OFF COURT
LA’S CORNER
RE: THE ITALIAN CRAZIES
About 10 years ago I met a huge Duke fan, Renato
Calvi, who was visiting Duke all the way from Italy! We
have stayed in touch throughout the years and
Laura Ann Howard is now in her 19th
season as administrative assistant in the
Duke Basketball office. She works closely
Renato and friends have made their way to many a
with our assistant coaches, coordinates
player autographing, keeps tabs on former
Duke game. Italy to Durham is quite the “road trip” I
players, staff and managers, and delivers
smiles at our offices on the fifth floor of
the Schwartz-Butters Center. The
would say, and he even named his baby boy J.J. So, for
Roxboro, NC native shares one of her
updates in LA’s Corner as part of every
issue of Blue Planet.
this round of LA’s Corner, I thought it would great to
introduce the Cameron Crazies to the Italian Crazies!
Italy is a long distance from Dur-
ham. How did you first become a
Duke fan?
I live in Latina, just 40 miles south
of Rome and my passion for Duke
started when Danny Ferry signed for
the "Messaggero Virtus Roma" in
July 1989. As I am a big fan of Virtus
Roma, in order to show support to
Danny Boy, I used to go to the games
wearing Duke stuff. That was the
beginning of my craziness.
You have gone to great lengths
to make it to Duke games. Tell
us some of your “Italian Crazie”
stories!
I have seen Duke playing in Lon-
don, in NYC, in Boston (twice) and in Cameron (three times). As for the tickets in CIS I really want to thank
Laura Ann Howard and Gerry Brown who made my dreams come true, providing tickets for three home games
(Georgia Tech in 2004, Princeton 2005 and Georgia Tech 2010). Craziest thing was holding my little son
Gianmarco/J.J. (he was 15 months) for the entire second half of the Princeton game because he was sleeping
regardless Cameron Crazies noise. Now he is six and on the way to become crazier than me.
How did your group of three Italian Crazies form?
I travel with some Crazies, Marco Vanzulli, Corrado Palumbi and Carlo Perotti. They live near the lake of Como
and Milan, far away from my town. As we share the same passion for Duke we got to know in London (with
Marco and Corrado) and in Boston (with Carlo). In 2004, I organized the travel to Duke for the Georgia Tech
game with Marco and Corrado. I met Carlo in Boston for the BC game last year. In 2010, Carlo, Marco and I
were at Duke for the G-Tech game and in Boston for the BC game. I am not going to forget my wife who was
with me at MSG in 2003 for the St. John's game and in 2005 at Duke, with our children Francesca Romana and
Gianmarco, for the Princeton game. We organize all the travels using Internet.
50 DUKE BASKETBALL
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