Thirty years ago, Kim Reed, then a Duke senior, and her friends were debating what time they should line up to ensure they’d get good seats to the Duke-UNC basketball game.
Duke was the No. 1 ranked team in the country at the time and Carolina was No. 3. The big game was still three days away.
Read MoreReed recalled the conversation going something like this:
“Well you know six o’clock in the morning probably isn’t going to do it. We need to get up in the middle of the night. And then that became well let’s go out the night before and that became let’s go out right after classes end on Friday and that became let’s just go now.”
Reed and her friends went to a nearby U-Haul and loaded up all the tents that the store had on hand. They pitched the tents right up against the outside of Cameron. The group realized their tent city needed a name and “Krzyzewskiville” was born.
“Someone wrote it on a wooden crate top and I can’t remember who wrote it, but it was just kind of funny,” said Reed. “First of all, because, still, so many people around the country couldn’t even pronounce Krzyzewski and would always mess up the spelling. So it was kind of an homage to him that, ‘We know the spelling of your name and we respect you and honor you with this. We’re standing out in line for you and your team.’”
Three decades later, the tradition is still going strong. Each winter, more than 1,000 Duke students pitch tents on the lawn outside Cameron to be among the first in line for arguably college basketball’s biggest rivalry game -- Duke vs. UNC.
The Cameron Crazies spend weeks in their tents, often in cold temperatures, to ensure they are on hand when the line monitors call random tent checks. Those not present lose their spot in line.
While the process might sound a little crazy to some, there’s no question braving the cold is worth it to these dedicated fans.
“The UNC-Duke game is always the best time of the year. Last year was the most fun I had ever had in my life. And the second most fun I had ever had in my life was the year before that,” said Will Bobrinskoy, the 2016 co-head line monitor.
Kim Reed at Krzyzewskiville before the UNC game in 1986. Courtesy Kim Reed
Men’s head basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski says “it’s a supreme honor to have it named Krzyzewskiville. I kid with all my Polish family that a lot of people have buildings named after them but we have a tent city.“
While some students lined up in a sleeping bag or occasional tent prior to 1986, university archivist Valerie Gillispie said that year holds significance because “the Krzyzewskiville name was given to the encampment, if you will. So that’s the first year that K-Ville really became its own entity, its own named thing.”
“By the time the game started, there were 75 tents out there, outside of Cameron, people waiting to go in,” Gillispie said. “And at last, the camping out, waiting out, had a name. And it became a tradition after that.”
Coach K shows his appreciation for the tenters by visiting from time to time.
“It’s the students saying, ‘You know, that thing that happens in Cameron is so important that we’re willing to do this to be in there and be part of it.’ Kind of remarkable. Really remarkable,” Krzyzewski said.
The experience brings back fond memories for alumni like Aaron Dinin, who wrote a book, “Krzyzewskiville Tales,” that gives an oral history of what life is like living in K-Ville.
Coach Mike Krzyzewski visits with fans in 1986.
“The history of K-Ville is really about being a story-teller, just recounting your experience. That great night you had where a basketball player showed up and hung out and had pizza with you, … when Coach K showed up at six in the morning and brought everyone donuts,” said Dinin, class of 2005.
“On the outside it’s a bunch of people spending two months waiting in the tent in the freezing cold of winter trying to get into a single basketball game. And to understand that is to actually do it.”
For Duke players like senior Marshall Plumlee, K-Ville provides motivation.
“To me, K-Ville is a constant reminder that we have the best fans in the world. To have that kind of dedication to camp out there for long periods of time when they have school work going on, trying to have a social life at the same time, and not to mention the weather can drop below freezing at points, I think that’s supreme dedication to our team and it makes me feel fortunate to be a Blue Devil,” said Plumlee.
From the addition of Internet to updates in governing polices, there’s been a lot of changes in K-Ville over the past three decades.
“The length of time that people tent now and the bureaucracy,” said Reed. “On the other hand, I think it’s so cool that there’s this experience that Dukies of all different ages can share.”
Many agree with Reed that the experience connects one generation to the next.
“Relationships are developed, not just personally but with Duke, with Cameron and with our basketball program,” said Krzyzewski. “So that when those kids come in and they look up, and hopefully we’ve won a banner or two, they can look up and show their kids and say, ‘We won that.’”