The North Carolina football team will face an unfamiliar foe in Appalachian State on Saturday, a team the Tar Heels have only played one time in their history. (In 1940, UNC throttled App State, 56-6.)
Head coach Mack Brown, though, is very familiar with the Mountaineers. Appalachian gave Brown his first ever head coaching job in 1983.
During Brown’s sole season in Boone, he led the Mountaineers to a 6-5 record before going to Oklahoma to become the offensive coordinator. But Boone left a lasting impression on Brown and his family.
Hugh Morton, who Brown referred to as a “mountain of a man” and an “entrepreneur for the state,” was Brown’s best friend while he was in Boone. Morton would frequently invite Brown to his house overlooking a 40-acre trout lake.
“I was making $38,500 as the head coach at Appalachian State,” Brown said “I hadn’t won a game, and I told Mr. Morton, ‘If I make some money, I’m going to live on this lake.’”
Around the same time Brown was hired by Texas in 1997 and making hundreds of thousands of dollars, he bought a house on that same lake and has lived there ever since.
Over the years, the Appalachian State football program has undergone a transformation. In 1997, the Mountaineers were still competing in the FCS and were members of the Southern Conference. Now, they are an FBS team and have won three straight Sun Belt Conference championships.
“To see what that program has turned into is really, really rewarding for me,” Brown said.
Appalachian State has established itself as one of the best Group of Five programs in the country and is known for being able to hang with larger programs. One of the most famous games in the program's history was the historic upset over a fifth-ranked Michigan team, 34-32, in 2007.
