by Chris Chase, USA TODAY Sports

The head of Duke’s Blue Devil mascot was stolen and placed on a pole – Game of Thrones style – above a University of North Carolina campus store prior to the teams’ Wednesday night showdown in Durham.

It’s evidently the latest prank in a long-running battle between the Tobacco Road rivals.

Mark Armstrong of WTVS in Raleigh/Durham says Duke confirmed one of its mascot heads is gone but the school has a spare. That’s a relief. I don’t know if Dick Vitale would have been able to handle it otherwise.

Last year, Duke students dressed Chapel Hill’s famous “Silent Sam” statue in a variety of Blue Devils gear. His head, mercifully, remained in tact.

Duke basketball fans maintain the greatest act in the prank war was in 1998 when four students stole Michael Jordan’s retired jersey from the rafters of the Dean Dome and hung it inside Cameron Indoor Stadium. I’m reluctant to give Duke students credit for anything other than their body-painting abilities and coordinated hand-shaking efforts, but that’s some solid work.

UNC’s prank gets a high grade too. (Insert UNC athletics joke.) The best gags always flirt with the bounds of criminality and stealing a mascot head – allegedly! – is right up there.

… [For more on Duke mascot head stolen, placed on spike on UNC campus, click here.]