WRAL Sports Fan

WRALSportsFan

A Chilling Update From Krzyzewskiville

By Josh Stillman

Jan 21, 2008

Josh Stillman, a Duke freshman from Cary, is camping ouf for the March 8 men's basketball game between Duke and North Carolina in Cameron Indoor Stadium. He will write about his experiences for WRAL.com.

 

It was around the time I got into my sleeping bag fully clothed, in four layers, that I really started to doubt my commitment.

And with the temperature measuring in at a whopping 30 degrees outside, I felt fairly certain that mine wasn’t the only resolve being tested. In fact, I was certain. Multiple tents had already dropped out, and if the weather continued to have its way with us, many more would follow.

At first it seemed like a pretty sweet deal. For the simple task of sleeping outside five nights a week, I would be granted entrance into the March 8 Duke-UNC men’s basketball game at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

To have a free spot in the student section, when regular tickets were getting scalped for three grand, was simply too good of an opportunity to pass up. And on top of that, in a line of 40 tents with 12 to a group, I would be in tent seven — guaranteed front row.

But before you place a bounty on my head, let me make on thing very clear: tenting is no fun.

Krzyzewskiville, as the quad where we camp out is called, is where weak men go to die and where strong men go to seriously rethink their masculinity. For three months, four hundred or so Duke students lay themselves at the mercy of North Carolina’s winter weather, all in the name of one basketball game.

There is no sympathy here. Once the initial excitement has worn off, once life in a completely unmonitored, bacchanalian zoo has lost its novelty, reality sets in like a snow shovel to the face. Next thing you know, you’ve only been there three days and already want to burn your tent down.

It sounds absurd … and it is. But those that remain at the end will have proven themselves to be the most dedicated and enthusiastic fans the country has to offer.

The Cameron Crazies have earned the title in spades, and we take our role as the sixth man extremely seriously.

Duke just better win that game.