MENTORS
A FOOTBALL LIFE KEN BROWNING HAS IMPACTED THE CAREERS AND LIVES OF HUNDREDS OF TAR HEELS
K BY LEE PACE
PHOTOS BY UNC ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS Ken Browning grew up on a farm in northern Durham County and at one point thought of becoming a veterinarian. But that changed his senior year at Northern Durham High in 1963 when, as an all-conference two-way lineman, he broke his leg early in the season and would be out for about five weeks. Head coach Ernie Martin suggested that Browning, already established as a player whom others would ask for assignment cues and reminders, make productive use of the down-time and help coach the freshman team. “Coaching made sense to me,” Browning says. “I knew everybody’s assignments pretty much. Even the guys I played with, if they didn’t know what to do, they’d ask me. The coaching just felt right. That experience gave me a tip, ‘You might can do this, this might be what you’re cut out to do.’ That put the bug in my ear.” Call it a gift. Everybody has one in some form or fashion. Browning’s special talent for half a century now has been to impart the skills and schemes of football to young men. It’s been to motivate
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BORN & BRED
