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Friday night marked the induction of the latest class into the Duke Hall of Fame. This year’s inductees: Shane Battier (basketball), Dan Brooks (coach), Mary Dinkins (administrator), Grant Hill (basketball), Ed Meadows (football), Virada Nirapathpongporn (golf) and Kelly Walbert Cagle (soccer).
All are richly deserving but we’d like to focus on three if you don’t mind.
It would be hard to find two guys who more embody the ideal of Duke basketball than Grant Hill and Shane Battier.
They were great on both ends of the court, superb leaders - both captains - and ultimate winners. You simply couldn’t ask for better men on your team.
But we’d also like to mention Mary Dinkins.
She came to Duke after high school and never left.
She worked with Duke football until 1994 when she moved over to the Varsity Club.
It’d be impossible to find anyone who was more true blue than Mary.
Like former trainer Max Crowder, she is a Duke institution and touchstone for generations.
She retired earlier this year. Someone else will do her job but no one will ever replace her.