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Duke, N.C. Central set to go

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: September 23, 2009

DURHAM - The two universities in Durham don't seem to have much in common other than geography. One has a student body that is predominantly white, the other one that is mostly black. One school is elite and expensive, the other egalitarian and economical.

But Duke and N.C. Central hope that their first meeting in football Saturday will mark the next step toward bridging the gap that for years stretched well beyond the 5 miles that separate the campuses.

"I don't know about the past. I do know about the present," Coach David Cutcliffe of Duke said yesterday. "I see a celebration going on at Central about who they are. There's a celebration going on at Duke about who we are. You put the two together.... It's a celebration of two programs headed in the right direction."

On the field, the wise guys might crack that the perennially downtrodden Blue Devils (1-2) merely looked across town to find a team they have a chance to beat. After a quick rise to prominence in the Division II CIAA football, N.C. Central is in the third year of its move to Division I.

But the significance of this game extends beyond X's and O's. For both schools, it marks an attempt to bring harmony to a region where school ties run deep.

Barbershops and bars have been buzzing for months about whether the Eagles (0-3) can keep things competitive against a Blue Devils team that already has lost to an FCS team this season.

"I've gone to church, I've gone to grocery stores, I've been out in the town," Coach Mose Rison of Central said. "Everybody that lives around here has said they're really looking forward to playing this football game and what it's going to do for this city."

On the surface, Duke might not seem to share much with N.C. Central.

But a closer look reveals a significant tie: Well before Kevin White took over as Duke's athletics director, he was coaching track at Central Michigan when Rison played football there. White later was hired as the AD at the same Michigan high school that Rison's wife attended.