YouTube Gold: A Peek Into Cameron In the 1960’s

This is a pretty great basketball training video from the 1960’s and it was filmed in Cameron in, we think, 1965-66, which was one of Vic Bubas’s very best teams. It made the Final Four but Bob Verga was ill and so Duke lost to Kentucky in the semifinals, 83-79.

Kentucky of course went on to lose to Texas Western (now UTEP) in the national championship and became the eternal poster child for segregated basketball.

Thanks, BBN!

You never know how things might have been different, but that team was known as Rupp’s Runts and Duke had Mike Lewis inside, so things might have been different for the Blue Devils against the Miners.

Anyway, the drills and narration on this video seem antiquated now but you can see some of the best footage you’re likely to see of guys like Lewis, Bob Verga, Steve Vacendak and Jack Marin.

Also, Cameron is very, very different. They used to have these baffles in the ceiling for sound dampening. They’re long gone of course. And the various upgrades - the wood paneling and scoreboards, for instance - are years in the future. Cameron here was much like it was when it was built in 1940 although the lines on the court are different than they were in 1940 when the lane was quite narrow, among other things.