App States Kidd Brewer Stadium: Football Meets Foliage

Kidd Brewer Stadium on the campus of Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., isn’t the biggest stadium in college football, or the oldest, or the most historic, but it might be the most beautiful—especially on a late afternoon in mid-October.

I traveled to Boone for App State’s Oct. 18 game against Coastal Carolina to film the latest installment of our Stadium Wonders video series. When we began kicking around the idea of a video centered around college football and fall foliage earlier this year, App State stood out as the obvious choice. Not many other college football stadiums are framed by natural beauty the way App State’s is. The south end zone butts up against a thickly wooded hill. Trees encroach on the east and west sides of the stadium as well, while the north end offers spectacular views of Howard Knob, a mountain peak that looms over downtown Boone. Fortunately for us, the game coincided with the peak of the fall colors in the region, making for some spectacular scenes.(You can watch the video by clicking on the player below or on Sports Illustrated’s YouTube channel.)

Everything you need to know about Appalachian State is right there in the name. There’s a reason the school isn’t called UNC-Boone. Being tucked away in the Appalachian Mountains is what makes the school and the town of Boone what they are. It’s a small town, home to only about 19,000 people, but it’s one unlike any other in this part of the country. Sitting 3,333 feet above sea level, it has the highest elevation of any town of its size in the eastern half of the United States. Life there is much different from the rest of North Carolina, and the locals embrace the tight-knit community that comes with being sandwiched in a mountain valley 90 miles from any major city.

App State football is a major part of life in Boone. Walk around town and you’re bound to see more than a few pickup trucks flying giant App State flags. On gamedays, fans come from all over the surrounding area to spend hours tailgating or visiting local restaurants in the downtown area a short walk from the stadium.

“The passion for the fans and the donors here is just incredible—over the last 10, 15 years how it’s grown,” Tommy Sofield, a former App State football player and now one of the program’s biggest boosters, told me on the eve of the game against Coastal. “So I think you’ll see an unbelievable game this Saturday [with] the passion of the students and how many students come. We have probably somewhere between 10,000 and 12,000 of our students will be here at every game.”

And he was right. A sold-out crowd of 33,862 fans packed “The Rock” that day for the annual homecoming game—many of them students. App State students get most of the best seats in the house at Kidd Brewer. The student section encompasses the front rows of the west stand behind the home sideline and wraps all the way around the field to include the grass hill behind the south end zone.

The image of thousands of students, all decked out in black and gold, packing the hill is a sight to behold. At kickoff, there isn’t an inch of empty space to be had. But by the second half, after some of the more disinterested students have headed for the exits, there’s enough room on the hill for students to begin clearing lanes a few feet wide stretching from the top of the hill to the fence at the bottom. Why? So they can take turns hurling themselves down the gentle slope. (The hill isn’t steep enough or slick enough for anyone to slide down fast or far enough to make this practice enjoyable, but that doesn’t stop dozens of students from trying anyway.)

The Mountaineers established themselves as a powerhouse at the FCS level in the mid-2000s, winning three consecutive FCS national championships from 2005 to ’07—although you probably know them best from their famous win over No. 5 Michigan to open the ’07 season. App State made the jump to FBS in ’14 and hasn’t missed a beat, winning at least a share of the Sun Belt Conference championship in four straight seasons from ’16 to ’19, although it has experienced more middling results in recent years. The team is 5–6 this season, needing a win on Saturday at home against Arkansas State (also 5–6) to qualify for a bowl game.

Regardless of how the team is playing, though, Kidd Brewer Stadium is a place any college football fan should want to catch a game. I was fortunate that my visit lined up with the peak of the fall colors in the surrounding mountains—and doubly fortunate that I happened to be driving into town at sunset and driving back to the airport at sunrise, which meant I was treated to spectacular views of the sun’s golden light accentuating the yellow and orange of the leaves on the mountainsides.

The beautiful scenery alone is enough of an attraction to make an autumn trip to Boone something any American should want to do. An estimated 5 million people visit the North Carolina mountains every year during the fall foliage season. The fact that there’s a football stadium set against that backdrop makes an App State football game a bucket list item for any sports fan. Or for any sportswriter. The view from the press box high above the field at sunset is unbelievable.

“I think when you come to App and you leave,” Sofield says, “I’d say it’s a place you actually fall in love with.”