum members. 

Learn more about Durham, NC at www.durham-nc.com.

Durham Station to Screen Film "Heart of Durham"

Thousands of customers pass through Durham Station every day. Where are they from? Where are they headed?  How does transit fit into their lives?

Duke Masters of Fine Arts filmmaker Joel Wanek took his camera and spent time at Durham Station and along DATA Route 16 with stops in East Durham including “The Village” and NC Highway 98.   The film “Heart of Durham” will be screened on the second floor of Durham Station on Thursday, April 4th between 5 P.M. and 8 P.M.

Joel moved back to Durham after 13 years of living in Chicago and says he immediately noticed a lot of changes to downtown.  “Durham Station struck me as a very active, vibrant social space, seemingly designed to foster interaction between people.  I think it is one of the few places in Durham that really encourages this kind of social exchange.  The way the buses pull into the station all at the same time every half an hour creates this rush of people that pass by each other so you inevitably run into people you wouldn’t otherwise.”

The title Heart of Durham has special meaning for the city.  The transportation station was built on the site where the Heart of Durham Hotel once stood.  Wanek says the film is an impressionistic ride on the bus from early morning into day.  “Heart of Durham” lets us sit in a seat and view the chance encounters and interactions that happen on public transit.  “The camera is used as a tool for interaction and exchange, an instrument for initiating a dialogue.”

Wanek calls Durham Station, which opened in 2009, “a celebration of sunlight.”  It has 20 canopied bus bays, parking spaces for taxicabs, disability parking, and short-term parking as well as bicycle racks and a drop-off location for “kiss and ride.” The predominantly glass exterior walls offer a secure environment, visibility of transportation activity, and views of the downtown area, Historic American Tobacco, West Village, and the surrounding areas.

In screening the film at Durham Station, Joel says it’s like bringing the project home.  “It’s important to me to screen it in the space where much of it was shot and for the people that helped me make it.”

More information about the film can be found here and more information about Durham, NC can be found here.

Duke's Nasher Museum of Art Presents Modern Masterpieces Exhibition

Durham, NC is no stranger to great art exhibits, and now the area will play host to yet another major art event at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University.

An exhibition featuring more than 50 masterpieces by Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Paul Gauguin, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent van Gogh, Camille Pissarro and others will be presented at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, beginning Nov. 4.

The exhibition, “Collecting Matisse and Modern Masters: The Cone Sisters of Baltimore,” tells the story of two Victorian-era sisters whose collection was financed by their brothers’ textile empire in North Carolina during the first half of the 20th century. The Nasher Museum is the third and final venue for the exhibition, which is on view through Feb. 10, 2013.

Matisse called Claribel and Etta Cone “my two Baltimore ladies.” The Cone sisters bought art directly out of the Parisian studios of avant-garde artists, starting in 1905. At a time when critics disparaged Matisse, and Picasso was virtually unknown, the Cones supported them and eventually amassed one of the world’s greatest collections of modern art.

“We are thrilled to present this stunning exhibition, which tells a very special North Carolina story,” said Sarah Schroth, interim director and the Nancy Hanks Senior Curator of the Nasher Museum. “For the first time, visitors will be able to comprehend the complete and fascinating picture of the Cone sisters as collectors through their incredible purchases of master paintings, prints and drawings, as well as fabrics, laces and jewelry from around the world, personal letters and diaries.”

The exhibition, which originated at The Baltimore Museum of Art, includes textiles and decorative arts from Europe, Asia and Africa that the Cones collected, as well as archival materials that highlight the sisters’ remarkable lives. It features an interactive virtual tour of the sisters’ adjoining Baltimore apartments, showing the collection as it was displayed in their home.

The exhibition will be complemented by programs at the Nasher Museum, including two free family day events; talks by art historians; French wine tastings and musical performances; gallery tours and drawing sessions; teacher workshops and more. In addition, UNC-TV is producing a 30-minute documentary about the exhibition.

Additional information about visiting the museum can be found on their website.  Information  about planning a visit to Durham can be found online.

JIM CROW LOSES; The Secret Game

History and diversity are two of the things that make Durham, NC so interesting - here are amazing things that take place here everyday. Today one of the most interesting occurred; well, 68 years ago today.  Read on for an amazing piece about The Secret Game. It's a truly fascinating story, and one of the things that makes Durham the place that it is today.

Published originally in New York Times Magazine - March 31, 1996

By Scott Ellsworth

Aubrey Stanley double-checked the laces on his sneakers and sneaked a look across the gym floor. The other team's center was a good three or four inches shorter than Big Dog, the center on Stanley's team, the Eagles. A good sign. Stanley and his teammates, dressed in their maroon jerseys, satin shorts, knee pads, striped wool socks and war-issue canvas high-tops, lined up for the tip-off.

It was 1944, a banner year for basketball at the North Carolina College for Negroes, in Durham. The Eagles had lost only one game all season and were making a name for John B. McLendon, their 28-year-old coach. His standouts -- Stanley, Henry (Big Dog) Thomas, Floyd (Cootie) Brown, James (Boogie-Woogie) Hardy -- ran a blistering, high-speed attack. "We could have beaten anyone," says McLendon, now a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame. But there was no way to prove it. Neither the National Invitational Tournament nor the N.C.A.A. tournament allowed black colleges to participate.

