Coach K joins Ken Burns series 'Honor Your Hometown' with praise for Cameron Indoor
Posted October 27, 2021 1:59 p.m. EDT
Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski shouted out Cameron Indoor Stadium as a part of a new series called "Honor Your Hometown", started by award-winning documentarian Ken Burns.
Burns said the project was meant to bring America together during a time when its people seem as divided as they've ever been.
"It's a way to re-remind us of why we agree to cohere as Americans," Burns said.
Everyone has a hometown, Burns said, and that commonality should remind people that we are more similar than we are different.
The celebrities Burns enlisted included the late Colin Powell, Dolly Parton, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, Kristin Chenoweth and of course, Krzyzewski.
Krzyzewski is a Chicago native and has always expressed pride in that, but when asked to participate, he chose the home he's been in longer than plenty have been alive — Durham, where he's lived for 42 years.
And nothing came to mind more for Krzyzewski more than Cameron Indoor Stadium.
"My hometown for the last 42 years has been Durham, North Carolina and Duke University. One of the treasures that we have in our community — I'm actually in it right now — it's Cameron Indoor Stadium," Krzyzewski said in a video. "I get chills just being here. This is an iconic venue. When it's filled, you have people in it that not only are watching an event, are yelling for the event, they're actually feeling the event. It's a place where our fans, when you are here for a game, you own it.
"That's why they have the expression 'our house'. It is our house. They see, they hear, but they feel. Another reason it's a treasure ... it has that feeling when you walk in it and there's nobody in it. I've done that at night — not every night, but on some special nights, you walk in and it's almost like a Field of Dreams. You get chills thinking, you look around and there are banners, you walk out on the court and you say, 'Wow, I am really lucky to be here.' And then I pinch myself and I say, 'You know what? You're even luckier because you're the coach that has the opportunity to put his team on this home court treasure.' This is ours.
"I know that people have them all over our country and it's an honor to be able to share these stories about hometown treasures."
Krzyzewski begins his final season before he will retire as head coach of the Blue Devils on November 9 when they play Kentucky at Madison Square Garden.
