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Duke-Princeton Series Holds Memorable Moments
Dec. 17, 2003
by Jim Sumner
Blue Devil Weekly
DURHAM, N.C. - Duke and Princeton square off this week for the 16th time in men's basketball. The rivalry has been pretty one-sided. Princeton has won only once, a 72-55 shellacking of the Devils in December 1981. That was Mike Krzyzewski's second season at Duke and the early-season loss to the Tigers was a harbinger of a bad season to come. Since then, however, Krzyzewski's team has played Princeton only once, winning 87-50 in the 2000 Preseason NIT.
As uneven as the series has been, there have been some memorable encounters between the two schools. On Jan. 6, 1940, a bitterly cold Saturday night, Duke and Princeton played the inaugural game in Cameron Indoor Stadium, which until 1972 was known as Duke Indoor Stadium.
It's tempting to look at Cameron as college basketball's equivalent of Wrigley Field or Fenway Park, a quaint, somewhat old-fashioned facility with a lot of atmosphere and tradition. In 1940, however, it was a state-of-the-art facility. It was the largest building used for college basketball south of Philadelphia's Palestra. The idea of an on-campus arena holding almost 9,000 fans was so daring that architect Horace Trumbauer suggested holding it down to three or four thousand. After all, argued Trumbauer, Yale's new arena, held only 3,000. Why would Duke need more?
Fortunately, Duke ignored Trumbauer's suggestion. By 1940 standards, the Indoor Stadium was positively palatial. Contemporaries especially were impressed by the seating divisions. Floor seating was "exclusively for students," while the upstairs boasted 6,000 theater-style seats. Best of all, the upper-level seats were reserved. No longer would Duke fans be forced to sit through the agonies of a freshman preliminary game in order to reserve a choice seat for the varsity encounter.
Duke wanted to christen the new building in style. A dedication ceremony was scheduled for 8 p.m., with the tipoff to follow. The keynote speaker was Robert B. House, a dean at the University of North Carolina, speaking on behalf of the Southern Conference. Perhaps the basketball gods were offended at the idea of a UNC academic opening the Duke Indoor Stadium. At precisely 8 p.m., House and the other dignitaries made their way to the make-shift podium and the building went pitch black. A fuse had blown. After a 10-minute delay House made his remarks, followed by Duke vice president William H. Wannamaker. The first game started a little late.
The 1940 Duke team was one of Eddie Cameron's better squads, ending the season at 19-7. Duke entered the Princeton game with a 3-2 mark, with one of the losses to Hank Iba's Oklahoma A&M powerhouse. Princeton was an unknown commodity. Raleigh sportswriter Anthony McKevlin asserted: "Little is known hereabouts of the strength of the Princeton Tigers. But the home folks believe the Duke boys can take the measure of the Tigers." How's that for a scouting report?
Duke forward Glenn Price became the first player to score a point in the new building when he converted a free throw. Moments later Price scored the first field goal, giving Duke a 3-0 lead. Duke jumped to a 9-3 lead but Princeton fought back to tie the game at intermission, 16-16.
The game remained close for much of the second half. The Blue Devils led 27-25 with 5:45 left, when they went on the kind of scoring spree that would characterize future Duke teams. Fittingly, Price was the key. He finished a fast break with a layup, making the score 29-25. He added to the lead with a layup in traffic. Chuck Holley scored inside for Duke to make the score 33-25. A Bill Parsons set shot and a Tom Connelly free throw made the score 36-25 with 3:35 left. Duke had gone on a 9-0 run in a little more than two minutes, an amazing explosion in an era when teams rarely topped 40 points. Princeton scored a meaningless field goal and the game ended with Duke on top 36-27. Price's 13 points led all scorers; Holley added six. The announced crowd was 7,500 ? well short of a sellout but still the biggest crowd ever to see a college basketball game in the South.
Duke and Princeton played only once in the next two decades, a Duke win in 1952. In March of 1960 the two schools met at Madison Square Garden in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Vic Bubas' first Duke team had pulled off an upset to win the ACC Tournament, while Princeton was the Ivy League champion. Duke had little trouble with Princeton, jumping to a 41-26 halftime lead and cruising to a 84-60 win. Duke's Doug Kistler led all scorers with 26 points. He was supported by Howard Hurt with 16 points, while John Frye came off the bench to add 15 points. The significance of this game? It was the first time Duke had ever won a game in the NCAA Tournament. Duke went on to defeat St. Joseph's before losing to NYU in the Eastern Regional title game.
Shortly afterwards Bubas lost an important recruiting battle to Princeton, when Missouri prep sensation Bill Bradley broke a commitment to Duke at the last minute and enrolled at Princeton instead. Bradley, who would have played at least one varsity season at Duke with Art Heyman, Jeff Mullins, Jack Marin, Steve Vacendak and Bob Verga, was the consensus 1965 national player of the year.
Bubas continued to have its way with Princeton on the court, winning regular-season games in December of 1962, 1967 and 1968. The 1968 game was an impressive 81-62 win at Madison Square Garden over a team that included future NBA star Geoff Petrie. This win ran Duke's record to 3-0 and propelled Duke to the number nine spot in the Associated Press poll. Given that Duke had spent most of the 1960s in the higher reaches of the polls, no one suspected that Duke would follow that win with four consecutive losses and drop out of the top 10. It would be three coaches and nine seasons before Duke made another appearance in the AP top 10.
Duke continued to play Princeton on a sporadic basis in the 1970s, winning a couple of close calls and winning some that weren't so close. Duke edged the Tigers in Greensboro in the 1970-71 opener. Neil McGeachy's sole Duke team defeated Princeton in January of 1974 and did so at Princeton. The following December, Bill Foster's third win at Duke was a 66-57 victory over Princeton in the consolation game of the Carolina Classic in Columbia, South Carolina.
This year's Duke-Princeton game hardly has the importance of the first game in Cameron or an NCAA matchup. Nor are we likely to see Duke drop out of the top 10 for nine seasons following this game. But fans may want to keep in mind that the two academic heavyweights have met in some important contests over the years.
