Next time you, the Terp fan, wants to criticize Duke, consider these facts.
Trinity College, a small Methodist University in North Carolina, was looking to move in the late 1800s. Washington Duke, a devout Methodist tobacco farmer who hit it big after returning from the Civil War with next to nothing, wanted them in Durham. So he outbid the city of Raleigh to get Trinity to move to his hometown, Durham. A little more than 30 years later, his son, James Buchanan Duke– by then one of the wealthiest men in America, gave a large endowment to the university and it changed its name to Duke to honor the late Washington Duke.
So next time you want to hate on Duke, remember the man who made your passion possible.
All this is obviously relevant because I visited the Duke Homestead and Tobacco Museum in Durham this afternoon while I was trying to kill time before the Terp men’s lacrosse game at UNC. (All of the information above was courtesy of my brilliant tour guide, Jennifer.)
I learned a lot about “bright leaf” tobacco cultivation, saw a model Liberty Bell made out of tobacco and hung out with this cool animatronic tobacco farmer.
It’s a great night for lacrosse in Chapel Hill, and thanks to the P.A. announcer here, fans are well aware of Duke’s losses in men’s basketball and men’s lacrosse this afternoon. Both announcements got loud ovations from both Terp and Tar Heel fans.
There was no mention of James Buchanan Duke.
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