Battle of Tobacco Road should carry government health warning

DERBY DAYS DUKE UNIVERSITY v UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA ON A Wednesday evening early last month, the Duke Blue Devils basketball squad boarded the team bus for the away trip to their most hated rivals.

Fifteen minutes later they had arrived at the University of North Carolina. While the intensity of the rivalry between Duke, a private institution, and UNC, a publicly funded university, is augmented by the proximity of the two colleges - just eight miles apart along a US highway - that's just the beginning of the story.

The short trip proved successful; the Blue Devils beat the UNC Tar Heels 89-78 for the first time since the 2005-06 season, and the attendance at Chapel Hill included Senator John Edwards (the former democratic presidential candidate once told a reporter: "I hate Duke basketball").

The game at the Dean E Smith Centre was the first meeting between the teams since a flagrant foul by Duke's Gerald Henderson left Tyler Hansbrough with a bloodied and broken nose. Hansbrough had to be restrained from going after Henderson - son of a former professional shooting guard, famous for a steal and game-tying score for the Boston Celtics during the 1984 NBA finals with the LA Lakers - before heading to the dressingroom amid ugly scenes.

It was the latest episode in a long history of bitter, intense showdowns between two of the greatest college basketball universities in the US. The colleges - who have met at least twice a year for almost 90 years - have dominated the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), combining for 79 per cent of the regular-season titles. But for all the clashes, the rivalry can be boiled down to just 17 seconds. It's March 2nd, 1974. The Blue Devils lead by eight points with 17 seconds left on the board. As the buzzer sounds, Walter Davis fires a 30-foot shot to tie the game, which the Tar Heels go on to win in overtime. For many, including at least one set of college supporters in North Carolina, it still ranks as the greatest comeback in college basketball history.

It's simply impossible to judge the rivalry between these two colleges without first understanding the unique position college sports enjoy in the US. It is not about college students cheering on their own side. It's much more about men and women, with jobs and families, screaming on the college team based in their town - one that, usually, they've never even attended. In fact, US colleges do a roaring trade selling sporting merchandise in every part of America.

Nowhere else does college sport enjoy such a prominent position on the national stage. And nowhere else in America does college basketball enjoy such a high profile as in a small part of North Carolina along a short stretch of US Highway 15-501.

An ESPN poll in 2000 ranked the greatest rivalries in US sport during the previous 100 years. Incredibly, the Duke v UNC rivalry came in at number three (to put it in perspective, the famous baseball rivalry between the Red Sox v the Yankees only made it in at number seven).

UNC have won 127 of the basketball match-ups combined with 98 wins for Duke. The most-viewed regular-season college basketball game was three years ago when CBS coverage of a Duke v North Carolina game averaged 3,977,000 households. This season's final game - with UNC and Duke locked together at the top of the ACC table - is set to start at 9pm this Saturday night at Duke home stadium in Durham.

And, after this weekend, both universities will quickly refocus on the race for national honours, with the NCAA Basketball Championship - a knock-out tournament known as March Madness - due to begin tomorrow week in San Antonio, Texas. Duke have won three NCAA Championships, while North Carolina have won four.

First, however, there is the small matter of a local contest with national prominence - known as the Battle of Tobacco Road.