Sam Brown was in East Gaston’s parking lot after school, waiting for the bus and watching the track team, when coach Dick Thompson whistled him to the field. Thompson recognized the sophomore from Stanley Little League and pee-wee football and wanted to test the kid’s speed.

“I had on jeans, a nice shirt and dress shoes,” Brown says, “and I went down there and defeated his best runner. When I finished, I ran up to the top of the hill and caught the school bus and went home. After that, I worked with Coach Thompson.”

That partnership erupted into a track career that collected numerous state titles, all-conference selections and college championships. Brown also excelled at high school basketball, as co-captain two seasons and school record-holder for rebounds in a game (26), season (280) and career (753). He was a four-year letterman at UNC-Chapel Hill, three-year co-captain of the track team and Atlantic Coast Conference indoor 600-yard champ and record-holder. In 1979, his 600-yard time of 1:10.02 was ninth-best in the world.

For his accomplishments, Brown, 61, is a 2019 inductee of the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame, an award that was unexpected. “When someone called me, I was like, ‘What?’ And I’m deeply honored that I was selected,” he says. “I think those who are in the Hall of Fame are individuals who have done things that represent the best of their community, and the best of themselves, and I am honored to be allowed to join this elite group of individuals.”

Brown was co-captain of East Gaston’s track team his junior and senior years and was WNCHSAA All-Conference in 1974, 1975 and 1976. He set the WNCHSAA 440-yard record of 49.4 when he won the state championship in 1976.

“Prior to that state championship, there was a young man from North Gaston who defeated me, and he went back and kinda bragged about how he beat me,” Brown says. “That was the only race I lost in two-and-a-half years. So in the state meet, I set a record and defeated him. Keep in mind that in high school, we didn’t have starting blocks. I just learned how to use them when I got to Carolina. It wasn’t around (in high school), and we didn’t have a lot back them. We practiced in the parking lot, and the old East Gaston didn’t have a track – it was just dirt. A lot of what I learned, I learned from watching other people.”

To get into Carolina, Brown didn’t watch others. Instead of the usual recruiting process, he chose a different route.

The summer of his sophomore year at East Gaston, Brown wrote a letter to Carolina track coach Joe Hilton. Hilton replied by sending Brown a hand-written letter with some workouts to try and some details about running to incorporate into his training.

Hilton never came to any of Brown’s high school meets.

He never saw him run.

And Hilton never invited Brown for an official visit at the UNC campus. Since it was two decades before the onslaught of social media, there were no instant videos, no text updates on Brown’s success. Just paper, and ball point pen.

“But in May of 1976, he called my house and said he and (coach) Hubert Davis were in the neighborhood, and they came down and offered me a four-year scholarship,” Brown says. “I had some other schools interested, but I always wanted to go to UNC.”

Reason? Basketball coach Dean Smith, and the athletic work ethic portrayed at the university.

“Growing up, I would watch Coach Smith and the tradition, and the way the athletes there take care of themselves,” he says. “When I first met Coach Hilton, it was the way he embodied teamwork. Keep in mind, we only had five team rules, and I think the fact that he was a gentleman who never saw me run but wrote me these workouts… we developed a friendship, and I considered him almost like my second dad.”

Brown eventually met Dean Smith, whose son Scott ran track, and another bond was set when the two sports crossed paths during training. “I met Coach Smith at his home, and also in the fall time frame when the basketball team had to run certain times, and we made fun of them, then we tried to play basketball with them, and they beat us.”

The part about work ethic showed up early when Brown joined the Chapel Hill track team. “My very first day at Carolina, we had to run 5 miles, and the day before the first workout I decided to check out the route, and I noticed there was a shortcut at the 2-and-a-half-mile mark,” he says, “so I decided to be creative and snuck behind the bushes and let some of the best runners get ahead of me, then I came in. But I made a mistake – the assistant coach was there. So I had to run the whole thing over again with Coach Hilton following me in a golf cart. At that point, I realized you had to be focused and dedicated.”

Being a college athlete means seeing parts of the country you otherwise may not visit and having stories to bring home. Brown has two: “I would say running indoors at Madison Square Garden and having your name called out, and having my cousins and mom and grandma in attendance,” he says. “And my very first indoor race in Richmond, Va. I never ran indoors in my life, and I didn’t know what I was doing. I was in Lane 4, and you’re supposed to cut in, but I ran the whole race in Lane 4, and I was so tired. I walked off the track and hid behind some bleachers, and four hours later a security guard woke me up. I walked back to the hotel, and they were all looking for me, and I went to see Coach Hilton and… I didn’t know I got third place.

“From there, I learned to run indoors. We went to Nationals and I set the ACC record and Carolina record in the 600 yard dash. It was the 9th best time in the world, at 1:10.”

Moving fast from Point A to Point B continued in Brown’s life after college. He is vice president of distribution for Windigo Logistics, a Kroger company, in Fountain, Colo., that ships to 500-plus stores in Colorado, Kansas and Texas. Prior to that, his work with a textiles company, Pepsi-Cola, Kraft Foods and Super Value took him across the country, from Texas to California, Nevada, Mississippi, Iowa, Alabama, South Carolina and Georgia. Counting visits with friends in northern places, Brown can check off having spent time in 49 states. Alaska is the last frontier.

Brown also takes time to work with Project Angel Heart, which donates to senior citizens in Colorado and helps children through donating candy for Halloween Trunk-or-Treat. Last year, 5,000 kids benefitted.

“But if anyone were to ask me the greatest moment of my life, other than being married and having a daughter, it was when I worked for Kraft Food Service in Mississippi,” he says. The majority of employees could not read or write, so he helped create a 12-week, Saturday morning program to teach them. “The employee could invite someone in their family, and by the end of the 12 weeks, they were on the seventh- or eighth-grade level, and we had a banquet. Kraft provided the food. That was probably the highlight of my career. It was very touching.”

Brown and his wife, Rhonda, have a daughter Mallory, 24. He is the son of Betty Brown of Stanley and the late Jasper Brown.

“I still call all this a journey – from Stanley to where I am now,” he says. “It’s been a long process with a lot of peaks and valleys, but I’ve met some wonderful people and had some great opportunities. I think sports has allowed me to prepare myself for the responsibilities and positions I now oversee. Sports taught me to be focused, to set goals, and to strive to be the best.”