As new era began, Jim Ramsey remembers facing Duke in Coach K’s first game at Cameron

Jim Ramsey was there at the beginning.

With so much being made of Mike Krzyzewski’s last game Saturday at Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium, Ramsey remembers — and was there for — the first. The former Cary High standout was a guard for the Stetson Hatters, who faced the Blue Devils in the opening game of the 1980-81 season as the Coach K era began.

“I was told I had the first assist on the first basket against a Coach K team in Cameron,” said Ramsey in speaking with The News & Observer this week.

True enough. Archived video of the game shows Ramsey, wearing No. 4 for the Hatters, passing to Frank Burnell for a backdoor score after Duke’s Kenny Dennard tried for a steal.

While so many years have passed, Ramsey still recalls other moments before and during the Nov. 29, 1980 game. His parents were there, and a few friends from Cary.

“It was pretty wild,” Ramsey said. “We were downstairs in the locker room and all of a sudden we heard this pounding and chanting. The students were singing the Queen song ‘We Will Rock You’ and pounding on the bleachers.

“It was really loud and raucous and it was a fun place to play. The students didn’t single players out and didn’t develop the chants and do a bunch of pre-planning like they’ve done the last 15 years. But Cameron was special.”

The Blue Devils didn’t rock the Hatters, but Coach K’s first game was a “W.” The Blue Devils, with guard Tom Emma scoring a team-high 19 points, broke open a close game in the second half to win 67-49, holding the Hatters to 33% shooting from the field.

It has been noted that Gene Banks scored the first basket in the Coach K era at Duke, and that Dennard had the first dunk. It was the start of a 17-13 season.

“Working against their man-to-man, I think we were not getting manhandled at all, but size-wise we had a difficult time matching up on defense,” Ramsey said.

It wasn’t Ramsey’s first game in Cameron. Before transferring to Stetson from East Carolina, he was a sophomore reserve on the ECU team coached by Larry Gillman that lost 105-82 to the Blue Devils on Jan. 28, 1978.

But the second time at Cameron was different. Ramsey was a starter for Stetson. Bill Foster no longer coached Duke. The Blue Devils had brought in a young Bobby Knight protege who was head coach at Army for five years and was 9-17 in his fifth season.

Stetson’s coach, Dr. Glenn Wilkes, had won 358 games at the DeLand, Florida, school and was well-respected in the coaching ranks. Krzyzewski, the new guy at Duke, had won 73.

Five national championships and 1,122 victories later, Krzyzewski will coach his last game at Cameron against North Carolina as college basketball’s all-time men’s Division I leader in wins with 1,195. The Coach K legacy, including three Olympic gold medals with Team USA and 15 ACC championships, is a rich one, and will be an enduring one.

Ramsey, 64, and his wife are grandparents and live in Wrightsville Beach, having moved from Charlotte. While still working full time, he also spends time working on his golf handicap.

In looking back to that 1980 game, Ramsey said he guarded Emma until the Hatters later turned to a zone defense. He did not know and was saddened to learn that Emma, later a Duke team captain, died in June 2011 in New York City.

Ramsey said he will be watching the broadcast Saturday and reminiscing a little more when Krzyzewski takes his final bows at Cameron on what should be a super emotional night.

There will be a lot more than the 8,100 people who were at Coach K’s first game at Cameron, and they’ll all certainly be paying a lot more to see it.

This story was originally published March 2, 2022 at 6:35 AM with the headline "As new era began, Jim Ramsey remembers facing Duke in Coach K’s first game at Cameron."

Chip Alexander

The News & Observer

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In more than 40 years at The N&O, Chip Alexander has covered the N.C. State, UNC, Duke and East Carolina beats, and now is in his 15th season on the Carolina Hurricanes beat. Alexander, who has won numerous writing awards at the state and national level, covered the Hurricanes’ move to North Carolina in 1997 and was a part of The N&O’s coverage of the Canes’ 2006 Stanley Cup run.