The last time the Victory Bell, the prize awarded to the winner of the annual Duke-North Carolina football game, resided in Durham, Paula Abdul was atop the Billboard music charts with her album "Forever Your Girl." The number one movie in the country was "Batman," "Roseanne" was the most popular show on television, and the Berlin Wall in the midst of coming down. Finally, here at Duke, Alaa Abdelnaby and Phil Henderson were taking Coach K to his second Final Four.
The year was 1989, the last time Duke beat North Carolina in football and the last time the Victory Bell was in Durham.
Created by a Duke cheerleader interested in spicing up the annual grudgematch with North Carolina, the Victory Bell is mounted on a wheeled platform and currently painted in Carolina Blue. It travels back and forth between the schools depending on who won the game that year. During the game, the team who has the cup that year rolls it around the track. Other rivalaries around the country compete for prizes and trophies--some of the more famous ones are the Little Brown Jug Minnesota and Michigan play for and the Seminole War Canoe Miami and Florida do battle over. The Blue Devils, however, think a little more highly of their Bell than its counterparts.
"The Victory Bell is a symbol," Duke head coach Carl Franks said. "A symbol of who wins the game, and I think it is a little more significant symbol that a trophy or some of the different things that go in a trophy case and sits there. This thing travels with the team wherever it goes. It is something that is reconzed as being as part of your team."
After the 1989 victory in Chapel-Hill, then-Duke coach Steve Spurrier took a picture of his team with the Victory Bell while posing on Carolina's Kenan Stadium's field. That picture now hangs on current Blue Devil coach Carl Franks' wall.
"When we won in '89 at Carolina, the team took a big picture with the Bell under the scoreboard at Carolina," freshmen running back Malcolm Ruff said. "When Coach Franks first got here, that was the first thing he put up in his office. He did not put up his diploma - he put up that poster. That's how important it is to us."
It has been twelve long years since Duke beat North Carolina, and now, with the Tar Heels seemingly more vulnerable than ever before - they are limping into Saturday's game at Wallace Wade stadium with a 2-9 record, including blowout losses in their last four contests - the chances for a Victory Bell return appear to be better than ever. After Wednesday's practice both the Blue Devil coaches and players described how much taking the Bell back from the Tar Heels would mean to them, the program, and the school itself.
"[Winning the game] It would mean the world to us, our team." Ruff said. "It would the world to our alumni, former Duke players. If we won the game this weekend, it would be amazing."
And while the Blue Devil players will not need any extra motivation for the game, the Victory Bell will provide some anyway. Not only do they want to reclaim it for Duke, but they especially want to take it away from the Tar Heels.
"I think they have definitely taken it for granted," junior center Luke Bayer said. "I don't think they really realize the true meaning of it because they have had it for so long. I think most of the guys, especially now, assume its theirs and probably never have even known that is goes back and forth.
"I know its in their poster this year--them sitting on it, their helmets on it. I think it is time for it to come back to Durham. It would make the season a little sweeter. It would give us some good feelings coming into the offseason."
And should Duke win Saturday?
"If we beat Carolina, I think there will be many parades and parties, and I think the Victory Bell will get its fair use that night," Bayer said.
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