Mack Brown spent the early part of last week insisting that he
had no interest in the Texas coaching job. "Really and truly, I
felt that way," he said. "I was planning on staying at North
Carolina. I was serious." Brown spoke these words last Saturday
from his new office at Texas.
Though he had led the Tar Heels from back-to-back 1-10 records
in 1988 and '89 to consecutive 10-win, top 10 seasons in '96 and
'97, Brown's appointment was a mild surprise. Gary Barnett of
Northwestern, who in the last two years had turned aside
overtures from UCLA and Georgia, wanted to go to Austin. But
Brown so captivated Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds and the
selection committee in an interview on Wednesday, Dec. 3, that
they offered him the job that day. "I anticipated that they
would interview five or 10 guys, that my wife, Sally, and I
would have a few days to talk it over," Brown said last
Saturday. "I took a deep breath and said, 'Excuse me?'"
In the end Brown, the grandson of a fabled high school coach in
Cookeville, Tenn., just couldn't say no to the Longhorns. "My
grandfather always talked about Wally Butts at Georgia," says
Brown, 46. "He talked about Bear Bryant at Alabama. He talked
about Darrell Royal at Texas, who was winning national
championships when I was in high school. That's why I'm so
easily impressed by the old Top 10 schools. The tradition is so
different at places like this."
Issue date: December 15, 1997
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