clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Quick Facts: Duke University

The final Quick Facts of the season! Let's go.

NCAA Football: Duke at Clemson Joshua S. Kelly-USA TODAY Sports

The Vitals

  • Established 1838
  • Located in Durham, NC
  • 14,832 students
  • $8.5 billion endowment, PLUS the university is the primary beneficiary (32%) of the independent $3.4 billion Duke Endowment (That's just excessive...)
  • #8 Nationally Among Universities According to US News and World Report
  • Motto: Eruditio et Religio (Knowledge and Faith)

Other Noteworthy Facts

  • Duke has seven different recognized a cappella groups on campus. That's a lot of singing.
  • Apparently, Duke students can purchase kegs through the official Duke Dining Services. I understand that that's an effort to curtail underaged and excessive drinking, but something about that mental image is kinda amazing to me.
  • Duke's student run musical theater organization, Hoof ‘n’ Horn, is the second oldest in the nation.
  • The Chronicle, Duke’s independent undergraduate daily newspaper, has been continually running since 1905. I can't imagine a daily paper running for over 100 years on a college campus, but there you go!

Notable Alumni

  • Apple CEO Tim Cook
  • Comedian Ken Jeong
  • YouTubers Matthew "MatPat" Patrick and Stephanie Patrick, best known for their series Game Theory (it's going to be a little harder for me to like MatPat now...)
  • Richard "Definitely Not A Crook" Nixon
  • Author and political commentator Melissa Harris-Perry
  • Actress Annabeth Gish

Sports!

  • Longest Tenured Coach: Wallace Wade, 16 years
  • Wins Leader: Wade, 110–36-7 (.742)
  • All-Time Record: 474–493–31 (.490)
  • Postseason Record: 5–8 (.385)
  • Surprising Fact: Steve Spurrier coached at Duke for 3 years from 1987-1989. I had literally no idea.

Other Things I Learned Writing This Article

  • Duke has 17 conference titles, 10 Southern conference, and 7 ACC.
  • Wallace Wade Stadium seats 40,000. That seems like a bit much given their usual attendance but I guess when you have an endowment as big as Duke's, you can afford to overshoot your target.

Thanks for all the support for this feature over the season. Here's hoping we get the win we need on Saturday to go bowling.

On to the next. Go Deacs.

--SF