William H. Lander, as editor-in-chief, and Mike Bradshaw, as managing editor, of the Trinity Chronicle began the academic year 1922–23 referring to the athletic teams as the Blue Devils.

Duke's major historic rival, especially in basketball, has been the Tar Heels of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (see Duke-Carolina rivalry).

Duke has finished in the top 20 every year in the NACDA Director's Cup, an overall measure of an institution's athletic success.

[12] According to a 2006 evaluation conducted by the NCAA, Duke's student-athletes have the highest graduation rate of any institution in the nation at 91%.

[13] Excluding students who leave or transfer in good academic standing, the graduation rate of student-athletes is 97%.

[14] There have been allegations that, like most other schools examined such as North Carolina, Duke's graduation rate may be inflated or be a result of athletes gravitating to easier courses and majors, though many have taken issue with such claims.

They have won the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship five times, all under Krzyzewski, which is second behind the University of North Carolina for any ACC team, and have been in 16 Final Fours.

Duke has 21 Atlantic Coast Conference tournament championships (1960, 1963, 1964, 1966, 1978, 1986, 1988, 1992, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2017, 2019), the most of any team in the ACC (the University of North Carolina has 17).

Goestenkors led the Blue Devils to an ACC-record 35–2 ledger in the 2002–03 season and their second straight NCAA Final Four appearance.

In 2003–04, with Player of the year Alana Beard leading the way, the Blue Devils advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight, and won a fourth-straight Atlantic Coast Conference regular season title and a fifth-straight ACC Tournament championship.

Goestenkors is often known as the "winningest coach not to have won a championship", having finished runner-up two times in fifteen years.

[30] Stephen Kovacs (1972–2022) became an Assistant Fencing Coach at Duke University in August 2010, and held the position through 2013.

[32] Half a dozen years later Kovacs was accused of sexually assaulting two fencing students elsewhere, and he died in prison in 2022.

[34] Former Duke three-time NCAA All-American fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad won a bronze medal at the 2016 Olympic Games, in the women's team sabre competition.

Duke reached their first Rose Bowl appearance, where they lost 7–3 when USC scored a touchdown in the final minute of the game on a pass from a second-string quarterback to a third string tight end.

Wade's Blue Devils lost another Rose Bowl to Oregon State in 1942, this one held at Duke's home stadium in Durham, North Carolina due to Pearl Harbor.

The football program also had a string of successful years in the late 1980s when the team was coached by Steve Spurrier.

Duke is consistently ranked at or near the top of the list of FBS schools which graduate nearly all of their football players.

Laetitia Beck, who won the Israeli championship at the age of 12 and was named ACC Rookie of the Year in 2011, played for the team.

The Blue Devils then repeated in 2014, defeating Notre Dame 11–9 to win their second straight national championship and third in five years.

Nifong was later removed and disbarred due to his misconduct in the case, and the team members who lost their season were granted another year of eligibility.

The team competes in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and is coached by Oklahoma State University 1988 graduate Glen Lanham.

The breakdown for men's sports is as follows (times, number of different athletes): baseball (13, 8); basketball (55, 31); cross country (3, 2); fencing (9, 5); football (60, 53); golf (12, 9); lacrosse (57, 37); soccer (42, 28); swimming and diving (3, 3); tennis (26, 15); track and field (17, 13); wrestling (3, 2).

[55] The team was then known as the Trinity Eleven, the Blue and White, or the Methodists (as opposed to the Baptists of nearby rival Wake Forest University).

The Trinity Chronicle editor narrowed the many nominations down to those that utilized the school colors of dark blue and white.

None of the nominations proved to be a clear favorite, but the name Blue Devils elicited criticism that could potentially engender opposition on campus.

These fears were partly alleviated when it was revealed that the name was military and patriotic rather than anti-religious; the name actually refers to the Chasseurs Alpins, also known as "les diables bleus" ("The Blue Devils"), a French military unit which had impressed many Duke students and alumni returning home from the Western Front.

The nickname of the Chasseurs Alpins was derived from the blue jacket and blue-grey breeches worn as part of their World War I-era uniform.

Editor-in-chief William H. Lander and managing editor Mike Bradshaw began referring to the athletic teams as the Blue Devils.

The Chronicle's staff continued to use the name and eventually "Blue Devils" became the official mascot and nickname of the Duke athletics program.