Stephanie Smith and her three children were among the 25,132 fans cheering on the Blue Devils during Saturday’s Duke Football Employee Kickoff Celebration at Brooks Field at Wallace Wade Stadium.
"They love it," Smith, of Duke Housekeeping Operations, said Saturday at the game. "They're having a ball."
Andrew Daye, an electrician at Duke Raleigh Hospital, was one Duke employee who posed for a cover photo at the Working@Duke tent.
Daye, who’s married to a North Carolina Central University employee, enjoyed the sense of community spirit at the game.
“My favorite part of the day was just looking around and seeing everybody having a good time,” Daye said. “With North Carolina Central there, it was like a family thing. It was like we were one big family because this is one time when Durham as a whole can come together.”
“There was nobody else out on the field and all eyes were on me, it was like ‘Wow, this is really happening now,’” Martin said. “I just wanted to soak it all in.”
For Martin, development projects coordinator for the Nicholas School’s Office of Development and Alumni Relations, the captain experience already featured plenty of fun moments, including meeting Duke coach David Cutcliffe at his weekly news conference..
Before the game on Saturday, she was on the field for warmups, got to follow the team onto the field as it ran out of the tunnel and was on hand for the pregame coin toss, after which, the referee gave her the coin.
But it was her on-field recognition that proved to be the most indelible memory. Afterward, she walked back to her family and friends in Section 29 and got congratulations from strangers.
“I was still getting them when I was going back to my car,” Martin said. “I thought that was pretty cool.”
Produced by Working@Duke in the Office of Communication Services at Duke. Follow Working@Duke and keep up with news you can use in work and life on Facebook and Twitter. Photography by Working@Duke, Duke Athletics and Ben McKeown.