Today’s video offers some wonderful old footage of Duke-UNC in the 1960 ACC Tournament. and in color, no less. At that point, of course, the tournament was still held in Reynolds Coliseum, which explains the red floor.
This was Duke’s first year under Vic Bubas, the coach who really established Duke as a national power. Frank McGuire still coached the Tar Heels and Everett Case stalked the sidelines for NC State.
Bubas found success quickly at Duke. In his first season, the Blue Devils finished in fourth
place (17-11/7-7) and went on to beat South Carolina, North Carolina, and Wake Forest in the ACC Tournament to claim Duke’s first ACC title.
That team would go on to reach the Elite Eight after beating Princeton and Saint Joseph’s before losing to NYU.
Duke won this game, 71-69. Tensions were already heading to a different level, though: Art Heyman was a freshman in Durham after committing to UNC, and that didn’t go over well. There were punches thrown in the freshman game and Heyman ended up with stitches. By the time the teams met in Durham, in February, tensions were very high and a legendary brawl broke out at the end of the game.
The rivalry has endured at a high level since then.
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