Our Night at Cameron

Emily and I both loved college sports. Since I graduated from Penn State, I am a huge Nittany Lions football fan. Virginia Tech had some great seasons while Emily was there, and she quickly became a Hokies fanatic! Since I started Duke graduate school during her sophmore year at Tech, we made a deal that I would get tickets for her to see a Duke basketball game and she would get me some VT football tickets. Emily and I saw the Duke-VT football game together her junior year, and the UNC-VT game her senior year (both games VT blew out their opponents, but were GREAT times!) My first year at Duke I didn't campout for tickets since I was extremely busy with classes, and my second year Emily was abroad in Switzerland for most of the basketball season. Finally last year I promised her that I would do whatever it took to get us both tickets to the Duke-VT game. I camped out for season tickets with all of my friends, and told them I would be willing to trade to get two tickets for the VT game.

Everyone thought I was nuts since VT isn't exactly known for their stellar basketball program and gladly traded with me so I could get the ticket. Everything looked good to go for the game until my ice hockey team here decided to enter a tournament in Florida the same weekend as the Duke-Tech game! I was torn. We don't go to many hockey tournaments during our season, but I went through so much to get the Tech tickets and I couldn't break a promise to my sister. I decided to go to the hockey tournament for the first 2 games, then fly home early to be back for the basketball game for my sister. My hockey team again thought I was crazy to leave early for such a "bad" game (I think more people would have understood if it was UNC-Duke or something like that). But when I explained it was a promise to my sister, and family comes first no matter what, they understood and I left the tournament.

Well everyone was WRONG thinking that the game would be a Duke blowout! That game was one of the most exciting games in recent Duke history! The game was close throughout the entire first half, with Virginia Tech making a last shot before half to pull ahead. This was Emily's reaction to the half-time score: (you can just see the "whaaaaaaaaat?!!" in her eyes...)

Emily and I had so much fun during the game, and I taught her all of the Duke chants and traditions. This was her first college basketball game ever and she was so excited! I made her wear Duke blue (don't get mad at me Tech fans!!) more so she wouldn't get harrassed and could participate in the fun cheers with everyone :-) The second half of the game was just as close as the first and it started looking really grim for the Blue Devils. Could they possibly lose their first game of the season - AT HOME - to the HOKIES?! I started getting kinda depressed - the devils were down by 2 points and there was only 1.7 seconds left in the game. I told Emily "It's over... I can't believe they are going to lose!" Emily knew how into sports I was and felt bad that I may be in a bad mood if they lose and said, "hey you never know - they could pull it out." I replied "It would take a miracle for them to win this one..."

Well a miracle did happen that night. With 1.7 seconds left and the ball in Virginia Tech's side of the court, McRobers inbounded the ball to Sean Dockery who took 1 dribble and shot a desperation shot from a little over mid-court. To everyone's amazement, the ball went into the basket and the crowd went NUTS!!!!! It was deafening in Cameron Indoor Stadium and the Cameron Crazies started rushing the court. I was screaming and hugging Emily and she shouted, "Let's rush the court!!!" I was a little worried - it looked like security was trying to stop people from rushing, but what the hell, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity! So we jumped over the seats in front of us, jumped the security tape, and were on the court!! I was overwhelmed:

Well rushing the court wasn't enough for Emily. She immediately sought out the Blue Devil Mascot and insisted we harrass him for a picture! She gave her camera to some guys standing around and asked for them to take a picture with the Mascot. I couldn't believe what was happening!!! This was such an amazing night:


And yes, the blue devil does have a headband that reads, "Your mom's a HO-kie!" (it changes for each game). Emily and I were overjoyed with how amazing the game was. I told her how all my friends made fun of me for all the things I had to go through to make it to this game against the "lowly" Hokies. They couldn't have been more wrong. Virginia Tech played great that game, and the Blue Devils needed a miracle last second shot to win the game. Emily exclaimed that she could never go to another college basketball game again because nothing could ever compare to that night. Wow, am I thankful I made my sister a priority, and we had this great memory that I will never forget...