Pitt and Duke haven’t played each other in football in 37 years. Yet, you would think there is a long-storied past based on some of the stories from this week.

For two programs that are very different and only 17 games played between them, history is the theme. The first game was back in 1929, and Pitt was a victim of the 1938 “Iron Dukes” team.  But Pitt and Duke played another game in 1950 that at least counts as a step in history.

Pitt was about to travel to Durham, N.C., with a player destined to become part of a scene never witnessed on a college football field in that state: a black man playing against a white man.

Flint Greene, a backup defensive tackle for Pitt who was an all-state selection on WPIAL championship teams at New Kensington High School, made history that day, turning a 28-14 Duke victory into the first integrated football game in North Carolina. ACC historian Al Featherston said Duke and North Carolina had played against blacks only on the road out of state.

Altoona native Blaine Earon, a Blue Devils All-American defensive end, attended Wade’s meeting.

“He said to us, ‘If there is anybody who has an objection, let me know,’ ” Earon said from his home near Atlanta. “Nobody put up their hands. I’m serious. The only time it was mentioned was at that meeting.”

By all accounts, Greene’s presence prompted no reaction on the field or in the stands.

“You didn’t even know the guy was there,” said Billy Cox, the Duke quarterback.

It may have helped that Duke was very proactive in making sure there was no issue.

Wade warned his players he would pull them if they caused trouble for Greene. Duke president Hollis Edens and Wade issued a statement to reporters.

“Yes, we have heard that Pittsburgh has a Negro on its squad,” the statement read. “The coaches of each team have the unquestioned right to play any eligible man they choose to play. We have neither the right nor the desire to ask a coach to restrict or limit his team’s participation on the grounds of creed or color.

“Duke students and fans have a fine record of treating visiting teams courteously. We have every reason to believe this record will be continued.”

Cox, who grew up in Mount Airy, N.C., and was a classmate of Andy Griffith’s, said Wade’s warning may have been unnecessary.

“I don’t think we were far enough south,” he said.

Yes. Yes, you were. If that was the first integrated football game played in North Carolina. You definitely “were far enough south.”

But where history and the present really intersect is in 1976.

And the 1976 Duke team has the distinction of scoring more points (31) than any other opponent that faced Pitt in its undefeated national championship season.

“We couldn’t even slow them down that day. If it was a tight football game, we might have gotten beat,” said Bobby Roper, the defensive coordinator on the 1976 Pitt team and father of two current Duke assistants – Kurt, the offensive coordinator, and Zac, the special teams coordinator.

If you feel like going down the nostalgia rabbit hole, Bobby Roper had plenty more to say about the 1976 team and the Sugar Bowl.

The Panthers had originally been scheduled to play Notre Dame in the middle of their season, but the TV powers-that-be approached Majors about moving that game to the beginning of the season, offering Pitt national exposure out of the gate (side note: TV schedule setting? The more things change, the more they stay the same).

“We took a vote on it, and I voted against it,” Roper said. “He (Majors) went and talked to the team, and they all wanted to do it. The other coaches wanted to do it, and so I was wrong again.”

Roper was also on the wrong side of the vote about a curfew for the players in New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl. The Panthers’ trip started in Biloxi, Miss.—a little warmer than Pittsburgh in the winter, Majors said—and ended in New Orleans, leading up to the Sugar Bowl.

“I went to the Sugar Bowl as a senior, and they had us stuck out 30 minutes from downtown,” Majors said. “We were isolated way out of Bourbon Street, and we got bored. There were two movies and free bowling passes, and I never cared much for bowling.

“When I became the head coach, I let the players have a good time.”

And the Panthers did have a good time, as noted in this excellent 1977 Sports Illustrated piece (wasn’t life better before smart phones?). They also completely dominated the Georgia Bulldogs’ junkyard defense, sealing the national championship with a 27-3 win.

And then there is the Duke head coach and his connections to Johnny Majors and Walt Harris.

In 1982, a 27-year-old David Cutcliffe had just wrapped up his second season as the head coach at Banks High School, his alma mater, with a regional title. The former Alabama player and Birmingham native was living the good life in his hometown.

Then he got a call from his friend, Phillip Fulmer, at that time the offensive line coach for Tennessee, imploring him to join the Volunteers and head coach Johnny Majors.

“We used to joke that he had a Cadillac and a bass boat, gave them both up to come up there and be a graduate assistant,” said former Pitt coach Walt Harris, who joined the Volunteers a year later as their offensive coordinator.

…

“People believe in him, and he’s done a great job,” Harris said. “They gave him a chance to have a chance. He gave the school a chance because they haven’t been very good at football in a while.”

Harris said that when the two were assistants at Tennessee together from 1983-88, he could tell that Cutcliffe was head coaching material.

“He was such a good football coach and so smart about football and a lot of things, you knew he was on a track if he got the chance and opportunity,” Harris said.

Everybody knows everybody in coaching.