The rivalry between UNC and Duke University sparked when a fight broke out Feb. 4, 1961 during a basketball game in Durham.
Duke sophomore, Art Heyman, fouled on North Carolina sophomore Larry Brown while Brown was shooting a lay-up. Heyman grabbed Browns’ shoulders before Brown could make the lay-up. Brown punched Heyman in the face as a reaction. This started an on court riot that disrupted the game.
According to Alex Japha’s article, “Igniting a Rivalry: The 1961 UNC-Duke Basketball Fight”, Heyman, Brown and Don Walsh, another UNC player who had pushed Heyman during the fight, were suspended from participating in games with other Atlantic Coast Conference teams. Japha cites Commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference, James H. Weaver’s
