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Cameron Crazies swarm the court after
Duke defeated the
UNC Tar Heels in the 1999-2000 season
Cameron Crazies gathering in
K-ville a few hours before the 2000
UNC vs
Duke basketball game
The Cameron Crazies are the student supporters of Duke University's basketball teams, named for Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Crazies sit courtside in a 1,500 seat student section and begin cheering during warmups. Many Crazies paint their faces or bodies white and blue and wear Duke paraphernalia to represent their team. Throughout the game, the Crazies jump up and down when the opposing team has possession of the ball and yell cheers in unison at focal points of the game. Over the years, Duke's Cameron Crazies "have earned a reputation as the rowdiest, wittiest, best-organized college basketball fans in the land."[1] They reportedly invented the term "air ball" when they started chanting it on a North Carolina miss in 1979.[2][3][4] The number of fans painting themselves varies with the importance of the game, with games against the University of North Carolina generating the most enthusiasm. Another tradition developed by the Cameron Crazies - tenting in Krzyzewskiville - started in the 1980's. Some other colleges and universities have used the Crazies as a model for their own cheering sections at basketball games, such as Harvard University and Indiana University, both of which recently printed a run of Crimson Crazies t-shirts. The Duke student government recently banned Robertson Scholars from UNC (who attend Duke for one semester) from participating in tenting for the game versus UNC, although they can still get in via the walk-up line.[5] Some feel this is a violation of the Robertson Scholars Program, which states that "they have full student privileges at both Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill. This includes access to courses; faculty and research opportunities; and arts, cultural, and sporting events."[6]
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