Not sure if you are a basketball fan or not, but here in the triangle college basketball reigns supreme as the top sport. With UNC, Duke, and NC State all so close to one another, rivalries tend to run pretty intense. Many say the UNC – Duke rivalry is the best in all of sports.  The two coaches of this rivalry Roy Williams (UNC) and Mike Kr…eh, Coach K (Duke) recently appeared in a commercial together. pretty funny.

This is the third and final part of my account of my recent trip to Duke University that includes flashbacks and present narratives. Feel free to catch up by reading part 1 and part 2.

It met my eyes as soon as a opened the door. I didn’t even get a second to prepare my soul for this encounter. Couldn’t we have started out in the duke swimming or lacrosse section of the hall of fame? Instead what met my eyes was a massive likeness of the face of Coach K, etched into a gold plate, positioned about 9 ft high and encased in glass. Below him sat the 3 national championship trophies duke has secured under his watch and the nets from the rims of those games. I stopped. Just like I did that first day in bible study. My nemesis. Years of highlights flashed through my mind in seconds. The Wojo slap, Laetner’s face stomp, Battier’s flops, Capel’s half court heave, Montross’s eye, Henderson’s elbow, Cherokee Parks?, Stackhouse’s slam, Chris Collins v. Matt Daugherty bout, Marvin’s 3pt play…It felt like a lifetime. In a way, it was. My years as a tarheel had conditioned me to view this very moment as if I were Moses and I just encountered the bronze calf built in worship of the false god Baal. Should I shatter the glass and throw down this idolatrous, pagan horror? Then…finally…I took the most important step, the first step…

February 11, 2009. I’m not only a married man, but as of August 8, a father. My son’s room looks like it is sponsored by the UNC student store. The ramses mobile unit that hangs over his crib & plays that same alma mater I’ve sung so many times is my personal favorite item. I can only imagine my father in that exact same place with me some 26 years ago.  See, even as I am coming to respect my nemesis, there is no question where my allegiance lay. So there I sit with my son in front of the television minutes before the his very first UNC v Duke game. Im explaining these past 7 years to him. I’m explaining the rivalry, at least my generation’s experience with it. he’s drooling. Im walking through the scrapbook of my mind trying to somehow transfer my allegiances to him. He suddenly locks eyes with me. I’ve connected! he passes gas. oh well, I tried. 5 minutes into the game he is asleep. And I realize I could turn off the game and all would be well. Carolina went on to win that game, but not because of how much of it I watched. I realized what matters to me, and what I matter to, was sitting right in front of me. Bizarre really, but freeing also. I was no longer a slave to the UNC – Duke rivalry, but a fan. Some will say I’ve lost my edge. Thats preposterous. I’ve sharpened my edge against reality. And I can deal with a UNC loss now. I can hang out with duke people now. Heck, I bet I could even go into Cameron Indoor Stadium now.

On our way out of the Duke Hall of Fame I turn around and take one last look. I’d gone down every major memory lane duke sports has to offer. I stared down tributes to laetner, dawkins, battier, williams, and the K himself. I had lived through it. And a new respect for my enemy had grown as a part of it. See, UNC needs Duke to be good, to be great even. A rival is only a rival because he is a worthy adversary. I’m grateful for their victories and their successes even as much as they hurt when it happens. That’s what makes Tyler Hansborough’s 4-0 record at Cameron Indoor all the more impressive. I actually do believe this rivalry to be the best in all of sports and I am glad to be in the thick of it. But more than that, I consider myself blessed, in the truest sense of the word, to work at a church that has duke and unc students worshipping alongside one another, growing alongside one another, and ministering alongside one another. That may sound trivial, but when I baptized Duke, UNC, and NCSU students all in one day in the same pool, it was quite meaningful. The Gospel is bigger and I am actually in a place where people are more amped about Jesus than they are about their university sports teams. Its cool.

I hope you enjoyed this trip down my life on tobacco road.

This is part 2 of my account of a recent trip I took to Duke university, told in the present, with flashbacks through the 7 years it took to get to that day.

 Part 1

We approach Duke Chapel. The door is open. Does the chapel know im a tarheel? Will a priest greet me and throw me into a dungeon? I take my chances. No services going on so we have full access into the chapel. Its impressive. Very impressive actually. Organ pipes framed by ornate wood carvings, intricately painted stain glass windows, and downright impressive stone architecture. As I took a picture the organ pipes came to life. “oh no, im busted. Are the going to take me away? I knew they’d find out.”

Spring 2004. I’m approaching graduation and still involved in that late night bible study over at what is now officially The Summit Church.  I also lead a guys bible study for freshmen and sophomores at UNC. Those 4 to 5 Duke guys have grown to 7 or 8 along with 7 or 8 UNC guys. We no longer sit segregated by shades of blue, and for the record a full scale brawl did not take place on that first morning we met together. I actually do call these guys…friends…brothers even. I…its hard to believe still…pray with these guys. We pray for our campuses together.

