Speedo Guy III came and went in the UNC-Duke rivalry ... and hopefully he will never come back.
ESPN spent all day on its family of networks showing a feature on the original Speedo Guy. He was a Duke grad student who, back in 2003, stripped down to his skivvies and danced while UNC's Jackie Manuel shot (and missed) two free throws.
ESPN thought it'd be neat to do a feature on his which saw Speedo Guy (who is now a minister), Jackie Manuel and Mike Krzyzewski (who said that no one should ever do that again) discussing the incident. No one listened because Speedo Guy II appeared in 2005 while UNC's Marvin Williams shot (and missed) two free throws.
ESPN's Reece Davis noted that UNC has missed all free throws that Speedo Guy has danced to. Trap set. As you can see in the video above, the bait was taken.
Hard to believe that it has been 15 years since those magical first ESPY awards when former NC State coach Jim Valvano gave his famous "Don't Give Up" speech. Back on March 3, 1993, Jimmy V stood in front of a packed house to accep the Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award when he gave his now legendary speech.
"To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And Number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special."
"Cancer can take away all of my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever. I thank you and God bless you all."
Valvano would pass away less than two months later.
Around the country, fans will see the return of ESPN's Dick Vitale to announcing when Duke takes on North Carolina on Wednesday. Either you are excited to see him back ... or a bit bent that you have to hear all that pent up emotion just waiting to explode. The fact that he will be paired up with Mike Patrick might just make you want to watch the game with the sound off.
Maybe you rather be in ACC country? In ACC markets, the game will be carried by Raycom sports ... who will have Tim Brando (of "the iron unkind" fame) and Billy Packer calling the game. In those markets, ESPN's coverage will be blacked out and ESPNews will be shown instead. No Vitale for you!
Who would you rather listen to: Dickie V waxing poetic about Duke, Michaelangelo (aka, Dean Smith) and the rivalry? Or Billy Packer ... who hates everything?
A scope and analysis of Vitale's throat by Dr. Steven Zeitels in Boston revealed that the broadcaster has recovered sufficiently after the removal of the non-cancerous lesions.
"I was in tears when he asked me to speak my first words since the surgery," Vitale wrote in a letter to fans. "Believe me, it was very difficult to go 3½ weeks without speaking! When he had me count to 10, I was so relieved."
It seems a fitting comeback game for Vitale, who is mocked as "Dookie V" and also glowing of North Carolina to return to action. He does most of the UNC-Duke games over the years and has been part of some of the most memorable calls in this memorable series.
In fact, they'd join Division I in either the bowl or playoff subdivision. Not bad for an upstart program.
The issue was put to a vote within the student body. The results indicate that among participating students (38%), they're willing to support some form of a jump in student fees to accomodate the team and the majority are willing to travel modest distances to attend a home game.
The snag is that because UNC-Charlotte isn't a big-time program - its athletic teams are funded mostly through student fees. If the upkeep related to an average football team is in the millions of dollars, that comes out to a great many extra dollars on top of the usual college expenses mix of tuition/books/board/food/liquor. The Charlotte Observer puts a rough cost estimate at $8 million/year.
Students are already paying $450 in fees which may jump several hundred more dollars if the school adds football to its athletic department. A panel of impressively credentialed people has been assembled to study the issue further. Stay tuned, as they should be finished within a year.