GREENSBORO, N.C. — It's hard to miss all the blue among the ACC's biggest moments while walking the Hall of Champions in Greensboro.
It's full of Duke Blue and Carolina Blue, not to mention the highlights of the never-ending battle between the two teams. Now, they're preparing to face off for the first time in the Final Four.
Longtime ACC sportswriter Barry Jacobs covered the conference for decades. He even wrote a book called "A History of the ACC".
He avoids predicting who will win out between the UNC Tarheels and the Duke Blue Devils but he knows a lot about how we got here.
He said the rivalry that started more than 100 years ago on the football field came to the basketball court in the 1950s and '60s.
UNC won the National Championship in 1957 and then Duke made Final Four and National Championship runs in the early 1960s. It put the North Carolina schools on a collision course.
"You can't help noticing that these two schools are so close together as though they were in the same city and they are of equal weight and strength and tradition," Jacobs said.
Turns out, North Carolina's reputation as a basketball state started in those days too. He said ACC games were often the only games on TV.
"Who was in the best ACC games in the '50s? They involve North Carolina," Jacobs said. "In the '60s, they first involve Duke when they went to three Final Fours in four years under Vic Bubas."
Decades later we see the passionate fans--Tarheels and Cameron Crazies.
We might think things are tense between the two now but Jacobs said in recent years, it's actually become more respectful compared to the early days.
"In those days, fights were fairly common on the court and coaches were more than a few times hung in effigy," Jacobs said.
The tough, winning history coached by names like Dean Smith, Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams and now Hubert Davis will continue no matter who beats who.
"We all tell ourselves that this is the best rivalry in college sports, perhaps all of American sports and actually there's a strong argument that that is the case," Jacobs said.
All that's left is to find out who wins in the next chapter.