OFF THE COURT
BLUE DEVILS ON CAMPUS
Feature by Duke Basketball Student Life & Campus Relations Director Kenny King
A STORY IN NUMBERS
Professor C.J. Skender Shares his Passion for
Accounting and Duke Basketball
To say that Professor C.J. Skender has a mind for numbers is an understatement. C.J., who is in his 30th year
as a professor of accounting at Duke University, has transformed Financial Accounting (ECON 182) into one
of the most popular undergraduate courses by combining the worlds of debits and credits with popular trivia
in a humorous way. A former basketball player at Lehigh University, C.J. has a passion for sports trivia and
often incorporates Duke Basketball statistics from past and present teams into lectures and exam questions.
If students were to dare question his sources, C.J. would be quick to point out that he has taught quite a few
Duke Basketball players and student-managers (myself included)
over the years. The list of players includes Danny Meagher, Lee
Melchionni, Reggie Love, Ross Perkins, Joe Pagliuca and most
recently our very own senior captain Greg Paulus. Greg and I
would often find ourselves sharing our favorite Professor Skender
stories after practice, and would even try to stump each other
with "Skender trivia". Although we could never agree on who
was the better student (C.J. refuses to divulge final grades), we
always seemed to concur that Professor Skender would remain a
close friend. Both Greg and C.J. were kind enough to share a few
memories, email correspondences, pictures and even exam ques-
tions to highlight the close friendship that has developed over the
course of the last few semesters. I have a hunch that the numbers
Professor Skender with former Duke player Ross Perkins
at our team banquet in 2006
1,182 (points), 207 (threes), 464 (assists), and 3 (Greg’s number)
will be answers to questions on a Financial Accounting exam in the near future (Duke students take note).
40 DukeBluePlanet.com
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