UMaine-Duke Connections: More Than You Think

As the UMaine men's basketball team gets ready to take on nationally ranked Duke for the first time ever this evening, it is interesting to note there are more Maine-Duke connections than you may think.

Duke women's basketball coach Joanne P. McCallie ran the UMaine program for eight years from 1992 to 2000 and won 167 games before taking the head coaching job at Michigan State.

McCallie has been at Duke since 2007. Her Blue Devils team is off to an 8-1 start to this season.

Duke's athletic director Kevin White was UMaine's AD from 1987 to 1991. He left Maine for the Tulane AD position. White then went to Arizona State and Notre Dame. He has been at Duke since 2001.

Longtime UMaine baseball coach John Winkin was a 1941 Duke graduate and played baseball there for coach John 'Colby Jack' Coombs.

Coombs was a 1906 Colby grad who went on to a major league pitching career, winning 31 games in 1910 for the Philadelphia Athletics.

He later coached Duke baseball for over 20 years.

The Duke baseball field is named 'Jack Coombs Field'.