Interview with Mike Cragg(5)

2007-03-05 13:13:14 Zong Xing[ Big Normal Small ]

　　

　　Z: What is the annual income of the athletic department?

　　C: It is roughly in the 30 million ranges. We are running a break-even operation. We have around 30 million bills we have to pay. We also have a 30 million dollar revenue. We can go back to the university and say we didn’t cost anything in the budget this year for Duke University. That doesn’t happen every year, but we hope we can make that much money. That’s the thing that a lot of people don’t realize, a lot of money has been brought in, whether it is television or basketball, that helps to pay the bill for us to have field hockey, or volleyball, lacrosse, all the other sports don’t make any money. It is actually two sports we have that generate revenue: football and basketball, and a little bit of women’s basketball. That’s it.

　　Z: So it’s actually these two programs that support other programs.

　　C: That’s right.

　　Z: Could you please tell me a little bit about the Iron-Duke program? Who is eligible for Iron-Duke?

　　C: Anybody who can give 100 dollars more to Duke Athletics to support a scholarship cost. It is an annual fund, it supports our scholarship cost. We have 10 million dollars in scholarship costs; our goal is to raise that much money to be able to pay for all that. But anybody can give money to this fund.

　　Z: How much does it cost to get a good seat in Cameron?

　　C: If someone walks in and wants to have a good seat, you will have to give a donation around 40,000 dollars, and then you can pay for your tickets at a price of 50 dollars per game, in total 16 games per season. That’s for the best seats.

　　Z: What about the ticket for Duke students?

　　C: Well, the nice thing about Duke is that we do appreciate and understand the value of students. That’s why the students have the best seats in the standing room. That intimacy is important. That doesn’t happen everywhere. Oftentimes people give that much money to sit in the front row before the students, but we’ve made it so that our student body is our priority.

　　Z: Tell us the rich history of Duke Basketball.

　　C: We just had our 100th anniversary last year. Duke basketball began in 1905. Duke was actually Trinity College at that time. It didn’t become Duke until the 1930s. The team is nationally competitive, recognized as one of the best in the country. We probably began to hit the national stage in the 1960s under a coach named Vic Bubas. They went to three final fours at that time. That’s the time when Duke first started to compete for national championships.
　　In 70s, we went to one final four, when coach K came to Duke in 1981, the program wasn’t at its highest. The first three years, coach K had a losing record. Then they recruited a person called Jonny Dawkins, still here as the associate coach. He was the high school player of the year and he chose to come to Duke. They went on to play for the national championship in 1986, but they lost it. But really from that point on, in the last 20 years, Duke has had many wins, many championships, many All-Americans, Duke is right there at the top.

　　 Year in and year out, we compete for national championships. We don’t win every year, but we are right up there.

　　Z: In your opinion, who is the most legendary player in Duke’s history?

　　C: One of the greatest basketball player in college history is Christian Leanetter, when he was in Duke, Duke went to final four all four years. He is the all time NCAA tournament scoring leader. One of the most famous shots in history is VS. Kentucky.

　　Z: Talking about hall of fame, who is qualified to be selected?

　　C: People have to graduate within at least 10 years. There is a committee who will decide who is qualified to go to Hall of fame. For example, Nancy Hogshead, she won three golden medals in the 1984 Los Angles Olympic Games. She is a law professor now. If you walk downstairs, you will see a lot of names in the Hall of Fame.


　　Z: There have been news articles claiming many current college players are spoiled, do you agree?
　　C: I don’t agree with the term “spoiled”. I guess this is more a culture issue. Like J.J. Redick, he is under microscope, for these basketball players, they know they are public figures, if they have done anything wrong, then that becomes a big story. But for some other players, they lack this realization. Whether fair or not, once you are in Duke uniform, you have to obey the rules. Just as I said, we have to make the front door look clean and look good.

　　Z: Last question, many people say that sport is essential in American people’s life, sports represents the American spirit. The first time you make a basketball shot, the first time you swing a baseball for the first time or kick a football – these are all considered to be among the most significant times in the life of the average American. What do you think of this?

　　C: I’m not sure that all kids remember their first time on a field or a court but I think that anyone that play sports for a long amount of time has great memories of special moments – scoring the winning run, hitting a home run, making the game winning shot, etc. Stuff you dream of. But also just as the memories of playing with your friends and all of the times of being together as kids. It certainly makes sports special in our country.