Gene Dalton | The Roanoke Times

Lou Brown outside of Blacksburg's Bill Brown Stadium, which was named for her late husband. Below: Drawing Bill Brown by artist George Wills.

Stadium history

• 1954: Blacksburg High School stadium built
• 1983: Stadium is named after Bill Brown; Bill Brown retires after 34 years as a teacher and coach
• 1995-96: Boosters raise money to build concession stand
• 2006: Blacksburg Town Council approves proposal to build a new stadium off Prices Fork Road

BLACKSBURG -- As school officials worked on plans for a new Blacksburg High School stadium, Lou Brown paid a visit this week to the old football field that bears the name of her husband, Bill.

She lives about half a mile away but hadn't been there since 2000, when one of her granddaughters played her last soccer game before graduating from Blacksburg High.

"You know, I'm going to miss this," Lou Brown said of the press box on which Bill Brown Stadium is emblazoned in big blue letters.

But don't mistake her. Lou Brown believes the town needs a new stadium. And she believes if Bill Brown were alive, he would want a new one, too.

"I think it's a good idea to move it" to Prices Fork Road, Lou Brown said. "You've got all that space and it will make a whole public school campus."

It was 1983 and Bill Brown was retiring after 34 years as a coach and teacher when the school honored him by putting his name on the stadium. He had served as defensive coordinator there for his entire career.

"There's a reason that stadium is named after him," national sports writer and Virginia Tech journalism instructor Roland Lazenby said Tuesday.

People often questioned Lazenby's judgement when he became Blacksburg's wrestling coach at age 22. But not Brown.

"He was just the sweetest, most supportive guy in the world," Lazenby said.

Lazenby went on to write about Brown as a reporter for the now-defunct Blacksburg Sun newspaper.

Coach Brown "ran quick, smart, hard-hitting kids. He was a tough guy, but he had a way of giving respect that made kids want to give that respect back in terms of performance," Lazenby said.

One of those kids was Brian Saari, a starting linebacker for the Indians -- now called the Bruins -- during the 1976 and '77 football seasons.

Saari can still rattle off the details of those years -- '76 started with seven shutouts and ended in a regional championship. Then there was 1977, Saari's senior year, when the Indians won the state championship.

Those wins had a lot to do with the attitude Brown instilled in his players, Saari said. "You wanted to please him as much as you wanted to win the football game."

And the lessons Brown taught his teams have stayed with Saari, who still lives in Blacksburg and whose son Jake is now a linebacker for the team.

"Be a team player; it takes more than an individual. You don't quit, even during hot two-a-day practices," Saari said. "And a work ethic. You had to work hard, but you were rewarded."

Brown kept in contact with his former students, Saari said. And he continued to attend games -- baseball, basketball and football -- after his retirement.

Although he claimed not to understand soccer, Brown was often in the stands when his granddaughters, Katy and Kym Devens, played.

After a stroke in 1996, Brown couldn't make it into the stands. So school officials let him park his car near the field to watch the games.

He died in 1997.

But his memory will remain strong in the community, Lazenby said.

For her part, Lou Brown said she hopes residents of Stroubles Mill and Hethwood, who for the past year have opposed moving the stadium near their homes, "will learn to enjoy it as much as we have."

She also hopes the school system will put her husband's name on the new stadium, which is expected to cost $2 million or more.

There's a good chance that may happen. In 2004, a stadium committee convened by then Blacksburg High Principal Alfred Smith declared that the "name will always remain Bill Brown Stadium."

News researcher Belinda Harris contributed to this report.