Caitlin Clark Works at Duke, But Not on the Court

Duke employees with legendary basketball names share the funny and unexpected moments that come with it

A collage shows basketball players and names Katie Smith, Caitlin Clark and Dean Smith
Katie Smith, Caitlin Clark and Dean Smith were all college basketball legends. They also work at Duke. Photo collage by Paul Figuerado
Caitlin Clark made her 2024 Halloween costume a family affair with husband James as a basketball net and son JD as the basketball. Photo courtesy of Caitlin Clark

Sometimes when Caitlin Clark walks into a patient room at Duke Primary Care South Durham, she introduces herself and receives a quizzical look in response.

“Shouldn’t you be doing something else with your time?” patients ask.

Or “Why are you here? You make millions!”

Or simply, “Do you play basketball?”

This Clark, the Nurse Practitioner who has been at Duke since 2020, does not look like the other Caitlin Clark, the sharp-shooting guard for the WNBA’s Indiana Fever who starred at Iowa from 2020-24.

But having the same name as a famous basketball player at basketball-crazy Duke in the middle of hoops heaven North Carolina can lead to some interesting conversations.

“It’s just something that comes up every day,” Clark said.

Clark went all-in on embracing the confusion over her name for Halloween last year, dressing up in a No. 22 Iowa basketball uniform – while her husband, James, was a basketball backboard and net, and now-1-year-old son JD was a round little basketball in an orange onesie.

“I really love making Halloween costumes. It’s one of our favorite things,” Clark said. “For years, I’ve tried to make them from scratch by getting stuff from Goodwill or Michaels. But for 2024, I said, ‘I have to be the basketball player.’”

Clark’s not the only Duke staff member with a not-so-boring name that might be noticed a bit more during March Madness.

Not Katie Smith from Ohio State

Katie Smith is a Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, a former Big Ten Player of the Year, a three-time Olympic gold medal winner and now an assistant coach at her alma mater, Ohio State.

Katie Smith says she isn't mistaken for the former Ohio State basketball player, but does get mistaken for other Katie Smiths at Duke.

But Katie Smith is also a Limb Loss Clinical Nurse Specialist at Duke, where she has worked for nearly 15 years. She has never been mistaken for her basketball namesake – and truth be told, This Katie Smith didn’t even know about That Katie Smith.

“I’m not a huge basketball person,” Smith admitted.

But This Katie Smith has been mistaken for plenty of other Katie Smiths – just at Duke.

Two other Katie Smiths currently work at Duke. For a while, every time This Katie Smith ordered supplies, it was sent to Another Katie Smith who was a Nurse Practitioner.

Recently, she’s been receiving emails intended for Yet Another Katie Smith who is a Nurse Manager in the Duke Cancer Center. She keeps forwarding them on to the other Katie Smith. She understands why it keeps happening.

“You cannot get more generic than Katie Smith,” Smith said, laughing.

Mistaken identity is something Smith has dealt with her whole life, as an identical twin.

“I’ve struggled with this issue of being mistaken for someone else,” she said. “And then people often tell me, ‘Doesn’t she remind you of so-and-so back home?’ I don’t know if I’m just sort of generic all around?

“I just tell them, ‘I hear that a lot,’ and move on.”

Dean Smith from Chapel Hill

Dean Smith once thought that if he ever became unemployed, he could move to North Carolina and someone would hire him. The legendary former coach of the University of North Carolina men’s basketball team is so revered, he figured, that mistaken identity might work in his favor.

a photo collage of Dean Smith at Duke and Dean Smith at UNC
Duke's Dean Smith, left, lives in Chapel Hill. But he is not the same Dean Smith, right, who coached in Chapel Hill. Photos courtesy of Dean Smith and Wikimedia Commons

Then when Smith was hired to be the Director of Duke University Press in 2019, it presented an interesting conundrum: Could someone with the same name as the former UNC coach work for bitter rival Duke and live in Chapel Hill?

The answer is yes, but it has delivered some amusing stories. When Smith was looking for a house in Chapel Hill, homeowners would become excited at the prospect of selling to That Dean Smith – unaware, apparently, that the basketball coach died in 2015. More than once he had to break the news.

And when This Dean Smith applied to join the Duke Faculty Club, a fitness facility for Duke staff and faculty, the woman who called to tell him he’d made it off the waitlist had a curious question.

“We were wondering why he wanted to join the club,” she told him.

This Dean Smith has a long history with That Dean Smith. In fact, he was partially named after him.

Smith’s father, Jim “Snuffy” Smith was a college basketball coach at VCU and UMBC, among other schools. His maternal grandfather, Dino, lobbied for his grandson to be named after him in 1963, and Snuffy realized he could also sneak in a nod to the UNC coach who was hired two years earlier.

“He came up with a compromise, pretty much knowing full well that was going to be a good compromise to make,” This Dean Smith said. “He kind of killed two birds with one stone – his interest in basketball and his father-in-law’s wish.”

Smith has fully embraced confusion with his better-known namesake throughout his life, once writing an ode to That Dean Smith when he died a decade ago. But since he came to Duke six years ago, Smith has embraced his new home, working with author and alum John Feinstein to publish “Five Banners,” a book about the Blue Devils’ five national championships. In the book’s acknowledgements, Feinstein, who died March 13, mentioned how curious it was to work with Dean Smith to publish a book about Duke basketball.

“That’s sort of a dream of mine to put it all together that way,” Smith said. “It all fits together, in a way.”

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