Getting in the Game

Ross Perkins was a role-player on his state champion high school basketball team in Greensboro, North Carolina. No Division I coaches recruited him. Even walking on at Davidson College seemed unlikely. So Perkins focused on academics and followed family tradition to Duke.

His brother had been a men’s basketball manager at the university and introduced Perkins to the staff to offer him the same opportunity. “I knew I’d be able to learn from the coaches,” Perkins remembers. Sophomore year, Perkins asked Associate Head Coach Johnny Dawkins about walking on. Dawkins said it wasn’t likely, yet Perkins’ commitment and enthusiasm won him a spot at the far end of the bench.

Perkins, who also played active roles in student government, his fraternity and local community service efforts aimed at children, played five minutes his junior year and 12 minutes as a senior—mostly at the ends of games the starters had put away. He made a single basket during his career—a three-pointer, against Bucknell.

Perkins parlayed his Duke economics degree and aptitude for teamwork into a consulting job with Accenture in Boston. “Personally, I achieved a dream. And it was a big dream.”