It is the bane of a researcher’s existence to find out his question has been answered before, let alone fifty-five years ago.
Digging around the Blue Devil Reference Collection, I found a former Duke student who wondered what was essentially my question. Frank Green, in his article “A Devil of A Question” for the Duke Peer, December 1953, asks:
“It seemed a paradox to end all paradoxes forever that Duke University, occupying as it does the position of a leader among the institutions of the Bible Belt, should send its athletic teams forth to do battle under the name of Blue Devils.” (Blue Devil Reference Collection, Duke University Archives)
In the pursuit of his (our) question, Green ended up consulting with a total of four men involved in Duke University management (Blue Devil Reference Collection, Duke University Archives). Three of them did not give a conclusive answer (Blue Devil Reference Collection, Duke University Archives). Eventually, Green met with then university vice-president Dean Herring, who appeared aggrieved and did not know why he and other officials did not veto the Blue Devil (Blue Devil Reference Collection, Duke University Archives).
Green’s closing remarks are poignant. He describes a paradox that remains with us: “The Chapel occupies the central location on the campus, but on the sports scene the Devils fight for fame” (Blue Devil Reference Collection, Duke University Archives).
Irrespective of the origins of the Duke Blue Devil, its association with Duke University has grown inseparable, ostensibly in a way the Duke Methodists may have never achieved. The Duke Blue Devil is a name born out of religion but imbued with scholarship, pride, and spirit. A devil as subscribed to a theologian is not the same as a Duke Blue Devil. My research has taught me words are not inelastic. People shape them. Institutions shape them. Students shape them.
While we parade around in Blue Devil ears, or watch our horned Mascot jest to the crowds, Duke students- Duke University- has inherited its own legacy of the devil in blue, and perhaps that is more important than all of its past.
(Blue Devil Reference Collection, Duke University Archives)
