Gerry Gerard took over as head basketball coach at Duke in 1942 under some pretty unusual circumstances. The job became vacant when Eddie Cameron moved over to become head football coach after head football coach Wallace Wade joined the U.S. Army, where he served in the European Theater of Operations.
The U.S. was ramping up its involvement in the war and Duke was transitioning to a Navy V-12 school, most of the male students training to become officers.
And Gerard hardly was an obvious choice to succeed Cameron. Gerard was best-known as Red Grange’s backup at Illinois; Grange was one of college football’s first superstars.