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A trip down Tobacco Road

College basketball

By KEVIN BRAFFORD Times Correspondent
Published March 4, 2007

DURHAM, N.C. - The only tobacco to be found on Tobacco Road in the heart of ACC country is from discarded cigarette butts.

They're sprinkled along less than two-tenths of a mile in east Durham, an unassuming swatch of pavement.

The street is in a warehouse district, and only a handful of businesses call it home. Workers, rest assured, are aware of their bit of significance when it comes to ACC basketball.

"I'll get calls where somebody will make the connection between the ACC and our street address," said Mark Crow, owner of Southern Exhibition Services, a trade show decorator. "I moved down here from up north 12 years ago, and I thought it was a pretty cool connection when I first started this office."

He doesn't count himself a huge fan, at least not compared with others in these parts, where three schools - Duke, North Carolina and N.C. State - are separated by 30 miles.

"If I had to root for anyone, it would be N.C. State," he said. "I have a natural tendency to root for the underdog."

Allegiances are more clearly defined at ABC Supply Co., said Jesse Chaput, a customer service rep for the exterior building supply company.

"We have 10 guys in this office," he said. "Most of them are UNC fans, and there are a couple that pull for Duke. There aren't any N.C. State fans - at least not that will admit it."

He is in the minority: a Duke fan.

"I moved here from Florida 10 years ago," said Chaput, who lives among a horde of N.C. State fans in Raleigh and makes the short commute. "I don't like the Wolfpack's little mascot, and I don't like the sissy blue of UNC. Duke's a blue devil, and I like that.

"It's purely a mascot issue with me."

Jessica Ligon couldn't care less about mascots. She also couldn't care less about Duke and N.C. State.

"I've been a big Carolina fan all of my life, and even though I'm only 19, it seems like a long time to me," said the customer service rep for De Haven's Transfer & Storage. "I'm from a whole family of Carolina fans."

Why the Tar Heels?

"I don't know how it could be any other way," she said. "I don't know why anybody would pull for Duke, and I don't even think about N.C. State."

[Last modified March 3, 2007, 22:27:08]