A Look Back At The Age Of Ferry

Danny Ferry was Mike Krzyzewski’s first stretch four, and he had a huge impact on Coach K’s emerging powerhouse.

It’s kind of bizarre to think about this, but has Danny Ferry become overlooked in the Duke Basketball tradition?

Maybe.

He came along at an unusual time. Ferry was a freshman in 1986, coming off the bench as a front court reserve. After that great team graduated, with only Tommy Amaker a returning starter, Ferry began to carve his own legacy.

He was a hugely key figure. Ferry, as much as anyone, helped ensure that Duke was not going anywhere after the great class of ‘86 left. In his sophomore year, the Blue Devils got to the Sweet Sixteen and in his junior and senior seasons, Duke got back to the Final Four.

Since then, of course, Duke has seen huge stars like Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley, Grant Hill, Elton Brand, Jason Williams, Shane Battier, Jon Scheyer, Kyrie Irving, the Plumlees, Brandon Ingram, Jayson Tatum and so on. You could keep going on for a good while actually.

So you can kind of see why Ferry might kind of melt into the crowd a bit.

But there’s no denying his talent or his immense contributions to Duke Basketball. He was incredibly important.

In this article from SI’s the Vault, we get a sense of just how good he was. He thrilled his coaches and irritated his opponents. We’re used to that now from Duke players, but in the mid to late ‘80’s, it was still a novelty to see a Duke player hated.

You’ll get an idea of just why in this article by Curry Kirkpatrick. Ferry may seem somewhat overlooked now, but there’s no denying his greatness.