Former Appalachian State and North Carolina coach Mack Brown is among 17 first-time candidates included on the College Hall of Fame ballot released by the National Football Foundation on Thursday. Brown joins a group of holdover candidates with state ties that includes NC State wide receiver Torry Holt and East Carolina coaching legend Clarence Stasavich. Also listed on the ballot are Elon running back Bobby Hedrick and Western Carolina placekicker Kirk Roach. After starting his coaching career in Boone, going 6-5 in his only season with the Mountaineers, Brown returned to the Old North State in 1988. His teams went 1-10 in each of his first two seasons with the Tar Heels, but rallied to earn bowl bids in each of his final six. In all, he compiled a 69-46-1 record over 10 years before leaving Chapel Hill in 1997 for Texas, where he won a national championship in 2005. Holt was the 1998 ACC Player of the year who earned consensus All-America honors as both a receiver and punt returner. He finished his career at State as the Wolfpack’s all-time leader in receiving yards (3,379) and all-purpose yards (1,979). Stasavich was ECU’s coach during its most successful three-year stretch in school history, going 27-3 from 1963-65. Before joining the Pirates, he led Lenoir-Rhyne to three undefeated seasons, winning the NAIA national championship in 1960. Hedrick was a first-team small college All-American in 1980 who at the time of his graduation ranked second only to Heisman Trophy winner Tony Dorsett among all divisions in NCAA history in career rushing yardage with 5,604. Roach was a three-time first-team All-American who held five Division I-AA kicking records, 10 conference records and 18 school records while missing only one extra point in four years. To be eligible for the ballot, a player must have been a first-team All-American by one of the five organizations used by the NCAA to determine the consensus All-America team: The Associated Press; the American Football Coaches Association, the Football Writers of America Association; the Sporting News; and the Walter Camp Football Foundation. Coaches must have coached a minimum of 10 years and 100 games and won at least 60 percent of their games. The 2018 class will be announced on Monday, Jan. 8, 2017 in Atlanta, site of both the College Football Hall of Fame and this season’s National Championship Game.
