Photos by ERIC BRADY The Roanoke Times

Ferrum College assistant football coach Bob Brown says the loss of his leg is simply a bump in the road that he will have to overcome as he resumes his coaching duties.

Photos by ERIC BRADY The Roanoke Times

Ferrum College assistant football coach Bob Brown had an infection that required the amputation of his leg in June.

Ferrum College assistant football coach Bob Brown instructs running back Curtis Stevenson. Brown said the loss of his leg hasn't diminished his coaching.

FERRUM -- Bob Brown has coached in bowl games and in big-time football stadiums such as those at Notre Dame and Louisiana State. He even coached a Heisman Trophy winner.

Now he coaches at Ferrum College, which lacks the glamour of the world Brown once occupied.

But when an infection in his left leg laid him up and eventually led to the leg being amputated above the knee, Brown was grateful to be in a small town where folks offer to build you wheelchair ramps or take care of your lawn.

"This community, I think, is very special," Brown said. "I've been in some big towns and I've been in some small towns ... but I hesitate to say that they would've reacted as unilaterally as these people have.

"I couldn't be any more lucky than to ... have those people push me through this."

Brown, 71, returned to his assistant coaching job in July, one month after the amputation. He has a prosthesis, and he uses a cane. He sometimes sits in a chair during practice. But he wasn't about to stop mentoring the Panthers' quarterbacks.

"If a guy can try to qualify for the Olympics on two [prosthetic legs], I damn sure well can coach with one," said Brown, referring to South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius.

Veteran coach

Brown's previous coaching stops include William and Mary, West Virginia, Texas Tech, South Carolina, Marshall and Ohio University.

He was South Carolina's running backs coach for the junior and senior seasons of star running back George Rogers. As a senior in 1980, Rogers won the Heisman Trophy as college football's player of the year.

Brown has a photo of Rogers on his office wall.

"He treated me just like I was his son," said Rogers, who spoke at a Ferrum football banquet a few years ago. "I will always remember him not only as a good coach but as a father figure. He taught me a lot.

"Coach Brown has a way of getting the best out of a player."

Brown lost his job at Davidson College in North Carolina, an NCAA Division I-AA program, when the staff was let go after the 1999 season. So Ferrum offensive coordinator Dave Harper, who once worked with Brown at Davidson, suggested to head coach Dave Davis that he hire Brown.

Brown was open to joining the Panthers, even though they play in Division III, the lowest rung of NCAA football.

"I don't care if it's D-I or D-III, you coach the same way," he said.

In June 2000, shortly before moving from North Carolina to Ferrum, he had his arthritic left knee replaced. It was the first of nine knee operations that he would endure.

Infections a problem

Brown had to have his first artificial joint replaced in 2002 because of an infection.

Last fall, the infection returned.

So in March, he had an operation to remove the joint. An antibiotic spacer was put in as a temporary implant while he waited for the infection to heal.

Brown was stuck at home, in bed, for months.

He wanted to keep working. So some of the Ferrum coaches held meetings at Brown's home. He watched the film of the spring practices he was missing. He talked to prospective recruits over the phone.

Coaches' wives brought over food when Brown's wife, Judy, a nurse, was working at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital.

They weren't the only ones who pitched in.

Chris Hodges, a Ferrum College groundskeeper, would come over to mow and fertilize Brown's lawn.

Neighbors Wesley James and Calvin Scott built two wheelchair ramps for Brown's house so he could go see his doctor.

Former Ferrum offensive lineman C.D. Wilson came by several times a week to hold Brown's leg while Brown's wife or his home health-care nurse changed the dressing.

"It's just amazing what this community is like," Judy Brown said. "Everybody is here to help."

Amputation needed

The infection on Brown's lower leg never went entirely away, which meant Brown couldn't have another artificial knee installed.

"Because of problems with his skin and soft tissue and the extent of the infection, there was nothing else to do but an amputation," said Dr. John Mann, who has been Brown's orthopedist since 2003.

Brown saw amputation as a way to finally get back to his life. After all, preseason practice was looming in August.

"All he wanted was to be able to get out of that bed and be back on the football field," said his home-health care nurse, Judy Hudson. "He looked at [his wife and Hudson] and said, 'This has been going on for eight years. I'm tired. I would rather go through with the amputation.' "

Brown worried that amputation might cost him his job, but Davis told him he would always have a place on his staff.

"He has a great football mind," Davis said. "He's a fighter. He's going to work his way through whatever life deals him."

Brown's leg was amputated several inches above his knee in June. Mann said it was one of the few times in his career that he had to do an amputation because of an infected knee replacement.

"He's had a phenomenal attitude throughout the whole process," Mann said.

Brown got his prosthesis in July. It's called a C-Leg, and it has a microprocessor in the knee to help Brown walk. He's still adjusting to it, which is why he uses a cane.

"This is just a speed bump," he said. "I've just got to get over it."

Protective players

Brown was apprehensive about returning to work. He tried to put the players at ease.

"I said, 'Don't look at how I walk, just listen [to] what I say,' " Brown said.

Brown keeps things light in meetings by joking about his prosthesis -- or swinging it around.

"Sometimes he turns it upside-down ... and everybody breaks out laughing," quarterback Marcus Mayo said.

Brown is able to stand for only part of practice.

During some recent drills, he sat in a chair as the offense ran plays against the scout-team defense. Mayo and fellow quarterback Matt Dobson walked over to his chair after each play to get his input. Coaches walked over to confer with him as well.

During games, Brown stands on the sideline and signals in plays when the Ferrum offense is on the field. The quarterback not in the game stands near him and keeps watch in case a running back or linebacker barrels in Brown's direction.

"We make sure we're there to protect him," Mayo said.

When the Ferrum defense is on the field, Brown sits in a chair and addresses the offense on the sideline. One of the quarterbacks will pull him up when he is done with his talk.

Ferrum's practice field is on a hill, so athletic director Abe Naff got Brown a golf cart so he could get to it. Brown also uses the cart to get to his nearby home -- and to a Subway restaurant where he doesn't even have to walk inside.

"The ladies at Subway ... they say, 'Tell us when you're coming and we'll meet you at the back door,' " Brown said.

That's why Brown's gratitude extends far beyond his wife, colleagues, doctors and nurses.

"I feel very fortunate," he said. "Other people's strength has made this all possible."