Duke currently has only one pep rally each year, and even that is a relatively small event the night before the Duke-North Carolina men's basketball game at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
But once upon a time, the university had pep rallies for football games. This one took an interesting form.
“Attention all Duke fans: stay in your dorms tonight until cheerleaders come by dorms to start massive pep rally, at around 10 p.m. Beat Maryland!" The Chronicle wrote on the top left corner of its front page Sept. 18, 1970.
There was no Central Campus at the time—only East and West—so conceivably, it was easier for the cheerleaders to make all their rounds. But the idea still seems hard to fully comprehend, and there were no reports in the following day’s paper providing any more details.
That Friday marked the day Jimi Hendrix passed away. The front page also mentioned 102 freshmen "living in overcrowded conditions.” In that sense, some things do change for the better.
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