xtcian

Yes, I remember that chant about Scott Williams. How utterly cruel. By the way, thanks for making me feel so old. I remember your old article like it was yesterday . . . the incoming freshmen really were preschoolers when that article was printed. Good grief.

I have to admit that hating Duke for so long has made me a bit evil too. When I heard that Coach K fainted or swooned, or whatever happened to him at that recent game, I kept screeching to my husband, "Is he dead? Is Coach K dead? He died, right there in front of the Crazies!"

One more reason:

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/WaterCooler/wireStory?id=441883

Oh God, please let us win this game.

Sometimes it's hard being a UNC alum who's married to a Dookie - and she's even a self-proclaimed Cameron Crazy (though I'm sure she's above the more tasteless and mean-spirited types of chants and comments).

I've had to pretend not to hate Dook for the past few years. It's not easy - she can tell I'm rooting against them no matter who they're playing, even in the NCAA tournament (though I claim to be "rooting for the ACC," it's obvious I'm not - I'm not that good an actor).

I thought you might enjoy reading this editorial from Monday's Chronic Ill:

http://www.chronicle.duke.edu/vnews/display.v/ART/42075b62462b3

Greg, I saw that too, I think K will have some heads rolling over that one.

I lived in Granville and was coming back into the dorm when Dean Smith was escorting Scott Williams out to his car. By the look on Scott's face, I'd guess Dean had just broken the news to him. Awful stuff.

Don't know if you've seen any of the Dook 'cheer sheets' - the papers they use to sync up the jeers, but the refer to the fact that they are classy and don't touch certain subjects.
Like Scott Williams
Like DJ Strawberry
even the racial stuff like JR Reid (tho Dean had the last laugh on that one)

evil bastards. An IC poster's quote:
"If dook were disbanded and the campus plowed under the earth, most of us would still stop by from time to time just to spit on the ground. ~ ItzaGhost"

Ian,

Thanks for linking to the wonderful column you wrote in 1990. As a mere rube from Oxford, NC, I've been a Carolina fan my whole life. I remember that game in '88, and that chant. As a freshman in 1990, I also remember crying the day I read that particular WC column. I cried when I took it out read again in 1991. I really cried after I read it in 1992, because I had lost my copy at that point and I spent 2 hours in the undergrad combing through bound back-issues of the DTH just to find it again (seriously). Held on to that photocopy for another few years, and haven't had the opportunity to read the full text until today. And, yes, I'm tearing up as I type.

So tomorrow I'll get pumped up, choked up, smoked up, and liquored up before this game just like I always do. And, as I have since 1990, I will spend a few quiet moments by my lonesome and think about Scott Williams and those bastards in Durham and think to myself, "God bless those Tar Heel boys."

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. It's great to see the success you're having with your writing.

The Duke student body's immunity from media criticism (I'm looking your way Dookie V.) for its cruel and often downright racist behavior has driven me crazy for years. As a Notre Dame fan, I'll never forget them all dressing up like Buckwheat to make fun of PG David Rivers' appearance. And how about the media's reaction after K fainted like an elderly person in church last Saturday? Should we just have the sports media fellate him at halfcourt in Cameron and call it a season? Please pardon the rant. Best of luck tomorrow.

For those withut premium access to IC..

http://www.dailytarheel.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/02/05/402245a29bc3e?in_archive=1

Nice shirt. I hadn't heard the Scott Williams thing - not sure how that is possible, given the level of atrocity. Good Lord.

I'd buy the t-shirt, but I can't seem to make myself promote the spelling of dook as it is currently presented...

;)

Let me clarify. I didn't cry silly, girly-man tears. No, they were hate-filled, "not taking it anymore," "we're the oldest state university in the country and duke's only been around since the Depression" kind of tears. The column brought out the same emotion in me that I imagine Ralphie Parker felt when he faced down Scott Farkus. Mad tears.

Go to Hell dook!

How did your answer go over?

