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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Cary, NC

    Help me out, DBR historians!

    I need some help corroborating some memory that is vaguely floating around my head. Back when Mack Brown left UNC in the late 90’s, I remember there had been rumors circulating for a few days that he was thinking of leaving. And then I remember reading a headline in the paper (this being an actual, printed newspaper) with a quote from Brown stating something like “I will never leave Chapel Hill, I am totally committed to this program.” And then a day later he announced he was leaving for Texas.

    Does anybody else remember this happening? This mostly predates the internet being so pervasive, so I can’t find it on Google. I run across many people at work and church who are big time UNC fans and are convinced that Mack is about to lead them to glory, and if I’m being completely honest I would really like to throw this quote in their faces. Help me out, my fellow DBR readers!

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Steamboat Springs, CO
    Quote Originally Posted by UrinalCake View Post
    I need some help corroborating some memory that is vaguely floating around my head. Back when Mack Brown left UNC in the late 90’s, I remember there had been rumors circulating for a few days that he was thinking of leaving. And then I remember reading a headline in the paper (this being an actual, printed newspaper) with a quote from Brown stating something like “I will never leave Chapel Hill, I am totally committed to this program.” And then a day later he announced he was leaving for Texas.

    Does anybody else remember this happening? This mostly predates the internet being so pervasive, so I can’t find it on Google. I run across many people at work and church who are big time UNC fans and are convinced that Mack is about to lead them to glory, and if I’m being completely honest I would really like to throw this quote in their faces. Help me out, my fellow DBR readers!
    Here's info from Wikipedia:

    Brown's move to Texas

    While Brown informed his North Carolina team and the media that he had no plans to leave North Carolina for the recently vacated job at the University of Texas, he was soon identified (over the objections of Longhorn Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds) by the Texas search committee as one of only two men they were interested in hiring. At the time, the Tar Heels had just completed their most successful season in years. The 1997 Tar Heels notched a 10–1 record—only the third 10-win regular season in school history. They were slated to appear in the Gator Bowl for the second year in a row—only their second (or third) New Year's Day bowl game since the Justice era. They were also all but assured of their highest final ranking in the AP Poll in half a century.

    On December 2, 1997, Brown was contacted while at the ACC's football banquet in Atlanta. He agreed to meet with the hiring committee, which included Dodds, Texas coaching legend Darrell Royal, several former Texas players, and several important boosters, most notably Tom Hicks (owner of the Dallas Stars and Texas Rangers), who donated time, energy and the use of his private jet corps to the coaching search that also included an exploratory meeting with Northwestern's Gary Barnett in Chicago.

    Brown met the committee on December 3 in the Four Seasons hotel in Atlanta.

    The committee was impressed with Brown and Dodds offered him the job on the spot. The offer included a sizable pay raise to about $750,000 a year (which could climb to as high as $1 million with incentives), and a similar amount to recruit assistant coaches.

    Brown tentatively accepted, but wanted to speak with North Carolina athletics director Dick Baddour and the North Carolina football team before making an official decision. The following day Brown met with Baddour, who had been told by the Chancellor to offer Brown a ten-year contract, as Brown relates in his autobiography:

    [Baddour] came over to our house... The university offered me [a salary equal to the basketball head coach's], but Baddour made it clear that it would create a real hardship on the department if I took it. He also said, "If you want football to be equal to basketball, you should go to Texas." ... [Baddour] told us the chancellor had said to offer a ten-year contract... He did add that he didn't feel the Board of Trustees would approve the long-term deal.[3]

    Brown called Deloss Dodds to officially accept the head coaching position at the University of Texas on December 4, 1997 at 2:30 PM, then informed Dick Baddour of his decision fifteen minutes later. At 3:00 PM, Brown held a meeting with the Tar Heel players to inform them of his decision.[4]

    That Thursday night, Brown flew to Austin. He was introduced to an enthusiastic Longhorn crowd on Friday.

    As a consequence of taking the Texas post, Brown was not on the sidelines during the Tar Heels' 42–3 rout of Virginia Tech in the 1998 Gator Bowl, having been replaced as head coach by defensive coordinator Carl Torbush. North Carolina credits the 1997 regular season to Brown and the Gator Bowl to Torbush.
    Sage Grouse

    ---------------------------------------
    'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Earth
    Yes. I can't recall the exact details, but a fellow Duke student indicated there might have been a For Sale sign at Mack's house in a very timely (or premature) fashion.

    Mack is a great salesman more than a XO guy. Between 1-99% of salesmen are honest...just like lawyers, contractors, etc.

    It's more agonizing, but I prefer the silence Cut and K have given us when they had other offers on the table.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Watching carolina Go To HELL!
    Quote Originally Posted by UrinalCake View Post
    Does anybody else remember this happening?
    Very similar to the DBR produced T-shirt I have commemorating Ol' Roys interview comment while coaching Kansas in the tournament and his interest in the job OY. "I don't give a s..t about north carolina!"
    Ozzie, your paradigm of optimism!

    Go To Hell carolina, Go To Hell!
    9F 9F 9F
    https://ecogreen.greentechaffiliate.com

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Durham, NC
    Quote Originally Posted by OZZIE4DUKE View Post
    Very similar to the DBR produced T-shirt I have commemorating Ol' Roys interview comment while coaching Kansas in the tournament and his interest in the job OY. "I don't give a s..t about north carolina!"
    I have that shirt, only autographed!

  6. #6

    Original exit of Brown

    My (old) memory seems to recall things went pretty much the way UrinalCake described.
    Denial / allegiance and then guess what happened soon thereafter.
    The cheaters faithful were generally NOT happy campers.
    I'm sure it all basically boiled down to "money talk$ and" so on

    k

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Raleigh
    I wish ol mack as much success as he had early on in his coaching career with the cheats. Maybe something like this:

    "1988 North Carolina 1–10 1–6 7th
    1989 North Carolina 1–10 0–7 8th"

    IIRC, the above led to something like the following:

    Q: Why did mack brown receive the Nobel Prize in 1990?

    A: Because he found a cure for "c*rolina fever." (which was rampant about that time)

    9F'em.
    [redacted] them and the horses they rode in on.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by devildeac View Post
    I wish ol mack as much success as he had early on in his coaching career with the cheats. Maybe something like this:

    "1988 North Carolina 1–10 1–6 7th
    1989 North Carolina 1–10 0–7 8th"

    IIRC, the above led to something like the following:

    Q: Why did mack brown receive the Nobel Prize in 1990?

    A: Because he found a cure for "c*rolina fever." (which was rampant about that time)

    9F'em.
    Reminds me of this gem. Before the 1999 Spurrier scoreboard game, the Blue Devil came to Kenan with a sign that said:

    "Everybody loves a winner... except for Mack Brown's wife."
    "There can BE only one."

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Undisclosed
    Quote Originally Posted by Highlander View Post
    Reminds me of this gem. Before the 1999 Spurrier scoreboard game, the Blue Devil came to Kenan with a sign that said:

    "Everybody loves a winner... except for Mack Brown's wife."
    1989.

    Had not heard that, hilarious.

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