Blue Devil Memories: The First Great Cameron Win Of The Foster Era

The Maryland win in 1976 was not something Duke fans of today would understand at all.

Most Duke fans would not believe how down Duke was when Bill Foster took over in 1974. Vic Bubas had retired in 1969, tired of the grind, and after Bucky Waters resigned after four seasons, A.D. Carl James tried to hire an elderly and possibly senile Adolph Rupp.

It was a bizarre move and Duke was only spared when a death on Rupp’s horse farm made it difficult for him to leave.

So Duke turned to Utah’s Bill Foster.

A noted program builder, Foster had turned around Bloomsburg State, Rutgers and Utah. He also had a flair for promotion, booking interesting halftime acts.

Anyway, his first season at Duke, Foster finished at 13-13 and while the Blue Devils knocked off UNC in the old Big 4 tournament, 99-96 in overtime, it was not a great season.

Neither was the next.

Duke finished 13-14 in Foster’s second season and lost to UNC three times.

Cameron was hungry though and the beast would be fed.

Duke got Maryland on February 21st and the Blue Devils were ready - with a surprise star.

This Maryland team had Steve Sheppard, Mo Howard, Brad Davis and Larry Boston. The Terps had far more talent than did Duke.

The Blue Devils started Tate Armstrong, Jim Spanarkel, George Moses, Willie Hodge and Mark Crow.

They had no business being in this game, but at the end, career reserve Terry Chili was on the court and, like the rest of the team, played out of his mind. The gap between Duke and Maryland at this point was huge.

At the end of the game though, Chili stepped up to the line and nailed two shots to help Duke secure a 69-67 win.

What was amazing was the aftermath.

After decades of glittering success, we don’t see Duke students storm the court these days. We did after this one.

People didn’t just storm the court. They climbed up on the baskets. This was one of the greatest post-game celebration in Duke basketball history. Cameron was starved for a win and Chili, of all people, came through in the clutch. It isn’t quite the Fred Lind game (where Lind came off the bench to lead Duke to a remarkable triple overtime game in 1968), but it was pretty damn great.

The next year, Mike Gminski would show up and the year after that, Gene Banks, Kenny Dennard and the remarkable John Harrell would arrive and would help lead Duke to the NCAA’s championship game.

In 1976, all of that seemed a wild-eyed fantasy. Foster helped to turn that around.