By JOHN McCANN

jmccann@heraldsun.com

DURHAM -- There were so many black people at Wallace Wade Stadium the other night that the temptation was to wonder if it was N.C. Central University's homecoming.

Not that there aren't black Blue Devils. Or no white folks with Eagle pride. So let's clear that up right from the jump, lest former President Jimmy Carter -- the guy thinks most of President Barack Obama's detractors are racists -- feel like he needs to chime in.

Duke beat NCCU 49-14 on that soggy Saturday. Of course, everybody knew Duke would win ...

Well, except for when NCCU cut into Duke's 21-0 lead. A lady in the stands had been declaring, "Mike J., all the way!" referring to Eagles quarterback Michael Johnson. And he must have heard her, because the former Hillside High signal caller hooked up with an in-stride Geovonie Irvine -- one of Johnson's favorite targets at Hillside -- for a 55-yard aerial connection. That set up NCCU tailback Tim Shankle's 1-yard plunge to paydirt.

Just speculating here, but Irvine and Johnson, both sophomores, might have been playing for the Blue Devils if Duke coach David Cutcliffe had arrived in Durham a year earlier. Cutcliffe likes to start his recruiting locally and get what he can get before fanning out to bring in other players from across the state and nation. That's how he snagged Hillside product Desmond Scott, who ran for 100 yards against NCCU in what was a perfectly scripted first collegiate start for him in front of a very local crowd, many of whom knew his name.

When NCCU safety Jeffery Henderson picked off backup quarterback Sean Renfree's pass and taking it 83 yards to the house to cut in on the margin some more, it validated Cutcliffe earlier that week telling me his NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision team was in no position to overlook NCCU from the Football Championship Subdivision.

The game had slowed down a little bit for the Eagles, and they'd gotten their cleats underneath them and were making plays.

Things suddenly became a lot more interesting. Oh, it already was interesting on account of the groundbreaking nature of the contest -- the historically white school for the first time playing football against the historically black school from across the Durham Freeway. But with the score 21-14, we had ourselves a little ballgame.

Yet size and strength and speed all matter, and NCCU just didn't have enough.

You know how burdened you feel while jogging with ankle weights, but then you take them off and have an extra bounce in your step? There's the potential for that type of carryover for NCCU's guys when they line up this weekend against rival N.C. A&T State University.

Which is not to suggest a moral victory for NCCU. This isn't horseshoes, and close doesn't count. A loss is a loss, and the one over the weekend made it four straight this season for the Eagles, who, by the way, could beat the Carolina Panthers.

So no moral victories, unless you count the racial "Kumbaya" with everything both leading up to and during the Bull City Gridiron Classic, in which all were invited to partake. That's unlike in 1944, when the Eagles hosted some Duke students in a basketball game that, because of the times, had to be played under a proverbial cloak. Man, how things have changed.

And Jimmy Carter said what?

Moral victories? Well, Duke fans who'd never seen NCCU's Sound Machine got a chance to witness the marching band funk it up with a tribute to Michael Jackson. NCCU actually brought a bigger band to Duke's homecoming party.

At the same time, the NCCU fans who withstood the rain and watched Duke's marching band saw that those students can get their boogie on a little bit, too. A moral victory.

There is uncertainty about future Duke-NCCU football games. Listen, the Bull City Gridiron Classic must continue, if for nothing else but to demonstrate to former U.S. presidents and all what we're about around here.

Only next time the game has to be played on that new artificial turf at NCCU's smaller O'Kelly-Riddick Stadium for that intimate feel that you get at basketball games inside cavernous Cameron Indoor Stadium, to show certain folks that people in Durham aren't afraid to cross the tracks.

You may contact John McCann at jmccann@heraldsun.com or (919) 419-6601.