‘They’ll always be great friends’: Inside Mack Brown and Frank Beamer friendship
Mack Brown steps behind the lectern at North Carolina’s football facility with an ease about him.
He responds to every question thrown his way like a veteran. Each reporter is acknowledged by name. Every answer is thorough in this early-December media session. It’s all part of the 70-year-old head coach’s grandfatherly and mellow charm.
Thirty-six minutes into his press conference, Brown perks up. A question about a 1987 game between Tulane and Virginia Tech grabs his attention. Then in his final year of his three seasons coaching at Tulane, Brown and the Green Wave throttled the Hokies 57-38 in New Orleans.
Opposite Brown that day? Frank Beamer.
“He’s one of the nicest human beings there’s ever been,” Brown said of his longtime Atlantic Coast Conference compatriot.
Thursday, Brown’s North Carolina squad will take on South Carolina and Beamer’s son, Shane — now the head coach in Columbia — in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl in Charlotte.
For a pair of coaches who entered the College Football Hall of Fame together in 2018 and whose head coaching careers began in earnest during that 1987 season, this week brings their careers full circle.
“Mack and Sally have been great friends for a long time,” Frank Beamer told The State, “and they’ll always be great friends.”
Tulane, Virginia Tech and the beginnings of a friendship
Frank Beamer inherited a mess at Virginia Tech.
The former Hokies cornerback spent six years revamping the program at Murray State. Stops as an assistant coach at Maryland and The Citadel preceded that before getting hired at his alma mater.
The track record was there. It was going to take time, though.
The previous Virginia Tech regime was penalized for a recruiting issue, resulting in a loss of scholarships when Beamer took over.
“That’s the worst penalty you can give, in my opinion,” he said. “Because that fourth or fifth year, when you’ve been there you need to win, but you haven’t been able to recruit 40 or 50 guys.”
The Hokies ebbed and flowed in their first season under Beamer. A win over Iowa State in Week 2 was sandwiched by losses to Southern Mississippi and Louisville. Wins over Vanderbilt and Ole Miss stabilized the season some. A loss to Memphis in Week 5 promptly ended that momentum.
Brown, meanwhile, had steadily built the program at Tulane. It’d been three years since the Green Wave won more than four games in a season when he was hired in 1985.
A 1-10 season in Brown’s debut campaign was followed by 4-7 in 1986. Tulane finished 1987 — Brown’s last before being hired at North Carolina for the first time — with a 6-6 record, reaching a bowl game for just the school’s fifth in the previous 40 years.
The Virginia Tech defense had its hands full in Week 6 of that 1987 season with a Tulane offense that had scored 24 or more points in all five of its games. The Green Wave also thrice went over the 30-point mark in that span.
On a day in which temperatures bounced between the low 60s and high 70s, Tulane’s offense roared out to a hotter start than a sweltering early summer New Orleans afternoon.
Two Marvin Allen touchdown runs shouldered the load as the Green Wave built a 30-7 halftime lead.
Beamer headed into the locker room ready to let loose. He wasn’t a screamer by nature. Some coaxing from tight ends coach Tommy Groom convinced him to side with a different note that day.
“I remember we stunk the place up,” longtime Virginia Tech assistant Bud Foster told The State through a laugh. “We came back (into the locker room) and thought, ‘Maybe we’re gonna rally the troops,’ but it went south real quick.”
The Hokies coaching staff hoped the halftime hooting and hollering would inspire their squad to respond. Allen put the kibosh on that when he returned the second half kickoff 89 yards for a score.
Virginia Tech would score 31 second-half points, but a 23-point halftime deficit proved too much as Brown’s squad took home the win.
“I told Tommy Groom (after the fact) that that wasn’t me,” Beamer recalled jokingly of his halftime outburst. “I was going to be me.”
UNC basketball games and family
While Brown took the early edge in the pair’s on-field meetings, he and Beamer remained close throughout their time in college football.
Shane Beamer said his parents consider Mack Brown and his wife, Sally, among their closest friends in the profession. That came with perks.
Despite growing up the son of the head coach at Virginia Tech, Shane fancied himself something of a North Carolina basketball fan growing up. Brown caught wind of his fandom and sent the Beamers tickets for Shane and his mother, Cheryl, to attend a UNC-Duke game early in his tenure in Chapel Hill.
Making the trip down to North Carolina, Shane and Cheryl took in the game together. The sea of Carolina blue enveloped the arena as the Tar Heels and Blue Devils raced up and down the court.
“It was just fun to go to the Dean Dome and see all that baby blue,” Cheryl, who conceded she bought a pair of UNC earrings on the trip, told The State. “It was really nice.”
Added Shane: “Her and I getting to go to a UNC-Duke game was a thrill for (us). It goes back to that with Coach Brown and being good to me and my family.”
Since retiring as the head coach at Virginia Tech in 2015, Frank Beamer has remained close to the school. He currently serves as a special assistant to the athletic director.
Sticking around Blacksburg also brings biennial visits from the Browns when North Carolina is in town.
Pacing the sidelines before the UNC-Virginia Tech game this fall, Brown and Beamer sought one another out. Sally snapped a cell phone picture of the longtime friends as they slung their arms around one another on the field at Lane Stadium.
Just like old times.
‘I’m a Shane fan’
Saturdays in the Beamer household most always involve cheering on Virginia Tech.
South Carolina has been added to the ledger since Shane landed the head coaching job in Columbia in December 2020.
North Carolina, too, has long been a rooting interest for the family when Brown is involved.
This week, though, allegiances will shift.
“It’s weird because normally we would not root against Mack and Sally,” Cheryl quips.
Shane told reporters earlier this month that Brown has long served as a mentor for younger coaches. Brown was also among the first people to call his parents and congratulate them when news leaked that Shane had landed the head coaching job at USC in December 2020.
Brown, too, has seen Shane grow up. He believes the younger Beamer is a rising star and made note of how impressed he was with the Gamecocks’ 6-6 debut season.
“I’m a Shane fan,” Brown said. “I’m pulling for him. I don’t want him to do well in our game. I don’t want him to do well in two years (when UNC and South Carolina play again in Charlotte), but I want him to do well and be successful. When guys like him do well, it’ll help college football.”
If the Beamers have their way Thursday, there won’t need to be any hollering at halftime over an inability to slow UNC quarterback Sam Howell and the Tar Heel offense.
Should there be a need though, the Gamecocks ought to hope their kick coverage is a bit better than the Hokies’ 1987 squad.
This story was originally published December 28, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
