The Cameron Indoor Stadium Experience

There are many places that a sports fan should go to before they pass on from this life. Fenway Park, Boston Garden, Yankee Stadium, Madison Square Garden, Dodger Stadium, and The Rose Bowl Stadium are just some of the places that are on many sports fans bucket list.

I had the opportunity to cross one of my personal bucket list items off my sports list this past weekend. Cameron Indoor Stadium at Duke University. My son, Zach Wilson, who is also my photographer/videographer, went with me and crossed this arena off of his bucket list as well. We left the arena smiling and feeling lucky to have experienced something that many college hoop fans have not yet seen.

Cameron Indoor Stadium has played host to some of the most iconic moments in college basketball history. It has also had some of the best teams in Duke Blue Devil history play there.

Jay Bilas, Bobby Hurley, Grant Hill, Christian Laettner, Johnny Dawkins, and Zion Williamson are some of the best modern players to display the blue and white colors of the Duke Blue Devils.

The Duke Blue Devils have been synonymous with winning and winning on a National Championship level. Five National Championship banners all hang together on one end of the arena. ACC Championship banners also hang from the rafters in Cameron Indoor. When you see all the championships that this school has won in basketball it is impressive to say the least. You automatically know that there has been something special happening at Duke for an extended period of time.

When you first see Duke’s home court it doesn’t really look like your typical basketball arena. Cameron Indoor is built with stone around the entire building. The look of the building is kind of “Harry Potter(ish)”. The doors are wooden with metal handles and all the entrances, windows are rounded and looking like you are headed into an old church.

There is also the area outside Cameron Indoor that is appropriately called “Krzyzewskiville” after their beloved former coach, Mike Krzyzewski. Students camp out here for tickets and their spot in line for the games. Even though this game with ASU was only an exhibition game there were plenty of students waiting to go into the arena.

For most Blue Devil fans it probably has been a religious experience going inside to root their team on.

The next thing you notice are the many glass cases with the history of Duke basketball in each one of them. There are the jerseys from past players, shoes of some of the players, banners, a Coach K case that talks about his wins in college basketball history, and palm prints on different basketballs from different past players.

If you don’t want to feel small, don’t put your hand on the ball with the Jahlil Okafor hand print. Okafor’s hands were massive.

Being there for the game against the Arizona State Sun Devils where the Duke Children’s Hospital was the big beneficiary it was evident that Blue Devil fans didn’t care what type of game this was. The bottom line was that it was Duke basketball.

The students came in and made it quite apparent that they were going to be loud and proud like they always are. Duke students take up one whole side of the arena on the lower level. Press row is literally right in front of them. The distance between my back and the knee caps of the Duke students was less than six inches. There were a few times where my son and I felt the knees of the students right behind us as they were cheering on their Blue Devils.

If the ball was inbounded on the press row side of the floor we saw the arms and hands of the students reaching over to try and distract the Sun Devils from inbounding the ball. My son and I would just look at each other, laugh, and have a smile about what we were experiencing.

The chants that the students had were funny, irreverent, creative, and were all meant to needle the Sun Devils. Students would chant “airball, airball” if Arizona State shot an air ball. Duke students would chant “You disappointed your team, you disappointed your team” if a Sun Devil turned the ball over.

Cameron Indoor Stadium is a spot where everyone has bought into the tradition of Duke, the winning culture of Duke, and where Duke has put itself in the pantheon of college basketball. The Blue Devils are a program that has earned all the accolades that it has received.

Seeing everything that Cameron Indoor provides for an experience for alumni, fans, and media makes it a one of kind destination for any kind of sports fan. If you have the chance to go to Duke do not turn it down.

You might change your mind about being a Blue Devil fan like I have.

Michael J. Wilson-The Daily Waiver