THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 29, 1997 TAG: 9701290710
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK VEHORN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 147 lines
For decades they have shimmered like beacons, luring the nation's finest schoolboy basketball players to the Atlantic Coast Conference.
In the beginning there was Duke Indoor Stadium (now renamed in honor of former coach and athletic director Eddie Cameron) in Durham, Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, and Cole Field House in Maryland.
They were the giants of campus coliseums in the 1950s, and they helped establish the ACC as a conference that took pride in the hardwood sport that in most regions placed a distant second to football.
Large crowds of rabid fans and close-knit rivalries, especially along North Carolina's ``tobacco road,'' pumped unparalleled excitement and emotion into the legendary arenas that also included Carmichael Auditorium in Chapel Hill.
The carnival-like atmosphere was brought into the nation's living rooms by television cameras that began invading ACC arenas in the '60s. Wide-eyed kids with a strong dribble and a soft jump shot saw what was happening in those arenas and wanted to be part of it.
``It was the big-time - the big crowds, the excitement, the media coverage,'' says Marvin ``Skeeter'' Francis, a pioneer ACC publicist. ``You couldn't find a better atmosphere in which to play college basketball.''
Still can't, either.
When Chris Burgess of Irvine, Calif., and Shane Battier of Detroit, two of the nation's top prospects, chose Duke last fall, each spoke of the ``unbelievable'' atmosphere he had found in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Similarly, Kempsville High star Brian Bersticker, after committing to North Carolina, recalled the thrill of walking onto the court during a visit to the Tar Heels' spacious Smith Center, where jerseys of former All-Americans such as Michael Jordan and James Worthy wave overhead.
The Smith Center (nicknamed the Dean Dome) was named in honor of coach Dean Smith.
Described by the Wall Street Journal as a ``veritable hoops palace'' when it opened in 1985, the Smith Center launched a rash of renovations and discussions of new coliseums throughout the league.
Wake Forest now plays in the modern Lawrence Joel Coliseum. Duke and Georgia Tech have renovated their coliseums. North Carolina State has plans for a new 23,000-seat coliseum. Virginia and Maryland are talking about building new arenas, and Clemson has renovation plans in the works.
``You hate to see the old places go,'' Wake Forest coach Dave Odom said during his team's visit to Reynolds Coliseum a few weeks ago. ``This place (Reynolds) really is special.''
Odom grew up in eastern North Carolina, and remembers Reynolds as ``The House That Case Built,'' a reference to former Wolfpack coach Everett Case, an Indiana native credited with initiating the popularity of college basketball in the ACC.
Work on Reynolds was begun in 1942 but was halted when the U.S. entered World War II. Construction resumed in 1948, but only after Case had convinced officials that seating should be expanded from 9,000 to 12,000. That resulted in the unusual elongated southern end of the coliseum.
Reynolds drew 230,000 fans - 3 1/2 times the entire population of Raleigh - during its first season (1949-50) and set a record for an on-campus facility. It hosted the Dixie Classic and the ACC tournament in its earlier years.
Longtime N.C. State athletic official Frank Weeden calls Reynolds the birthplace of big-time basketball in the ACC, which was formed in 1953.
Reynolds provided Case the opportunity to build a big-time program, Weeden said. Other schools, especially nearby UNC and Duke, had to hustle to catch up.
Indeed, State won the league's first three championship tournaments. North Carolina won its first title in 1957 and Duke its first in 1960.
Maryland, which won its first ACC title in 1958, opened Cole Field House with 9,000 seats in 1955. Seating later was expanded to 14,500. Cole hosted the 1970 Final Four and was the site of ESPN's first live college basketball telecast in 1979.
The first of the big arenas was Cameron Indoor, which opened with almost 9,000 seats in 1940. According to legend, its gothic stone design was sketched on the back of a matchbook by Cameron and former football coach Wallace Wade.
The largest indoor stadium in the South when it was built, Cameron now is one of the smallest among big-time college programs. Athletic director Tom Butters wouldn't have it any other way, either, although the Blue Devils could sell twice as many tickets in a larger coliseum.
``We have something those bigger coliseums can't buy, and it makes us unique,'' Butters once said.
Butters oversaw the renovation of Cameron in 1987 that included decorative wood paneling, brass rails and a new sound system. But it did not disturb the cramped courtside bleacher seating that provides Cameron unmatched intimacy between student-fans and players.
Nicknamed ``The Zoo'' by television commentator Al McGuire, Cameron has been chosen the best place in the nation to watch a college game in several surveys.
Duke students, those ``Cameron Crazies,'' have a national reputation for bestowing biting humor and pranks on visiting teams.
While still funny, the Crazies have become tamer in recent years as the ACC has cracked down on obscene language and stopped allowing objects to be thrown on the court. Not surprisingly, in a recent survey of several ACC players, Cameron received votes as both the best and worst place for a league road game.
Virginia's Curtis Staples was among those who do not like being tormented by the Crazies.
``It is the worst,'' Staples said. ``The fans are right on top of you and they feed off everything you do or say.''
Staples and several other players said they enjoy playing in the ultra-modern Dean Dome.
``It is just one of the nicest places you can play,'' Staples said, ``and I like the atmosphere.''
But for atmosphere, most players pick Cameron. Maryland's Rodney Elliott says the atmosphere in Cameron is one of the things that makes playing in the ACC special.
``The fans are right on top of you, but it is the best atmosphere in college basketball for a road game,'' Elliott said.
Georgia Tech's Matt Harpring also considers Cameron a fun stop. As far as noise, Harpring says the loudest fans are at Duke and Maryland.
``You can't hear yourself talk, but it's fun to play at those places,'' Harpring said. ``It's great for college basketball, and I love it.''
Duke's Greg Newton picked Maryland as his favorite road stop.
``The fans there are a little like ours, in that they are funny to listen to,'' Newton said. ``But there really is no place like Cameron when you are the home team. The students are so close, it's like they are in the game. You can feed off their emotions.''
On the opposite end of the spectrum is the Leon County Civic Center in Tallahassee, home of the league's newest member, Florida State. Football-crazy Seminole fans are still learning to appreciate ACC basketball, and only games against top teams create much excitement.
``It really doesn't have much of an ACC atmosphere,'' said Maryland's Elliott, ``and it's a long plane ride down there.''
Florida State's Kirk Luckman, who loves playing at Cameron, says his least-favorite stop is Clemson's Littlejohn Coliseum.
``It's just like a barn out in the field, and their fans can be mean and nasty,'' Luckman said.
Luckman can be glad, though, that he didn't have to play in Fike Field House, which preceded Littlejohn and had such nickmanes as The Sweat Box and The Snake Pit.
At Fike, beefy football players were stationed in end-zone seats of the small building, and the lighting was so dim that former Duke coach Vic Bubas once threatened to make his players wear miners' lights on their heads.
Ah, the good old days . . . MEMO: [For a related story, see page C6 of The Virginian-Pilot for this
date.] ILLUSTRATION: ARENAS OF THE ACC
COURTING SUCCESS
University of Maryland
Suilt in 1955 and later expanded, Maryland's Cole Field House was
packed to the rafters when it hosted the 1966 Final Four.
Bernard Thomas
The Herald-Sun of Durham
Cameron Indoor Stadium, which opened in 1940, is the ACC's oldest
arena, It is designed to match Duke's gothic style.
Cameron Indoor Stadium