Prentice Hall Student Success SuperSite

One Student's Journey

Athletes Foot in Mouth

Saturday night, the goalposts came down at Wallace Wade Stadium.

It wasn't like we were playing UNC, and it wasn't a completely lopsided score, but this was a big win for the Duke football team. It broke our losing streak. And I do mean streak - try fifteen games in a row. But last night, all that changed. It was a sight.

I wasn't there for the victory (stupid me - I assumed we would lose, so I didn't go), but they tell me that all hell broke loose when the buzzer sounded. The students swarmed the field, and the baseball team tore down the goalposts and carried them all the way to the chapel lawn. That's the kind of spirit I've been waiting for. That's the Duke I chose to attend.

Sports on campus are a huge issue for a number of reasons. First off, the fans are completely insane. Football isn't really a big draw, but people around here, including me, are already counting down to basketball season. Dick Vitale himself is making an appearance at Midnight Madness. And our soccer team's drawing a crowd too, though I can name plenty of girls who watch the soccer games for reasons other than school spirit. I have to confess, Jay Heaps (# 7) is a pretty good reason for me!

Then there are the other sports here, ranging from lacrosse to tennis to skydiving. Practically anyone can get involved with a sport on any level. You can't attend this school and not be influenced by athletics in some way.

But some people around here are trying. There was an article in one of the undergrad publications a while ago called "Duke must choose an identity." The author basically said that it's impossible to have a school with great academics and equally awesome athletics. He pounded Nan Keohane, the Duke president, for her methods of pushing up Duke's academic status in the polls (it's odd, everyone else around here seemed excited to be tied with Yale for third in the country.) And he basically implied that the reason we aren't ever number one is that we concentrate on athletics too much. Is he saying that ridding ourselves of our sports and school spirit will push us up even more?

The Countdown 8/25
Moving in 9/1
Going to Class 9/8
Rated PG 9/15
Athletes Foot in Mouth 9/22
Shaken Not Stirred 9/29
Sleeping with the Enemy 10/6
Withdrawal Symptoms 10/13
Why Duke? 10/20
Par-ants Weekend 10/27
Halloween 11/3
Who Am I? 11/10
Travel Guide 11/17
Give Me a Break 11/24
Thank You 12/1
Campus Camp-out 12/8
Apply Yourself 12/15
Rushing Back to School 1/26
Chi-Omega Land 2/2
Apply Yourself #2 2/9
Three Month Itch 2/16
School Daze 2/23
Politics and Popularity 3/2
They Came They Saw, They Choked 3/9
Dating at Duke 3/16
Weekly Update 3/30
Beep Beep 4/6
Extra,Extra 4/13
Room to Move 4/20
End of the Innocense 4/27
Help Me 5/1
The Last Hurrah 5/8

I wonder what this guy's take on the football victory is. I wonder if he would have preferred us to all stay at home and study instead of supporting the team. I wonder if that's what people expect out of college. Because if it is, then they're sorely, terribly wrong.

College is an amazing place - sure, it's a place to get an education, but the idea of "education" has a lot to do with school spirit and people. You can get a pretty good book education by staying at home and reading all the time. You can give yourself your own homework, you can grade your papers, and you can learn a lot. But you won't have learned very much that's important, because you won't know a thing about life. Seems to me that Duke has already chosen its identity. It's chosen to be real. And for all I care, the author of that article can go to... well, he can go to UNC.