loleniacz@heraldsun.com; 419-6636
DURHAM – Duke men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski described Durham as a place that’s grown in 32 years from a community with “siloed” individuals and separate groups, to one that’s become more of a team.
Krzyzewski and his wife, Mickie, spoke about Durham, where they moved in 1980, at the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting on Tuesday.
Along with their daughters Debbie Savarino, Lindy Frasher, and Jamie Spatola, the Krzyzewskis were the chamber’s Civic Honor Award recipients this year.
The honor has been given by the chamber since 1933 to people who have made “extraordinary contributions” to the community, according to a news release.
The family received the honor at the meeting that drew around 800 people to the Sheraton Imperial Hotel and Convention Center.
“Coaching a national team for the U.S., you get an opportunity to be with people from all over the world,” Krzyzewski said. “In every interview I do, where they (ask where I’m from), I say, ‘I’m from Durham, N.C.’ How good is that to be able to not only say it, but feel it?”
At the event, chamber officials also spoke about the economic development and fundraising milestones the chamber hit last year, as well as their new initiatives for 2012.
The chamber’s past board chairman, John Messick, who is Wells Fargo bank’s president for the Durham market, said 52 companies expanded or located in Durham last year, and he said 2,316 new jobs were announced.
Michael J. Schoenfeld, the 2012 chairman of the chamber’s board and Duke’s vice president of public affairs and government relations, also said chamber officials worked to make downtown a destination for entrepreneurs, and noted the effort that was started to redesign the Research Triangle Park so it’s not “just a corporate campus.”
The chamber’s new agenda includes plans to work on developing international partnerships, growing the area’s entertainment, developing services to help small businesses grow in Durham, and increasing resources to support entrepreneurs, Schoenfeld said.
“The future of economic development lies in our ability to adapt to an entrepreneurial system of commercialized innovation,” he said.
Typically, the chamber has given its civic award as a surprise, Schoenfeld said. Chamber officials broke with that tradition this year since the Duke coach has a “day job, and a night job,” he said.
“He is a leader, a teacher, an inspiration, and a role model, and indeed, no individual in Duke’s history has ever been so closely identified with the university, and vice versa,” Schoenfeld said. “But before the four NCAA championships, Olympic gold medal, K-ville, the Cameron Crazies, there was the Krzyzewski family of Durham, N.C., (that) Mike and his wife embraced as their own.”
The couple moved here in 1980, Schoenfeld said, and Krzyzewski coached his first Duke men’s basketball game that year.
Last year, Krzyzewski beat the career Division I men’s basketball coaching wins record with the Blue Devils’ win over Michigan State. With his 903rd win, the coach surpassed Bob Knight, Krzyzewski’s former Army coach, as the Division I men’s winningest coach.
Krzyzewski has brought home four national championship victories, and also heads the men’s USA Basketball National Team coaching staff.
He was the inspiration for the Emily Krzyzewski Center, a community and educational facility named for Krzyzewski’s mother that opened in 2006 on West Chapel Hill Street.
“This award goes right here,” said Mickie Krzyzewski, standing on stage with her family at Tuesday’s meeting. She seemed to be holding back tears. “To be recognized in your own home, in your own community, there’s so much behind that.”
Mike Krzyzewski said he had previously wondered why more wasn’t being done to bring the community together. But in 32 years, the city has grown “to be such a team.”
“To see our city grow to be such a team in these 32 years that we’ve been here, is amazing,” he said. “When we got here, we knew Duke University would be great for us, and it’s far exceeded everything.”
In other business, the chamber honored The Herald-Sun, Duke University’s Office of Durham and Regional Affairs and Durham Public Schools for their partnership formed to create Duke University’s Durham Student of the Week. Students are honored for a variety of achievements, some academic, some personal, and their stories are featured each Tuesday in The Herald-Sun.
