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This Week in Duke Athletics History (December 7 - 13)
12/7/2020 1:13:00 PM | Field Hockey, Men's Soccer, Athletics
December 8
December 13
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- 2016 - Field Hockey – After leading the Blue Devils to a 16-4 record and fourth straight trip to the NCAA quarterfinals, Pam Bustin was named the 2016 Front Rush/National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) South Region Coach of the Year for the second time in the last four seasons. The award marks the fourth time in program history a Duke coach as received the honor.
- 1982 - Men's Soccer - Senior Joe Ulrich, Duke's defensive leader, won the Hermann Award as college soccer's national player of the year. Ulrich led the No. 1 Blue Devils into their first NCAA Championship game appearance. Garnering the award two days prior to the title game, Ulrich jumped on a flight after the ceremony in Tulsa, Okla., to join his teammates in Ft. Lauderdale for a meeting with Indiana.
Ulrich, a defender, captured the award not based on his scoring statistics, but rather his impact on the field and importance to the success of the team. "I think the main reason they picked me was they considered things like leadership role, playing with your head — not making mental mistakes — things like that. It's soccer sense," Ulrich told the Duke Chronicle.
In his two seasons at Duke, he transferred in as a sophomore, Ulrich was a versatile player and scored 13 goals overall.
- 1982 - Men's Soccer - Duke and Indiana played in the then-longest game in NCAA men's soccer history, battling to eight overtimes in the NCAA title match. The Hoosiers scored late in the eighth overtime to win 2-1. The contest is now the second longest game in NCAA soccer history.
Tied 1-1 after the regulation 90, the Blue Devils and Hoosiers played another 69:16 as Indiana scored late in the eighth overtime to emerge with the 2-1 victory. It was the first NCAA title game appearance for the Blue Devils and Sean McCoy scored the lone goal for Duke in the 82nd minute to force overtime.
- 1999 - Men's Soccer - Ali Curtis joined rare company on this Saturday, becoming the fifth Blue Devil to win the Hermann Award. Curtis tied the Duke single-season record for goals in a season with 17 and captured 114 points in the voting to edge Nick Garcia of Indiana for the sports highest honor.
"I can't even describe what I'm feeling right now," Curtis said after receiving the award. "I'm in shock. I'm surprised and I'm excited. I don't think words can describe how I feel right now."
Curtis, just three days prior, came up a few votes short of winning the Missouri Athletic Club player of the year award despite receiving more first-place votes than UCLA's Sasha Victorine. The Hermann Award was the final honor for Curtis who also was named the ACC Player of the Year after totaling 40 points.
- 2013 – Field Hockey – For the first time in her career, Pam Bustin was honored as the 2013 Kookaburra/National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) South Region Coach of the Year. She guided the program to a 17-6 ledger with an appearance in the NCAA championship game. Her accolade marks the third honor for a Duke coach as Jacki Silar received the award in 1990 and 1992.
December 13
- 1983 - Men's Soccer - Mike Jeffries garnered the top honor in college soccer, winning the Hermann Award. Jeffries, a defensive standout, started a school-record 89 consecutive games. In that span, the Blue Devils produced a 71-11-7 record. Duke finished the 1983 season with an 18-2-2 record and sat at the top spot in the polls for nine straight weeks. With Jeffries playing sweeper, Duke allowed 14 goals in 22 games.
"I was surprised. I felt pure happiness. Elation," said Jeffries, presented the trophy in Las 'Vegas. "This is a tremendous award. This is something I will always be proud of and never forget," Jeffries told the Duke Chronicle.
- 1986 - Men's Soccer - The Blue Devils brought home the school's first NCAA team championship, clinching the men's soccer title with a 1-0 victory over Akron in Tacoma, Washington.
The 1986 triumph erased some of the sting from Duke's 2-1, eight-overtime defeat by Indiana in the 1982 title match and fulfilled a four-year dream of that year's class of 11 seniors to return to the championship game and bring the trophy home.
Blue Devils Tom Stone and Kelly Weadock claimed the offensive and defensive most valuable player awards in the game. Stone, a junior forward, scored the lone goal at 46:38, and senior sweeper Weadock, starting all 87 games in his Duke career, anchored the Blue Devils' defense to its 12th shutout of the season.
The quick-striking Blue Devils took only 1:38 of the second half to put the game's only goal on the scoreboard. Robert Probst was fouled near midfield by Akron forward Roderick Scott.
Freshman midfielder Joe Valenti took the long free kick for Duke. He crossed the ball over the head of Akron sweeper Matt Smith to the far post for Carl Williamson, who knocked it back to the near post for Stone.
#GoDuke
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