at the time, duke stadium was the second-largest in the south but still could only hold 35,000 people. in order to accommodate the larger crowd expected for the rose bowl, bleachers were brought in from the university of north carolina at chapel hill's kenan stadium and north carolina state university's riddick stadium to seat an additional 20,000 people. all 56,000 tickets sold out to the game in three days. bing crosby reportedly bought 271 tickets. it is unclear whether crosby attended the game. although duke generally reserved a small segregated block of tickets for african-americans, duke initially decided to not allow african-americans to attend. after an article in durham's african-american newspaper, the carolina times, claimed that duke would sell tickets to japanese-americans but not african-americans, duke reversed its decision and, despite the game already having officially sold out, released 140 tickets to african-american fans.