Back outside I call one of my old bible study friends…we work together now…both on staff at the Summit Church. Jonathan of course knows Duke’s campus. So I call him to find out how to get to…Cameron Indoor Stadium. Maybe the epicenter of Duke lore, and definitely what I have long held at the very core of my despise of Duke university. With the help of Jonathan, and a random student…a friendly student (its happening again!), we make it to Cameron. We assume we will only be able to see it & take some pictures. As we start taking pictures another random student offers to take pics for us. What is up with the friendliness? To our surprise, the door to cameron is open…

Still Spring 2004. Senior Night at the Dean Dome. I pulled hard for UNC and hard against Duke. Just want to clear up that I never wavered for a moment in where my fanship stands. The alma mater comes up after the game. Caught up in the moment my comrades and I start singing the version my aunt (UNC alum) taught me from her days… If you know the first part of UNC’s alma, this replaces the words from “hark the sound” to “NCU.”  “On the banks of durham’s ditches…where the tarheels puke…live 10,000 sons of _____ by the name of Duke.” As I sing I think suddenly, well maybe only like 9,950 because I know some cool people there. An epiphany: My despise of duke as a whole must, logically (I cant logically despise my friends), be redirected to just the sports teams. but wait, one of those guys in my bible study plays for duke’s soccer team. hmmm, ok, JUST Duke Basketball (football there is too sad to hate). Oh, and my younger brother is at this point a freshman at NC State. WHY GOD!?!

We walk in, trying to look like we are supposed to be there. The inside is pretty dissapointing. Small lobby with thick stripes on the carpet leading toward double doors on each side of the room. To the right, a huge name plate list of every duke all american. I thought my reaction would be vomit, but I found myself looking at it in appreciation of the history on it. talented players, whom I long despised, have come through here. Anyways, since there is little in this room, we check the next set of doors. they are open too. We walk…onto the floor of cameron indoor stadium! OOPS! Mid-practice too! Apparently we had entered the building through the student entrance. We got a few looks then completely blew our cover as we gawked up into the rafters. We turned and walked right back out, but were not deterred…

January 2007. I’ve been asked to work part-time for a second year at the Summit helping them establish a small groups ministry. Im rolling through seminary where my immersion in theological study has put everything else on the back burner. My despise of duke’s basketball team has encountered serious problems. Over the past 3 years, one former Duke player of the year has become a christian at the Summit, and another POY and at least one of the coaches have visited on multiple occasions. I console my tarheel spirit with phrases like “of course duke needs Jesus Spence. Their mascot is a devil. when they find Jesus, they will all repent and turn to the light shade of blue.” Of course I knew guys who were both Christians and Dukies. And if I was honest with the rest of myself, I was truly more excited that the Summit was reaching Duke and UNC with the gospel than I was about any basketball game. Was I starting to…(gulp) grow up? impossible. But something had clearly changed.

upstairs after walking around the hallways, I happen upon a glass door that reads “duke hall of fame” which once again…is open…

The following is my attempt at telling a story in the present that also includes flashbacks.

Yesterday I did something for the first time. See, unlike some pastors on our staff at the Summit, I am ok letting you know which shade of blue I wear in the duke – unc rivalry. Yesterday was actually 7 years in the making. in the fall of 2000, I enrolled at UNC – Chapel Hill. Even though I was a tarheel before I enrolled (thanks dad!) I was quick to fully immerse myself into the love of Carolina that characterizes most who spend 4 years on the hill.
Yesterday’s adventure begins on towerview dr in Durham NC where I saw the first flag donning the Duke University seal as it hung from a lampost. The first lampost of several that, like trumpets in meidevil times, signal you are now entering Duke territory.

My freshman dorm room was filled with UNC paraphanalia. Pennants, Posters, Cups, t-shirts, comforter & sheet sets, the all important Fan Shirt, and a very random framed picture of Rick Pitino who my kentucky-born roomate adored. I went to all the games. Never left before singing the alma mater. Which, if you dont know, ends in a curse of our sworn enemey: “Go to hell Duke!”

Students are walking around. All in Duke garb. The dark blue is everywhere. That word…duke…its everywhere. We turn left onto the road the parking deck is on. We? I volunteered to take a friend (a duke fanatic) to see Duke’s campus for his first time along with his two young boys. We park at the bryan center. We stand up out of the car basically in the shadow of the towering, legendary, duke chapel. Is it staring at me? Does it know im not a dukie? I must press on.

Fall Junior Year (2002). I’ve found a church. Homestead Heights. They are talking about changing the name though. Calling it the Summit Church. Whatever, sounds cool to me. The pastor invites me to a bible study he holds for a group of college guys. They study theology and meet at…6:30 am on Friday mornings. I take him up on the offer, calling it my late thursday night bible study. I walk in my first morning with one other UNC guy and to my shock 4 or 5 guys wearing Duke clothes are sitting in the circle of folding chairs. I actually stopped walking. Then found a seat with a couple of guys wearing light blue.  This pastor was attempting the unthinkable. Duke & UNC students….together in a bible study? Supposedly there to become…friends….brothers???? This guy was a Campbell grad. Who did he think he was? How was he going to keep us from the inevitable brawl that was going to ensue? I didnt know these guys, but could only assume they worshipped satan.

to be continued…