The Shared Experience Between Zion Williamson and Coach K You Probably Didn't Know About
Tracking it down in Ancestry's high school year book collection
Coach Krzyzewski and Zion Williamson had similar experiences during their teenage basketball careers. They both jumped so high that they hit their heads during games. Zion hit his on the backboard during a Duke game in 2018. Coach K — allegedly, it’s in his high school year book — hit his on the ceiling during a Weber High School (Chicago) game in 1963.1
Zion might have gotten up a few more inches than Coach K.
I remember watching this Duke game versus Princeton live during my senior year of high school on December 18, 2018. It was only days after I found out I got accepted to Duke. Now, a senior at Duke with only two weeks left, I wondered if I could find Coach K’s yearbook pictures on Ancestry.
Nothing beats a great picture. Seeing your ancestor smiling at the camera in 1880, 1910, or 1950 can be surreal. Try picturing your grandparents as 16-year-olds. It is probably pretty hard. You likely only knew them in their 50s onwards, so visualizing them as kids can be tricky.
Tip: Ancestry boosted its high school yearbook archives over the past decade. You should check it out! Your parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents yearbooks might be only one search away.
Jack Palmer is a History and Psychology double-major at Duke University. I’ve done genealogy research since I was 10 and love writing about it for family, friends, and anybody else who might enjoy a blast from the past.
I emailed Coach K to see if he might confirm whether or not he really hit his head on the ceiling, or if the yearbook writer was being funny. To my surprise, he responded! He said that he didn’t hit his head. Phew!