The trip from UNC to Duke is about 8 miles. Where’s the fan dividing line on 15-501?
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A requiem for Tobacco Road
Tobacco Road once facilitated North Carolina’s deep love affair with basketball, a sport that became a defining part of its culture. And the Big Four ACC schools along that stretch — North Carolina, N.C. State, Duke and Wake Forest — once had basketball influence. Now, like the tobacco crop itself, the best days are in the past. Here’s more from The News & Observer.
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A requiem for NC’s Tobacco Road as it loses stature in a changing college sports world
Photo gallery: Take a look back at Tobacco Road basketball action in NC through the years
Tobacco Road by the numbers: How many games? How many farms? How many big match-ups?
The trip from UNC to Duke is about 8 miles. Where’s the fan dividing line on 15-501?
From the archives: Postcard from the center of the Triangle’s college basketball universe
As the odometer tells it, the road from the Dean Dome to Cameron Indoor Stadium stretches 10.1 miles, placing the Duke-UNC border precisely at a Red Robin burger joint on U.S. 15-501.
From that imaginary line, a neutral party can look south and see the horizons turn a different shade — royal blue to the north, sky blue to the south.
But in reality, what exists along that storied six-lane highway is a kind of basketball demilitarized zone, a place where partisans keep a tense peace.
From his chair in University Ford showroom, Reggie Jackson can see the blue line in the 15-501 concrete, and he speaks from 30 years of mingling with the enemy.
“There’s some idiots here who pull for Carolina, and there’s some smart people like me,” he said, motioning to colleagues around the showroom. “There goes one right now coming up that hall — lifelong Duke fan. Now, there’s a person in there who says he would not pull for Duke if Duke was playing the Taliban. But around here, it’s half and half.”
The TV announcers all call it Tobacco Road, connecting the schools whose rivalry possibly looms larger and longer than competitors in any sport short of world football, which is known to spark riots.
UNC and Duke fans might sneer at one another, they only light sofas on fire — and in a light-hearted way.
And while some businesses along 15-501 might play Switzerland — one florist shop stays out of the fray, providing flowers for both schools — the loyalties mostly correspond to proximity.
At Occasions Engraving in Chapel Hill, the wall inside features a poster signed by three former UNC coaches: Dean Smith, Bill Guthridge and Roy Williams.
At The Repair Shop in Chapel Hill, Cinderella Rigsby has her wall plastered with Tar Heel posters — their only decoration.
“I used to do Woody Durham’s shoes,” she said, remembering the longtime Tar Heel’s radio announcer. “He wore blue shoes. I’ve done most all of the coaches’ shoes. UNC all the way.”
Whenever the teams clash, does the DMZ stay quiet? Ask the residents of the cemetery just south of the Tobacco Road dividing line, where the flowers are both shades of blue.
This story was originally published April 1, 2022 at 6:00 AM.