Julio -
I understand your heartfelt reaction to Doug's death; I remember driving down to Durham from Washington in the 70's and dropping Doug off at your Mom's house where he would stay the weekend - you were a little kid then. These were fairly long drives but shared experiences years earlier had conditioned us to be there for the big Duke games at all costs.
We all got started as Duke basketball fans by following a particular team; for many of us it was while we were in school. I had met Doug on campus when he was connected to his freshman team (player or manager, I don't remember) and we had attended various away games together when our schedules permitted.
Two years later as Duke won the eastern regional, it became clear that we had a monumental conflict- going to Duke's first final four to be played on Saturday and class attendance the preceding Friday. Duke rules relating to the start of vacations and holidays required that we be in class that day before spring vacation started. The most devoted student fans were looking for ways to do both.
Commercial flights to Louisville did not fit our class schedule (prop planes at the time) and driving was out of the question. So with Doug's encouragement I chartered a plane to leave an hour after classes were over and a group of us , including Doug and two other guys he lined up to share the costs, took off for Louisville. We used player tickets Doug arranged through his former teammates, and we were set for the best of weekends, even though Duke lost the first game to the eventual national champs.We all worked hard the following summer to pay off the cost of the trip.
The next year another group, including Doug, drove from Durham to the Final Four in Kansas City unencumbered by class attendance rules, but I'll always remember solving a problem with Doug that allowed us to attend the first of many national championship competitions.
We'll miss him!
James Rabenhorst
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