Tonight (Saturday, April 2, 2022), for the first time ever, Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill’s storied basketball teams will meet in the NCAA Final Four. It is being heralded as one of the most exciting games in sports…ever. And the Governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper, an avid basketball fan himself (and UNC grad), has declared North Carolina to be the center of the college basketball universe. Those of us who live and work on Tobacco Road already knew that to be true, but it’s nice to have an official proclamation.
In light of all this, as one of the few places where Duke and UNC [materials] come together, we thought we’d take a look back at the first game between these two great basketball programs as described by the teams’ fellow students on the newspaper and yearbook staffs. On January 24, 1920, Duke (then Trinity College), took on UNC at Trinity in Durham and UNC won, 36-25.
The Daily Tar Heel and the Chronicle both published articles detailing the game (and both note a game that may have happened in 1898 but we can’t find any articles about it – it was in 1898 that UNC introduced features of a new game known as basketball to their gym)
Trinity College’s Chronicle staff had a bit of a different take on that particular game; the staff felt very strongly that it was a result of a “jinx” that Carolina won, not a better team. After all, they then went on to beat State College (NCSU).
The yearbooks from each school also comment on the first matchup in their basketball features. Trinity’s yearbook added a note that will sound a bit too familiar to 2022 ears – their season was almost ended before it started due to the flu epidemic.
Trinity’s Chanticleer staff felt it was a surprise to everyone – even UNC! – that UNC beat them:
UNC takes a different tack, describing their win not as a surprise versus Trinity but as the result of a lot of hard work at the gym:
The yearbooks also feature team portraits – with UNC already sporting their familiar logo in 1920.
We’ll see what the matchup looks like tonight and inevitably, the resulting hot takes, 102 years later!
If you want to check out more UNC and Duke content on DigitalNC, check out their partner pages. UNC is here and Duke’s is here.