Across town at Duke University, the Blue Devils had won the Southern Conference championship. But they weren't necessarily the best team on campus. The Army and the Navy had established wartime training programs at Duke, and the intramural teams were stuffed with former college athletes.

The medical school team was perhaps the best. Dick Thistlethwaite, a former star at the University of Richmond, played center. David Hubbell, a forward, had started for the Duke varsity. Homer Sieber had played at Roanoke College, and Dick Symmonds at Central Methodist in Missouri. Jack Burgess, the team's newest member, had played guard at the University of Montana. As much as he liked Duke, Burgess despised the Jim Crow laws. Once, he was chased off a Durham city bus -- at knife point -- when he told the driver what he thought of the seating arrangements.

At a place like Duke, Burgess's opinions were unusual, though not unheard of. In early 1944, the Y.M.C.A. chapters at Duke and North Carolina College had begun to meet, at considerable risk from the police, who vigorously maintained the color line. "It was dangerous," recalls one former Duke student. "We had to lie on the floor of the car going to those meetings."

At one meeting, a North Carolina College student overheard an idle boast about the Duke medical school basketball team. A challenge was issued: let's see who has the best team in town. It was an absurd notion. Convening a secret Y meeting was bad enough, but holding an illegal, racially mixed basketball game was courting disaster. That same year, a black G.I. had been killed by a white bus driver for not moving quickly enough to the rear of a Durham bus.

Coach McLendon, however, endorsed the idea: denied a postseason championship game, he would create his own. The game, he decided, would be held in the North Carolina College gym, a legitimate contest with a referee and a game clock.

At Duke, the proposal fell on stunned ears. Jack Burgess wanted to play, but some of the others were hesitant. In the end, pride won out. "We thought we could whup 'em," David Hubbell says. "So we decided to find out."

Sunday, March 12, dawned blustery. McLendon had scheduled the game when most of Durham, including its police force, would be in church. He hadn't told the school administration about the game; when a reporter for The Carolina Times, Durham's black weekly, found out, he agreed not to write anything. No spectators would be allowed.

Just before 11 A.M., the Duke team piled into a couple of borrowed cars. "To keep from being followed, we took this winding route through town," Hubbell recalls. They pulled their jackets over their heads as they walked into the small brick gym.

Inside, stomachs had been churning all morning. "I had never played basketball against a white person before, and I was a little shaky," Stanley says. "You did not know what might happen if there was a hard foul, or if a fight broke out. I kept looking over at Big Dog and Boogie to see what to do. They were both from up North."

The game began with a sputter. Both teams botched routine plays, and shots caromed off the rims. One of the Duke players made a gorgeous pass -- right into the hands of a North Carolina College player. "On that particular morning, you didn't exactly need to play skins and shirts," Hubbell says with a laugh.

As the nervousness subsided, the Duke team found its game: give-and-gos and three-man weaves, two-handed set shots off screens. Burgess fed Thistlethwaite the ball inside and Hubbell shot from the wings. But the Eagles warmed up, too. Big Dog knocked down four-footers, while George Parks, a towering Kentuckian, swept the boards. Boogie and Cootie ran cutaways and reverse pivots, whipping down-court passes after crisp steals.

Stanley was only 16, the Eagles' youngest player, and had grown up under Jim Crow. "About midway through the first half," Stanley says, "I suddenly realized: 'Hey, we can beat these guys. They aren't supermen. They're just men like us.' "

By the second half, the Eagles were scoring on nearly every possession. Running one fast break after the next, they were skirting a wide-open style of play that wouldn't flourish for another two decades.

The Duke players had never seen anything like it. By the end of the game, the scoreboard told the story: Eagles 88, Visitors 44.

Then came the day's second unlikely event. After a short break, the two teams mixed their squads and played another game, an even more egregious violation of Jim Crow. This time, it was skins and shirts. "Just God's children, horsing around with a basketball," says George Parks.
Word had spread, meanwhile, that something was afoot in the gym. McLendon had bolted the doors, but a few students climbed up to the window ledges. Pressing their faces to the glass, they saw this second game -- a segregationist's nightmare and a scene that college basketball in the South would not know for years to come. Afterward, the two teams adjourned to the men's residence hall for a bull session. A few hours later, the Duke students drove home.

The Durham police never found out what happened. Nor did the city's two daily newspapers, and the black reporter kept his word. No scorecard exists, and as far as official basketball recordkeeping is concerned, the game never took place.

"Oh, I wonder if I told you that we played basketball against a Negro college team," Jack Burgess wrote to his family in Montana a few days later. "Well, we did and we sure had fun and I especially had a good time, for most of the fellows playing with me were Southerners. . . . And when the evening was over, most of them had changed their views quite a lot."

(Published in New York Times Magazine on March 31, 1996 / Written by Scott Ellsworth)

Learn more about Durham, it's past, present and future by visiting online.