Editor's Note: Duke fans sent more than 1,300 e-mails to Coach K when he was considering the Laker's offer. At the press conference announcing his plans to stay at Duke Krzyzewski's wife, Mickie, singled out a letter from junior Andrew Humphries as having moved the family to tears.
Coach K,
I suppose that you've received a flurry of these sorts of e-mails, but I figured there was no reason to keep my hat out of the ring. Duke basketball is the reason I came to this university, plain and simple.
One of my essays was about Bobby Hurley's assist record and watching Thomas Hill cry his eyes out. Without knowing it, or perhaps fully knowing it, you have been an integral part of the lives of hundreds of thousands of people whom you've never actually met. We watch you coach, we come to Cameron and hear you speak (though we never bring tape recorders, because we always do as you ask), and most of all, we admire you.
We admire you because you take kids from all over the country and you make them into a family that seems second only to your actual family in your life. We admire you because you taught us that five people together is a fist, while one person is just a finger. We admire you because you are just an old Polish guy in the dark, looking for some heart. And you always find it.
Like most all teenage boys, I used to stand in my driveway for hours and shoot baskets while pretending that I played for you. Most of this time was spent concocting more scenarios in which I could win the national championship for you by making half courters, three pointers, steals followed by layups, or some combination thereof. I counted down to myself in my head, and if I missed the winning shot, the clock had stalled and I got a second chance. Around the tenth grade I discovered that no, I was not going to play for Coach K.
And then I got to Duke. And discovered that, yes, I am going to play for Coach K. I am going to be his sixth man. We hear about it on TV, how the Crazies are like a team member, and we think, sure. We're a team member as soon as we get a jumper. But then we get to Duke, and we watch players from all over the country stare wide eyed at us as their jumpers start to clang off the back iron. We get to Duke and we hear you speaking, imploring us to be louder, try harder, to give 100%. We get to Duke and we realize you are our coach. Not just the coach of our team, but you are also our coach, because you believe that we give you something no one else can and we know that you give us something that no one ever could.
Please still be my coach. I know that we can find more heart to offer an old Polish guy in the dark next year.
Yours,
Andrew Humphries
Coach makes league
But then I realized something. Coach K's departure from Duke would shake up the ACC for the worse. Coach K has built at Duke what college basketball should be all about. The atmosphere, the mystique that can only be found in a collegiate basketball arena. We love Coach K. More importantly, we love to beat him. A win or loss against Duke just doesn't have the same meaning if the head coach isn't Coach K. Duke is to the world of college basketball what the L.A. Lakers or the New York Yankees are to the world of professional sports; a goliath. Every other school is a David, hoping to be the underdog to knock the expectant winner from its throne. With Coach K staying, I am positive that the ACC will continue its rich tradition of glory and competition. Thank you Coach K, for keeping college basketball and the ACC the most special venue in the sports world.
Niles Armstrong
University of Maryland student
Thanks Coach K
Bill Edwards
Engineering '59
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