This week, ESPN reported that Coach Mike Krzyzewski will retire as Duke head basketball coach after the 2021-22 college basketball season, his 42nd year at Duke. A few of us were privileged enough to be freshmen at Duke back in 1980, when Coach K was hired to replace Bill Foster. Foster had taken a very young Duke team, which included Gene Banks, Kenny Dennard, Mike Gminski, Jim Spanarkel, Bob Bender, and Jim Suddath, to the National Championship game in 1978. While Coach K is a legend now, it took a few years at Duke for him to get his footing. And as he did, some of us, as 19- and 20-year-olds were a bit petulant and impatient. And we said some things we later regretted. Many years later, we shared our thoughts and an apology with Coach K.
Thanksgiving, 2011
Coach Mike Krzyzewski
c/o Duke Athletic Department
Schwartz/Butters Building
Box 90556
Durham, North Carolina 27708
Dear Coach K,
We are writing you to thank you for your acts of kindness to us some 30 years ago, to express our sincerest appreciation for all you have done for Duke University and for us, and to sincerely apologize to you and your family for things many Duke fans, including we ourselves, were thinking and saying in 1981, 1982, and 1983.
You and we came to Duke all around the same time. Some of us arrived as freshman in September 1979, others as January-freshman in January 1980, and you came, of course, later that spring. Like countless others before and after us, we can remember – as though it happened yesterday – the first Duke basketball game we were a part of at Cameron. Most of us had been avid sports fans all of our young lives. We grew up watching all kinds of great sport. We were fortunate to witness much of the career of Mohammed Ali, the miracle Mets 1969 Championship season, Wilt and Kareem, the great Montreal Canadians, and Broadway Joe Namath. We thought we had seen it all. But we were very wrong.
For all of us, our first Duke game was overwhelming, and like so many Duke freshmen, we were transformed. For the January-freshmen, our first game was against no less than the North Carolina Tar Heels and their legendary coach Dean Smith. As we walked into Cameron that day, the Devils were undefeated and ranked number one in the country. What none of us knew then, and what no one could have known, is that it would be the last time during our years at Duke that the team would reach that place. The public story you know better than we – Bill Foster resigns, Tom Butters starts a nationwide search, a young coach is hired with a name no one can pronounce, and from the outside, the Duke basketball program seems to crumble for several years . . .
During those early years, we, as restless and foolish young men, were seeking too much too soon. We had seen on TV Kenny Dennard play in the Final Four and would see in person Gene Banks hit a long shot at the buzzer against Carolina to force overtime and later to win. We figured that we deserved at least as much from the next generation of Duke basketball recruits. Emma, Engelland and Tissaw were our team, and the burden was on you to deliver on what had been provided. "Deliver it now," we insisted, by any means possible on the court. But, as you remember, what happened was that games slipped away, quicker players beating your outmanned team time and again. And we complained. Oh how we complained; to ourselves, and publicly during the games, imploring our new coach to do what we thought was right, switch to the quick fix . . . free your undermanned team with a zone . . . do anything to win.
As we now look back on those rantings as young adults, we know much more than we did then. As we build families ourselves, we know the importance of solid foundations. We recognize that what you were doing was creating a foundation of hard work, selflessness and family in those early years. We recognize that quick fixes, whether in enforcing values to a
toddler, or building a team or organization, do not create such strong foundations. Your lessons were something that seeped in gradually over time through our day to day lives. Soon after your foundation was set, we recognized your wisdom. Now your legacy is the joy and happiness you have constructed on top of the foundation. It is a legacy that has most impacted your players, but has also reached us and our children.
We have taken great pleasure in watching from afar over the past thirty years; so many joyful experiences as your teams won and lost with passion and desire. We thank you for that joy. And as you reach one milestone after another, we watch you and your teams play and we teach our children the many lessons that will serve them well; lessons you taught us without ever knowing us. Why it’s OK to lose if you have played your hardest. Why respecting your opponent is necessary for self respect and success. What you can achieve with hard work.
But we also have this nagging feeling from those days in 1981, 1982, and 1983. And so we write you this Thanksgiving to thank you for all you do and have done for Duke, for us, and for so many others – we have not forgotten that cold night in January 1981, when you braved the cold and brought films for us fans to watch as we waited over night to enter Cameron before the Carolina game. We thank you for your acts of kindness and for all you have taught us. And most importantly, we sincerely apologize for anything we said then that may have hurt you or your family. We were wrong.
Good luck with the rest of the season. You have already succeeded.
- - -
Two months later . . . this email arrived:
From: Gerry Brown <gbbrown@duaa.duke.edu>
To: Black, Cole
Sent: Sun Dec 18 07:01:19 2011
Subject: from Coach K
Cole,
Your letter was terrific. Thanks for being there every step of the way. Please pass along my thanks to Craig, Alan, Paul, Gus and George. It has been amazing being here at Duke for over three decades. Having the support of students like yourself helped build our program to where it is today. I appreciate that very much.
I hope that you will always enjoy following our teams. Our squad this year is a good one. We have a great group of young men. Hopefully, we can stay healthy and compete for a championship. Take care and thanks again for your thoughtfulness.
My Best Always,
Coach K
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