Duke Alums Are Worried About Craziness Of The Young Cameron Crazies

There is a crisis in Durham. Dennis and Elizabeth Chen, '02 and '00 Duke grads and presumably husband and wife, wrote a letter to the Duke Chronicle proposing a Crazie-off challenge to the university's current student body. At the Michigan game on Sunday, the letter alleges, the Crazies practiced the wrong kind of Duke entitlement — they presumed victory instead of demanding it with their trademark jazz hands. The Chens write:

We just returned from watching Duke's nail biting win over the Wolverines and we were whole-heartedly dismayed by the lack of passion exhibited by the Duke students in attendance. The Wolverine fans unarguably out-cheered the notorious "Crazies" from beginning to end. As hard as the Duke cheerleaders and pep band tried, they weren't able to get the Crazies off their butts for the first 25 to 30 minutes of the game. We know the seats at Time Warner Cable Arena are more comfortable than the shoe-worn bleachers of Cameron Indoor, but we would hope that Duke's quest for a back-to-back championship would be enough motivation to get the Duke students to cheer for every offensive and defensive series. Coach K needs to focus 100 percent of his time on his players and the game, and he shouldn't have to personally pump-up the crowd like he did in the second half.

In an effort to take some of the burden off Coach K, we would like to sponsor the airfare and cost of admission for the most passionate Duke student to attend the rest of the Duke Men's NCAA tournament games and be a "rally captain" to lead the Crazies in 40 minutes of cheering to try and give our Blue Devils a "home court" advantage away from Cameron. To be considered, post a short 1-minute video to YouTube pleading your case and copy the link in the comments section of this letter on the Duke Chronicle website by noon on Wednesday. Go Duke!!

The Chronicle editor who sent in this tip wrote in the subject line, "Duke Alum Paying for Airfare for Fans," apparently assuming that we would treat it as a feel-good story about the institution's ever-magnanimous graduates (and he must have been referring to Elizabeth as the sole "alum" benefactor, right?) — but we'd prefer to treat it as yet another wonderful example of Duke condescension, featuring, as always, its complementary lack of anything resembling self-awareness. Duke, you continue to amaze us. We look forward to watching you beg on camera.

CONTEST: How Crazie are you? [The Chronicle]