PRE-K • 1974–80

Foster Era

Bill Foster rebuilds a program that had slipped. Spanarkel, Gminski, Banks. The 1978 national championship game.

9 of 35 profiles complete

The Foster Era at Duke, 1974–80

Bill Foster rebuilds a program that had slipped. Spanarkel, Gminski, Banks. The 1978 national championship game. Across 6 seasons Duke went 113-64 (.638) and reached a Final Four, taking 2 ACC Tournament titles.

35 players appeared for Duke in these 6 seasons. 9 already have full profiles, because their careers ran into Coach K's first season. The rest are listed below with their Duke years and roster details while their stories are researched. Season-by-season rosters, results and statistics are on the team pages.

Sources (2)

Bill Foster (basketball, born 1929) — Wikipedia
Season records and rosters: Sports-Reference and GoDuke, cited on each team page

Every Duke Player of the Foster Era

Tate Armstrong

Guard • 6'3" • 1974–77

Bruce Bell

Guard • 6'0" • 1974–78

Kevin Billerman

Guard • 6'2" • 1974–75

Terry Chili

Center • 6'10" • 1974–76

Mark Crow

Forward • 6'8" • 1974–77

Bob Fleischer

Forward • 6'8" • 1974–75

Paul Fox

Guard • 6'2" • 1974–76

Rick Gomez

Guard • 6'3" • 1974–76

Willie Hodge

Center • 6'9" • 1974–76

Pete Kramer

Forward • 6'4" • 1974–75

George Moses

Forward • 6'5" • 1974–76

David O'Connell

Forward • 6'4" • 1974–76

Bill Suk

Forward • 6'5" • 1974–75

Ken Young

Guard • 5'10" • 1974–76

Scott Goetsch

Center • 6'9" • 1975–79

Steve Gray

Guard • 6'2" • 1975–79

Cameron Hall

Forward • 6'9" • 1975–78

Harold Morrison

Forward • 6'7" • 1975–79

Jim Spanarkel

Guard • 6'5" • 1975–79

Mike Gminski

Center • 6'11" • 1976–80

Rob Hardy

Guard • 6'3" • 1976–79

Rick Mainwaring

Guard • 6'3" • 1976–77

Geoff Northrup

Forward • 6'6" • 1976–77

Gene Banks

Forward • 6'7" • 1977–81

Before Dawkins. Before Laettner. There was Tinkerbell, the kid from West Philly who made Duke a destination.

Bob Bender

Guard • 6'2" • 1977–80

Kenny Dennard

Forward • 6'8" • 1977–81

The jester, the enforcer, the cancer survivor. Banks got the roses. Dennard made the inbounds pass.

John Harrell

Guard • 6'0" • 1977–79

Larry Linney

Forward • 6'6" • 1977–81

The walk-on who bridged Foster's title game and Coach K's first team.

Jim Suddath

Forward • 6'8" • 1977–81

Three knee surgeries in six months. Then the best shooting percentage on Coach K's first team.

Vince Taylor

Guard • 6’5” • 1978–82

Lexington's playground legend chose Duke over Kentucky and led the ACC in scoring.

Jim Corrigan

Guard • 5'11" • 1979–80

Tom Emma

Guard • 6'2" • 1979–83

He scored the first points of the Krzyzewski era. Then he held the locker room together through the worst of it.

Chip Engelland

Guard • 6’2” • 1979–83

A tennis coach taught him to shoot. He taught Kawhi, Parker and Kerr.

Mike Tissaw

Forward • 6'8" • 1979–83

He wasn't the player Coach K needed. He knew it before anyone told him. He played 94 games anyway.

Allen Williams

Forward • 6'8" • 1979–82

West Virginia's first Class AAA champion. Recruited by Foster, coached by K.

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