jmccann@heraldsun.com; 419-6601
DURHAM — The ballpark that was good enough for the making of the film “Bull Durham” is the home of N.C. Central University baseball.
There are worse places to play.
“Being able to say we play and practice at the Durham Athletic Park is absolutely huge,” first-year NCCU coach Jim Koerner said.
The DAP’s playing surface is better than some professional facilities, Koerner said.
“It’s probably the best facility in the conference,” said Koerner of the Eagles' Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. “It’s incredibly maintained.”
NCCU will host Duke today at 4 p.m. in the historic ballpark where the minor league Durham Bulls once played. Admission is free to this match-up that some say will further foster the relationship between Duke and NCCU, strengthening Durham.
“It bodes well for both universities,” Durham mayor Bill Bell said. “I think the more they can do things in a joint effort – even if it’s competing in sports– it’s a coming together of the community.”
"Any time you have two well-regarded universities working collaboratively, whether in the classroom, the laboratory, on a service project or athletically, it bodes well for the institutions and the community," NCCU chancellor Charlie Nelms said. "It is my hope our students and the Durham community will support our collective efforts."
When Crystal Mangum in 2006 falsely accused three Duke lacrosse students of raping her, Durham was viewed — mostly by outsiders — as a place divided by race. Mangum at the time was a student at historically black NCCU.
The state’s attorney general eventually ruled that Mangum had lied, and exonerated the lacrosse players, but there still was a vibe in the city that some healing needed to take place.
So from that scandal emerged efforts to connect Duke and NCCU, to show that the two institutions share common ground.
Both NCCU and Duke play strong roles in Durham, Bell said. And today those two will play baseball in Durham.
“This is such a rich baseball area,” Koerner said.
“Even though NCCU may be an underdog, that doesn’t mean they don’t bring their A game to the event,” said Duke booster Steve Toler, who is known as much for his love of Durham as he is for his work as a consultant. “My allegiance is torn, because I did my graduate work at Duke.”
But Toler said he fell in love with NCCU when he relocated here for work in 1977.
Toler said not only is he a member of the Iron Dukes, the booster organization for Duke athletics, but he’s also a charter member of the Eagle Club, which bolsters NCCU athletics.
Anybody who loves Durham and is crazy about sports would do themselves a favor by getting in on an Eagle Club membership for as little as $60, Toler said.
NCCU athletics director Ingrid Wicker-McCree and Duke athletics director Kevin White meet often to discuss mutual interests among their sports programs, and discussions are under way about reconstituting an NCCU-Duke football series, NCCU sports information director Kyle Serba said.
Duke and NCCU collaborate in the greater community, the classrooms and, as will happen today, on the ball fields.
“We get to enjoy the richness of both schools at one event,” Toler said. “It just shows the richness and the multifaceted aspects of Durham.
“It’s all good,” Toler said.
Toler is no stranger to sporting events at NCCU, nor are former Duke basketball players Kyrie Irving and Nolan Smith, who in recent months showed up in NCCU’s McDougald-McLendon Gymnasium to watch a some basketball before leaving Durham to begin their NBA careers.
Once upon a time in 1944, an all-white team of students from Duke's medical school journeyed to what became NCCU and played basketball against the Eagles basketball team that was led by future Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame coach John B. McLendon. The game was kept secret because that particular coming together of players of different races went against the state's Jim Crow laws. But it was a real game with referees and an official scorer and NCCU won 88-44.
On April 17, 2010, NCCU hosted the First Annual Bull City Showdown: A History Revisited, an all-day basketball tournament featuring students from both campuses. Wicker-McCree and White, the athletic directors from NCCU and Duke, respectively, served as honorary coaches.
Duke and NCCU in recent years began competing in athletics as NCCU transitioned to Division I sports. NCCU’s first game as a Division I men’s basketball program was played against Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Nov. 9, 2007.
“NCCU and Duke have been tied together in a lot of different ways, and having them play baseball in the DAP really doesn’t get any better than that,” Toler said.
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GO & DO
N.C. Central baseball team hosts Duke today at 4 p.m. at historic Durham Athletic Park. Admission is free.
