Coach Brookshire graduated from Sand Hill High School in North Carolina where he was named “Outstanding Player” in the first annual Optimist Bowl. After high school, he played football for Asheville-Biltmore College before playing for the U.S. Army football team while stationed at Fort Jackson, SC. In 1955 he graduated from Wake Forest College where he played football as a proud Demon Deacon. After college his 16 year teaching and coaching career included Canton, Owen, Brevard, Tuscola, and Enka High Schools. While at Brevard, Coach Brookshire led one of North Carolina’s first integrated high school football teams to a state championship in 1963. He also led Brevard to state championships in 1960 and 1962. In 2003, he was inducted into the North Carolina High School Athletic Association’s Hall of Fame. What meant the most to Coach Brookshire was the relationships he built with his players, many of whom became life-long friends. After his teaching and coaching career, Cliff spent 20 years in Transylvania County real estate. Cliff passed away peacefully at his home with his wife Nancy by his side on the afternoon of April 9, 2017.

Nancy Brookshire (Teacher, Team Historian)

Nancy was born in Buncombe County, NC. She was a 1949 graduate of Sand Hill High School and of the Women’s College of the University of North Carolina (now UNC-Greensboro) in 1953. Much of her life was devoted to teaching school and she taught 31 years, mostly in Haywood and Transylvania counties. She loved teaching physical education best but also taught math and science. She was elected North Carolina’s Physical Education Teacher of the Year in 1989 and was a member of the NEA and NCAE. In 1952, she married her high school sweetheart, Cliff Brookshire, and enjoyed supporting his football teams at Canton, Owen, Brevard, Tuscola, and Enka. Nancy.went to be with her Lord on September 27, 2017

Dr. Keith Elliott (Player)

Keith went on to play at Western Carolina and was named to the small college all-America team. He eventually became the pastor of a baptist church in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Lloyd Fisher (Player)

Lloyd was a native of Brevard and a graduate of Brevard High where he had the privilege of playing on one of the first integrated football teams in North Carolina and the 1963 State Championship Football team coached by Cliff Brookshire. Lloyd also played in the 1963 Shrine Bowl Game. He continued his education at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill where he was a fierce linebacker for the Tar Heels. After a brief period of coaching and teaching, Lloyd entered the real estate profession. Fisher Reality eventually became one of the leading real estate firms in Western North Carolina. Lloyd passed away peacefully on Sunday, September 18, 2016.

Tommy Kilgore (President, Transylvania County NAACP Chapter)

Tommy was still in middle school when Brevard High School integrated in 1963. He received a degree in Business Administration in California and worked in various companies before eventually returning to Brevard, Now semi-retired, Tommy is President of the local chapter of the NAACP.

Dr. Betty Reed (Historian, Author)

Dr. Reed is the author of School Segregation in Western North Carolina: A History, 1860s–1970s, The Brevard Rosenwald School: An Historical Case Study, and The Brevard Rosenwald School: Black Education and Community Building in a Southern Appalachian Town, 1920-1966. A retired public school educator, Betty Jamerson Reed has also taught at the Transylvania Center of Blue Ridge Community College and at Brevard College and supervised teachers-in-training for Western Carolina University. She lives in Transylvania County, North Carolina.

Paul Gardin Scruggs (Player)

Paul is retired after a long career with UPS and lives in the Greensboro, NC area.

Moby Sorrells (Local Fan)

Moby watched his first Brevard football game as a 9-year-old in 1944. He has not missed one since. His streak will hit 1000 games during the 2018 football season. Sorrels was given a ring as a gift from the football program for his loyalty – with an engraving that reads “No.1 fan.” Sorrels played football for the Blue Devils from 1951 to 1954 – back when the stadium was located where the current library stands. After graduation, he began working on the sideline as a member of the chain gang, the officiating crew that manages the yardage poles on Friday nights. “If I’m not at a game, I’m probably in real trouble. Football is what I live for.” He lives in Brevard, North Carolina. (excerpted from an article by David Thompson, Asheville Citizen Times, Sept. 20, 2017)