Tom Brown is one of the state's most successful football coaches at the high school level. A native of Pennsylvania, Brown came South to attend Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory, where he earned all-conference honors in both football and baseball, and basically never left the area. He compiled a brilliant record as a head football coach, winning a total of 330 games in 35 seasons at Maiden High School, the state record for wins by a football coach at a single school. He also coached three years at Bunker Hill and chalked up an overall career mark of 352 victories against just 132 defeats and seven ties. The stadium at Maiden was named in his honor in 2000. Brown coached in all the state's major all-star games, including head coach of the North Carolina Shrine Bowl team in 2000 after a stint as an assistant in '95. He is a member of the Lenoir-Rhyne Sports Hall of Fame and the Catawba County Sports Hall of Fame.