Duke’s beloved Crazy Towel Guy is missing from Cameron Indoor this season. Here’s why
One Cameron Indoor Stadium tradition is missing so far this season, but maybe not all season.
Eighty-three-year-old Herb Neubauer is missing from Section 7, row G, seat 8, which is where he’s watched Blue Devils men’s basketball games for decades.
His name may not be on the tip of every Cameron Crazies’ tongue — but his alter ego certainly is.
Neubauer is Duke’s “crazy towel guy,” who the students call into action during a second-half break at every home game.
“Cra-zy towel guy! (clap, clap, clap, clap, clap). Cra-zy towel guy!”
Since 1996, Neubauer rises when he hears that chant, waves his arm for the students to get louder, then waves his white towel over his head as applause thunders throughout the historic arena.
At least he did until the events of last July 11.
‘Seven weeks of hell’
While out celebrating his wedding anniversary with wife, Judith, Neubauer fell while walking down a steep incline in a parking lot. A shattered pelvis landed him in the hospital, and then seven weeks of rehabilitation.
“Seven weeks of hell,” he said Tuesday, while sitting in an easy chair at his Durham home.
Still recovering from that injury, Neubauer uses a walker to get around his house. But that won’t allow him to climb to the upper level of Duke’s 84-year-old home arena to reach his seat.
When Duke opened this season Nov. 4 by dismantling Maine, 96-62, Neubauer missed his first regular-season game at Cameron since Feb. 1, 1998.
He said bad weather prevented him from watching Duke beat Georgia Tech, 90-69, that day.
As word of his injury spread this fall, Neubauer was offered seats on the floor. Duke has designated seats that comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. But Neubauer declined.
“The students might not find me,” he said. “I said I gotta get to the point where I can get around well enough.”
He knows he’s going to miss more games this season but his intention is to not miss them all. Duke’s final home game, March 3 against Wake Forest, is when he hopes to make his return.
“My wish,” he said Tuesday, “is to try to make the last game where I can walk by myself, could go in there and get in. That’s what I’ve set my sights for.”
His absence has been noted from the Duke game day experience. When the Cameron Crazies called for him during that season-opening win over Maine and he wasn’t there, bewilderment spread through the student section.
On Dec. 4, when Duke beat Auburn, 84-78, the Crazies unfurled a banner wishing their friend a speedy recovery.
“It was nice of the students to do that,” Neubauer said.
He also appreciated a phone call he received Tuesday morning. As the Blue Devils were preparing to play Incarnate Word later that night, retired coach Mike Krzyzewski called Neubauer to check on him.
He, too, had been unaware as to why Neubauer was absent from games. The Crazies’ banner during the Auburn game helped word finally get to Krzyzewski.
“It really felt good to hear from Coach K,” Neubauer said of their 30-minute chat.
‘I love Duke’
A 1963 Duke graduate who was a student manager on the 1961 Duke baseball team that made the College World Series, Neubauer first bought basketball season tickets in 1980, during Krzyzewski’s first season as Duke’s coach.
Having bought a sombrero on a quick visit to Mexico while in Southern California watching Duke play in a tournament, he wore it to games at Cameron in the 1980s. That caused him to sweat in the old building, so he starting bringing a towel to mop his brow.
He began waving it over his head in celebration and, once the Cameron Crazies took notice three decades ago, a tradition was added to Cameron’s routine.
The hat, by the way, was lost in a fire that wiped out Neubauer’s belongings.
He’s such a big Duke sports fan that, during the 2009-10 school year, he attended every home game for every Duke sports team. That included the baseball games in Cary, where the Blue Devils played that season when Jack Coombs Stadium was unavailable.
My wife said, `You can do this one time,’” Neubauer said.
He did, and he’s never attempted the feat again.
During Duke’s back-to-back NCAA championship seasons in 1991 and 1992, Neubauer attended every game, home and road. He’s been to 16 Final Fours, too.
While still convalescing, Neubauer is relegated to watching his Blue Devils on television. But March 3 remains his goal.
“I love Duke and going to Duke,” Neubauer said. “It’s in me. I follow them even if I’m watching here.”
Uniquely NC is a News & Observer subscriber collection of moments, landmarks and personalities that define the uniqueness (and pride) of why we live in the Triangle and North Carolina.
This story was originally published December 11, 2024 at 6:00 AM.