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Duke broadcaster Bob Harris to retire following 2016-17 basketball season

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An ironman in the college broadcasting world will be making his last call come the end of the 2016-17 basketball season.

Legendary Duke broadcaster Bob Harris has announced that this coming season will be his last, ending a career that began on Sept. 11, 1976. Harris currently holds an active streak of 459 consecutive football games announced, beginning on that very afternoon in September.

Duke released the announcement through the men's basketball website.

Football was not Harris' only calling, as he was a fixture at center court behind the announcers table for 1,358 Blue Devil basketball games. He has called 104 Duke-North Carolina rivalry games over that span, along with 13 NCAA Final Four events, and 10 championship games including all five of Duke's national titles in 1991, 1992, 2001, 2010, and 2015.

"When I think of Bob Harris, I think of sustained excellence as the longest tenured broadcaster in the history of the Atlantic Coast Conference," Duke basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "His unwavering passion for Duke came through each and every broadcast over the past four decades. Without a doubt, Bob has produced some of the greatest calls in Duke history, if not all of sports, during that time."

Harris has earned the North Carolina Broadcaster of the Year honor from the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association on three separate occasions, in 1988, 1991, and 2011. He was also been inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 2006.

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