Wow. Somewhere back in college (Michigan State Univ) I took an immediate, visceral dislike to Duke based primarily on their basketball team. But only now do I learn about the *really* nasty shit they pulled! Good luck Tar Heels!

"In the summer of 1988 or so, our center Scott Williams found out that his father had killed his mother and then turned the gun on himself. At the next UNC-Duke game in Durham, the "Cameron Crazies" shouted out "Orphan! Orphan!" That's really all you need to know."

------------

The next UNC-Duke game in Durham after that tragedy was on January 18th, 1989. Duke was ranked #1. Carolina was #13. Scott Williams came off the bench and was the game high scorer with 22 points. UNC killed Duke 91-71.

I remember the game. I was there, sophomore, in the third row risers, south end baseline, near where the band used to sit. There were no cheersheets back in those days. Cameron Crazies hadn't yet been scolded by the Chancellor. Cheers were spontaneous; most originated by the BOG independent men's dorm animals who were notorious for pushing the edge of the envelope. They usually sat as a group along the west sideline, right behind the partition.

Scott Williams' tragedy was well-known to all in the Triangle area. There was a lot of sympathy for him amongst the Duke fans. If Coach K or anyone asked that we treat that topic as off-limits, I never heard of it; but it went without saying. The truth is that there was no such cheer. Never happened. I don't know where this legend originated, but it's gotten legs because it sounds plausible, given the reputation of the Cameron Crazies, just like the erroneous attribution of the "PLO" chant for Steve Kerr. That didn't happen at Duke either.

About the only speculation I can offer that might give it a kernal of truth is there might have been a single heckler who tried to get something going, but only those around him would've heard it, and the incident could have then morphed into a Crazy chant thing. I can't say that that didn't happen because you can't hear everything that every person shouts in the arena. But chant? No. We'd done some deplorable things for sure. But not that one.

Go ahead and hate Duke and Dukies. It's your birthright. But I hope it wasn't based on this alleged incident. There are enough real reasons to hate Duke without relying on urban legend.

- Ola

This is such an urban legend that it's almost funny. It never happened.
It's message board fodder.
OK. Here's one.....

Fans at a UNC game gang rapped an opposing coaches daughter.....
See simply no truth in that statement

Clearly, an urban legend because Debbie ALWAYS consented...

The story about the "orphan" chant was corroborated by several independent sources THE NIGHT OF THE GAME in 1989, including managerial staff, and several people working stats. I heard the story hours after it happened by some people who were upset in the actual sports info dept. - which means it was happening behind our bench. While I have no doubt that Ola Jero was not in a position to hear it, I have no doubt it happened.

The story about the "orphan" chant was corroborated by several independent sources THE NIGHT OF THE GAME in 1989, including managerial staff, and several people working stats. I heard the story hours after it happened by some people who were upset in the actual sports info dept. - which means it was happening behind our bench.

_______________________________________________

But yeat no one has ever gone "on the record" with this story. Is it in print anywhere besides..
A. A Message Board
B. A Blog or "Duke Hater" site
???????

I don't doubt the possibility of a FEW people doing that, but I would think that, with as much time as I have spent trying to find mention of it somewhere, that is even somewhat legit, I would have found at least a Quote from ...Scott Williams, Dean Smith or someone other than nameless "independent sources". or "I heard the story hours after it happened by some people who were upset in the actual sports info dept."

So this story only exist by Word of Mouth or on the Internet in the forums I mentioned earlier.

I am a Duke fan , but I am not a "Homer" that believes my team can do no wrong and anything said negative is a lie. So when an accusation is made, I check it out. Sometimes it is fact but in this case I can find NOTHING.

Just strikes me as odd that even folks that INSIST that it is true cannot offer up anything other than, I "heard".

I actually found this "thread" because a friend of mine who has drank the Kool-Aid sent it to me as "Proof" earlier he had said he Read it in a Dean Smith book, which I have inturn read and was read by another UNC gradute and He agree's with me that at least HIS copy didn't mention anything about such a chant or even a Heckle or Taunt.