Imagine a time when Negroes and whites were not allowed to play on the same court as each other because it violated the North Carolina state segregation laws.
Like most Southern cities in the United States, in 1944 Durham was completely segregated.
On March 12, 1944 legendary coach John McLendon and his varsity basketball team at the North Carolina College for Negroes played in an unsanctioned, spectatorless game versus Duke Medical School.
The law prohibited blacks from shopping at any downtown department store nor live in the same neighborhood, or attend the same schools as whites. As you can probably imagine, relationships between the two schools were all but non-existent.
At this time, the Duke Medical school team would be led by former collegiate basketball players and other medical students that played on a recreation league team. The Duke Medical Students came to North Carolina College for Negroes to face the varsity squad for the title of best team in Durham.
Albeit, no one would ever officially know that this game took place.
In recent years, the secret has been let out and the first racially integrated college-level game in the South, which NCCU won 88-44, has garnered more and more awareness across the basketball world.
On Saturday, as part of the centennial celebrations of NCCU, the Campus Recreation department conducted the Inaugural Bull City Showdown, "A History Revisited," which consisted of a day-long basketball tournament concluding with an all-star game in McDougald-McLendon Gymnasium.
To this day many casual fans do not know that this game ever took place or that there was a college titled North Carolina College for Negroes. "Before today I had never heard of a secret game between us and Duke," said public administration junior Senait Selemun.
This celebration is for Duke and NCCU students to mark one of the greatest moments in both schools' history.
Sadly, although Duke and NCCU are located 3.06 miles apart, we rarely cross paths.



































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