Basketball Identity
“How do the college basketball programs located in Appalachia represent different stereotypes in Appalachia and the Southeast United States and possibly the United States?”
To begin to answer this question one must look for college basketball programs to analyze. The place that immediately stands out to analyze college basketball programs is the state of North Carolina. Since it contains four programs within the state that have all been national champions or relevant to the national stage. While some of these programs are located outside the Appalachian Regional Commission’s definition of what is Appalachia many of the characteristics of the area these schools are located at are closely related to the characteristics of Appalachia.
There are four main universities in the state that I will be taking a look at. The schools that I will look at are N.C. State, University of North Carolina, Wake Forest, and Duke University. Each one of these schools has a unique reason for being founded. The student body at each school is also unique to each school. This allows one to view each school as a representation of different stereotypes of people that have been assumed to reside in Appalachia to a certain extent.
The first school that I will analyze is Wake Forest. Wake Forest was opened in 1834 (College Choice) and originally was a religious school. Out of the four schools listed Wake Forest has the weakest resume concerning its basketball team; with only one final four appearance to their name. Their most relevant time was probably when the two best players in their program history Tim Duncan and Chris Paul were attending in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The second school that I will be taking a look at to examine is N.C. State. N.C. State was founded in 1887 (College Choice) and was to focus primarily on more practical studies at the time such as agriculture and mechanical arts. If placed on a power rankings for its basketball program N.C. State would fall third on the list. While not on the level of the other two schools that I have yet to analyze they have still accomplished much on the national level including winning a national championship in the 1980s with their famous coach Jim Valvano and winning a championship in the 70s.
While the first two schools that I have gone over have many accomplishments and national prestige that many other schools across the country would love to have the next two schools are in a class of their own. Duke and UNC are the two most dominant programs within the state of North Carolina and it’s not even close when they are compared to the other two schools. Combined they both have 11 national championships and are 2 of the most winning programs in history. The rivalry between Duke and UNC is also the most heated and intense in probably all of sports. This may have to do with the extreme proximity of both schools since they are only separated by 8 miles (Duke Basketball Report) but it more likely has to do with the respective schools and their image.
Duke was founded in 1838 and was originally called Trinity University but had its name changed Duke for James Buchanan Duke (College Choice). Originally Duke was primarily a school for Methodists and Quakers but it quickly became an outlier in the state for schools. The school was always a private school like Wake Forest but it was different in that it resembled an Ivy League school in the South (I Hate Christian Laettner). Duke became one of the top schools in the country and many people from outside the local area began to flock their to attend especially from the Northeastern United States. This rubbed many of the citizens of North Carolina the wrong way who viewed Duke as an elitist school with elitist students who looked down on them (I Hate Christian Laettner).
The University of North Carolina appears to many as the opposite of Duke. It is the institution where local people of the state can go. The University of North Carolina is the oldest of the four schools listed that I have looked at and it was the first college in the state of North Carolina.
After giving a brief overview of each school I hope that it better explains how there is a link between the schools and stereotypes in Appalachia. I am hoping to show how Wake Forest can represent the stereotype of Appalachia being a religious place but it is probably the least prevalent of the stereotypes now a days. N.C. State is also supposed to be a representation of the stereotype of Appalachia being a farming area which is probably a more relevant stereotype than the previous one. While Duke and the University of North Carolina have the assumptions of Northern elites for Duke and Southern locals for Carolina. Their rivalry in particular could also be viewed as a vessel for the rivalry that has been playing out for a while now in American history of rural vs. urban.
I hoped to have brought to your attention how stereotypes can not only influence one’s thinking of an area and the people who are living there but that it can also permeate into the realm of sports and become a direct representation of the negative ways of thinking that people can have.
Works Cited:
“Gallery of Champions.” History of Sports Betting, USA Today Sports, 5 Dec. 2018, sportsecyclopedia.com/ncaa/ncaachampions.html.
Karpf, Rory, director. I Hate Christian Laettner. ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, www.espn.com/watch/film/fdcfa10f-762a-4077-8a1d-ca5f8a502c0a/i-hate-christian-laettner.
King, JD. “What Drives The Duke-UNC Rivalry?” Duke Basketball Report, Duke Basketball Report, 6 Feb. 2018, www.dukebasketballreport.com/2018/2/6/16978244/what-drives-the-duke-unc-rivalry-acc-basketball.
Blythe, Will. To Hate like This Is to Be Happy Forever: a Thoroughly Obsessive, Intermittently Uplifting, and Occasionally Unbiased Account of the Duke-North Carolina Basketball Rivalry. Harper, 2007.
Menzer, Joe. Four Corners: How UNC, N.C. State, Duke, and Wake Forest Made North Carolina the Center of the Basketball Universe. Simon & Schuster, 2014.
Abramson, Rudy, and Jean Haskell. Encyclopedia of Appalachia. University of Tennessee Press, 2006.
“25 Best Colleges in North Carolina.” College Choice, College Choice, 30 July 2018, www.collegechoice.net/rankings/25-best-colleges-in-north-carolina/.
