Duke Blue Devils News: Radio legend passes, a new football opponent, more

Here is your Duke news roundup for June 14, 2024.

A Duke radio icon passes away

Wednesday, Duke Athletics Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Harris passed away. He was 81 years old.

Before retiring in 2017, Harris spent 41 years as the voice of the Duke men's basketball and football programs.

"We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Bob Harris," said Duke Vice President & Director of Athletics Nina King. "We send our heartfelt condolences to Phyllis and the entire Harris family. Duke, the Atlantic Coast Conference and the entire collegiate athletics community has lost a true icon. For over four decades, Bob represented Duke with the utmost professionalism while delivering to our fans worldwide an acute account of Blue Devil football and men's basketball games. He will be greatly missed, but his legacy will live forever."

Duke adds 2026 football opponent

The Duke football team has added a new opponent to its 2026 schedule. The Blue Devils have agreed to host William and Marry in Durham according to FBSSchedules.com.

Duke will square off with William & Mary at Wallace Wade Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. The Blue Devils will pay the Tribe a $400,000 guarantee for playing the game.

This will be the annual glorified scrimmage against an FCS opponent for the program. Also in 2026, Duke is set to play the Tulane Green Wave on September 5 before traveling to face the Illinois Fighting Illini on Sept. 12. Later in the season, Duke will host the UConn Huskies in Durham on Nov. 7.

Next season, Duke is set to face Tulane, Illinois, and UCONN in the non-conference portion of the schedule as well. However, the program has yet to schedule an FCS opponent for 2025.

Graham Barton signs rookie contract

Former Duke offensive lineman, Graham Barton, has signed his rookie contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After being selected No. 26 overall in April's NFL Draft, the offensive lineman was the last of the seven Tampa rookies to sign their deal. However, the terms of the deal have not yet been released.

At Duke, Barton saw action in 40 career games with 39 starts. He was a two-time winner of the program's Offensive Lineman of the Year Award.

He was named an All-ACC honoree in 2022 and 2023 and was a second-team All-American in 2023 after being part of an offensive line that produced 2,174 rushing yards and 26 rushing touchdowns – tied for the fifth-most in program history.

Daniel Jones not happy at Giants' minicamp

Though he's still working his way back from a torn ACL, New York Giants quarterback and former Duke star Daniel Jones wants to do more than the Giants are allowing him to do. This week, Jones was held out of team drills as the Giants conducted their minicamp. That did not make the quarterback happy.

“No, I wasn’t pumped up, but I’m not the coach, I don’t make those calls,’’ Jones said Tuesday after the Giants finished up their first practice of their mandatory minicamp.

Though Jones wanted to participate in the 11-on-11 portion of practice, he is far from being a malcontent. Rather, he said he defers to his head coach, Brian Daboll.

“I understand Dabs wanted to get a lot of team work, and that’s what they did,’’ Jones said. “Yeah, it wasn’t my favorite thing, but that’s not my job.’’

Jones tore his ACL in early November but expects to be ready to fully participate when the team opens traning camp on July 24.

“The knee feels good, really good,’’ he said. “Every week I’ve continued to feel better and better, and taking steps, doing a lot of the same things I’ve been doing, but doing them better and feeling sharper and cleaner with a lot of my cuts, kind of working to getting that explosiveness back and then taking steps and improving my change of direction and cutting from even where it was before the injury.

“I’ve kind of hit every mark I’ve set to hit that the doctors and trainers have set for me to this point. I’m gonna push to do as much as they’ll let me do.’’