Tobacco Road: Duke, Carolina, N.C. State, Wake Forest, and the History of the Most Intense Backyard Rivalries in Sports [Paperback]

Alwyn Featherston (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

As the 2005 NCAA basketball season entered conference tournament play, three of the nation's top five rated teams were from the famed basketball hotbed in North Carolina known as "Tobacco Road." Between 1981 and 2005, teams from the four basketball powerhouses – Duke, North Carolina, North Carolina State, and Wake Forest – reached the Final Four nineteen times and won seven national championships. Not since the Yankees, Dodgers, and Giants all played in New York City have rivalries so passionate been contained within such a small geographical region. These four college programs grew up within just thirty-four miles of each other (though Wake eventually moved across the state to Winston-Salem) and have staged classic battles throughout the decades, featuring stars like David Thompson, Michael Jordan, Johnny Dawkins, and Tim Duncan, and legendary coaches such as Dean Smith, Jim Valvano, Mike Kryzewski, and Roy Williams, Tobacco Road covers the rich traditions of Tobacco Road basketball - and the backyard rivalries that become more and more intense with every year.

About the Author

Alwyn Featherston is a Durham native and a 1973 graduate of Duke University, and he has covered ACC basketball since 1970. He joined the Durham Sun in 1974 and he served as the UNC, Duke and N.C. State beat writer for the Herald-Sun until 2005. He now works as a freelance writer in the Durham area. He has won a number of awards for his writing, including the 2001 National Association of Sports Writers first place award for game coverage and four North Carolina Press Association Awards. Featherson is the author of Saving the Breakout: The 30th Division's Heroic Stand at Mortain, August 7-12, 1944 (Presidio Press, 1993).

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Lyons Press (February 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592289150
• ISBN-13: 978-1592289158
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #839,066 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Anecdotal, July 15, 2008

By 

ostawookiee "ostawookiee" (Winston-Salem, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Tobacco Road: Duke, Carolina, N.C. State, Wake Forest, and the History of the Most Intense Backyard Rivalries in Sports (Paperback)

I'm a big fan of ACC basketball, and I learned a lot about the history of the Big Four - stories about past teams, players, coaches that I hadn't heard before.

Just be aware that it's a survey, a collection of anecdotes spottily covering the last almost hundred years, and only so much can fit in the book. It's not a comprehensive history by any means and huge portions of that history are skipped over or only mentioned in passing; but it is well worth reading.

7 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Account, March 5, 2006

By 

Book Girl (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tobacco Road: Duke, Carolina, N.C. State, Wake Forest, and the History of the Most Intense Backyard Rivalries in Sports (Paperback)

I am in the unusual position of having been both a Duke and a Carolina fan, so I was interested in what Featherston proposed to add to the tale of this storied rivalry, as well as the intense competition with NCSU and Wake Forest.

Featherston's writing was clean and enjoyable, but the book did not include anything that I had not already read in other titles or had already heard from other sources. It would serve more appropriately for someone wanting an introductory lesson on major ACC rivalries. For something more in-depth, other fans might want to turn to Art Chansky's "Blue Blood : Duke-Carolina: Inside the Most Storied Rivalry in College Hoops."

That being said, don't let me stop you from reading it. It's not a bad book at all. Just not the cornucopia of knowledge I was hoping for at the time.