Murray decided to give the passing scheme a try, introducing it the next spring. Army ran an offense that featured the so-called lonesome end, a formation in which a wide receiver never came into the huddle, receiving the play call from the quarterback by hand signals. One of Duke's losses in 1959 was to Army, a team coached by Murray's friend Red Blaik. Adding insult to injury the 1959 season ended with a nationally-televised 50-0 loss at home to arch-rival North Carolina. The injury-plagued Devils went 4-6 the following season, the most losses for Duke since 1929. Duke had to win its final two games in 1958 to finish 5-5. His quarterback was future NFL great Sonny Jurgensen, who attempted 59 passes for his entire senior season, 4,203 fewer than he would throw in the pros.ĭuke's offense became predicable and ineffective.

In 1956 Buddy Bass led Duke with nine receptions for the entire season. He was a firm believer in the adage that three things can happen when you throw a forward pass and two of them are bad. We maintained that we played three games every week, two in practice and the third on Saturday.' He was calm and collected but you knew there were consequences if you messed up.' Rappold adds, 'every second of every practice, you knew where you were and what you were supposed to be doing. The doors closed on time and the bus left on time. We joked that there was Eastern Time, Greenwich time, and Murray time. Dick Havens, a lineman on the 1960-62 teams, says Murray 'was very organized, very disciplined.

We were a bunch of country boys but we were hungry.' He could coach. Dwight Bumgarner, who graduated in 1960, says 'He liked to bring in players who had brains and talent but not a lot of money. Murray had winning seasons in his first seven seasons at Duke, including a pair of eight-win seasons and a 34-7 win over Nebraska in the 1955 Orange Bowl.

Wade retired following the 1950 season and was replaced by former Duke running back Bill Murray, who had coached Delaware to a 69-9-3 mark that included three undefeated seasons. Duke had been following this formula since Wallace Wade came from Alabama in 1931 and made Duke a perennial national power. Recruit the best players, coach them well and the wins will follow. But the basics were the same as they are today. It was a different game in the early 1960s. Those are the words of former Duke quarterback Walt Rappold, who helped the Blue Devils win the 1960, 1961, and 1962 ACC football titles. We had the coaching, we had the talent, we were always well prepared. The Blue Devils won three straight ACC titles in 1960, 19.

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