Friday night in Durham, Northern High School will name its new football facility “Kenny Browning Stadium.” What a fitting tribute to the man who put football on the map at Northern.

Before I go any further, I must admit to a personal bias. You see, I married into a family of six Northern graduates, all women. I’ve attended more Northern graduations than anyone I know. I took in the commencement exercises for my wife Mary’s three youngest sisters. Also one year the Leaver family hosted an exchange student. So that’s four Northern graduations all together.

Mary graduated from Northern in 1965, one year after the future Coach Browning. Mary took Latin from Ken Browning’s mother! Mrs. Browning made quite an impact on my wife. “Ego Amo Te,” she would say periodically, which is Latin for I love you. Anytime she said it she would remind me that she learned that from Mrs. Browning at Northern.

My sister in law Deidre, youngest of the six Leaver girls, knows Coach Browning best. In 1983 and 1984 Deidre served on Northern’s Athletic Training staff. In the early 80’s the notion of young women taping ankles and giving treatment in a guys’ locker room was a very new thing.

Coach Browning embraced it. In fact, Deidre was joined by four other females. Collectively they were known as “Amato’s Angels” after Herb Amato, Northern’s Head Athletic Trainer.

Deidre recalls that Coach Browning “understood how important members of the support staff were and made sure they were treated in a respectful manner by everyone associated with the program.”

Fast forward a few decades. Deidre is now Dr. Deidre Leaver Dunn, Associate Dean for Academic affairs and a faculty member in the Athletic Trainer program at the University of Alabama. Deidre actually served as Director of the AT Program in Tuscaloosa for 21 years, so she knows a little something about football and the treatment required for athletes.

This experience has made her appreciate Coach Browning all the more. “Coach Browning was amazing,” Dean Leaver Dunn recalls. “He was clearly a talented football coach but he was also a great communicator and leader. He had a process before Nick Saban made that the thing.”

Northern did not have a stadium during the Browning years, 1976-1993. The Knights played their home games at Durham County Stadium, a massive facility the school shared with Durham High School and Hillside. Yet, Northern fans made the big stadium their own.

Browning’s teams began winning almost immediately. They captured 10 conference championships in a row. Always fundamentally sound, Browning’s teams averaged nine wins and just two losses over 18 years.

Going to County Stadium on Friday nights in the 80’s became a very big deal in Durham. I once interviewed several Northern students about Browning’s program. “Football is important at Northern,” they told me. “It’s very important.”

Typically one of those two losses each year would come in the post season. Sometimes the Northern season would end in week two of the playoffs, sometimes it would be week three. Didn’t matter, it was a source of great frustration. In fairness to Browning, Northern rarely faced challenges in its own conference. Schools did not make long trips across the state seeking strong early season non conference competition to prepare them for tough playoff games in November as they do today.

But Browning and Northern kept moving the needle toward a state championship. Between 1987 (when the Knights suffered a tough loss to eventual champion Garner) and 1992 when Northern lost on a last second 50 yard pass, Browning’s teams lost to the eventual State 4A Champion.

Browning came to Northern with a goal of winning the State 4A Championship. In 1993 it finally happened. The Knights whipped West Charlotte 39-6 behind star quarterback Jason Peace.

The game was played in Kenan Stadium and soon after UNC Coach Mack Brown lured Browning into the college ranks, though Ken says it was a very difficult decision to leave Northern. Browning coached the defensive line at UNC on two of the Tar Heels’ best ever defensive teams in 1996 and 1997. Later, Browning became defensive coordinator under Carl Torbush.

Browning enjoyed an extended career at Carolina through 2011. The versatile Browning coached the offensive line, tight ends, even running backs. He is the longest tenured assistant coach in UNC history.

But it’s his work at Northern he’ll be recognized for Friday night. Browning’s teams at Northern won 178 games while losing just 35. His final three squads went 43-2.

Even more than coaching on field success were the life lessons Browning taught — how to take instruction, being on time and time management, and most of all learning how to work with other people. Browning’s most important mission: Helping players become better men.

Northern High School became a far better place thanks to Ken Browning.

Source: highschoolot.com