A Nice Idea To Honor Former Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski

Well this seems like a good idea: Duke is asking for support to rename a stretch of Highway 751 Coach K Highway.

If you don’t know, 751 runs through Duke Forest and near the athletic complex on campus. Currently it’s called Cameron Boulevard, which makes sense, but given the monumental achievements of Mike Krzyzewski at Duke, naming it for him seems like the right thing to do.

When you look back, Duke’s basketball arena was named after Eddie Cameron in 1972. At that point, Duke had some significant athletic accomplishments. Cameron coached both football and basketball successfuly and of course Wallace Wade was a brilliant football coach in the 1930’s and ‘40s before joining the war effort.

Vic Bubas had a glorious era in the 1960’s which should never be overlooked. It was as much fun as any era in any sport in Duke history.

But what Coach K accomplished surpassed them all, and not by a little bit either.

The funny part is that, whether it’s on a personal level or a concern for irritating voters who pull for UNC or, conceivably, NC State, there will be some who vote on this who won’t want to change the name. But really, that’s a tribute to local passions. It should pass with minimal pushback.