Sally Brown is a former neighborhood developer, philanthropist, lover of horses, mother, and wife to Mack Brown, who is in his second stint as head coach of the University of North Carolina's football team. Sally reflects on the 16 years she and Mack spent coaching at the University of Texas, and the decision they made to get back into coaching in 2018 after a 5-year hiatus. Sally and Kristi bond over unusual places they've sat to watch games and share their do's and don'ts for coaches' wives.
Sally Brown is a former neighborhood developer, philanthropist, lover of horses, mother, and wife to Mack Brown, who is in his second stint as head coach of the University of North Carolina's football team. Sally reflects on the 16 years she and Mack spent coaching at the University of Texas, and the decision they made to get back into coaching in 2018 after a 5-year hiatus. She and Kristi bond over unusual places they've sat to watch games and share their do's and don'ts for coaches' wives.
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Kristi Malzahn: Hi friends! Welcome back toBeyond Gameday! Sorry it’s been a minute — I know, I know. Tis the season. What can I tell ya? Today we are catching up with Miss Sally Brown, the beautiful wife of Mack Brown, the head coach of the University of North Carolina. So let’s just jump right in and get right to it. Here we go!
I know what I’ve read. I know what we’ve talked about, our relationship of knowing, but tell me how you met Mack and how did that— tell me about your journey is what I’m really wanting to know. Like from beginning to end.
Sally Brown: Alright well we met on a surprise blind date. It was a surprise because I had no idea it was a blind date. A couple of people in Chapel Hill tried to fix us up and I was like why would I go out with a football coach? I don’t like sports. I’ve never been to a game. It doesn’t make any sense.
And so one particular friend was persistent, in fact he was a sports journalist. He came into, called me at work and he goes a bunch of us are going to meet down at Squids after work, do you want to come and join us? I’m thinking sure, sounds fun. You know 20 people. I show up, it’s just Mack.
Kristi Malzahn: No.
Sally Brown: So that was our first date. And then we have actually been together ever since then.
Kristi Malzahn: K. Well I’m going to tell you just because I’m not certain we’re not hearing this in the background. We record this when we’re in the suite and we’ve got music testing today. Because we have a home game this weekend so they’re doing all that. So there’s no telling what we may have in the background. Anyway, so if you hear Snoop Dogg jumping in, you know what’s happening.
OK so it was a surprise, hello! Guess what!? So what did it look like? So y’all met when you were in Chapel Hill, and then where did you go?
Sally Brown: Well we stayed in Chapel Hill, so he coached there for 10 years and I think I was there for four of those and then we went to Texas. And then we coached there for 16 years. Then he did ESPN for four years and then we’re back at Carolina, and this is our fourth year here. A lot of years.
Kristi Malzahn: So is that, this is just his second stop in Chapel Hill, then?
Sally Brown: Yes.
Kristi Malzahn: Did it feel like you were going home a little bit?
Sally Brown: A little bit. It felt like waking up from a coma of 20 years. Because everybody is still the same people, they’re all there, they’re just 20 years older. You know but nothing else — it’s a small town so nothing else really changed. Maybe one house got painted a different color and you would notice that because it’s a small town.
Kristi Malzahn: Right.
Sally Brown: But yeah it did feel a little bit like going home.
Kristi Malzahn: Do you remember when we first met?
Sally Brown: Oh gosh. It’s been a while.
Kristi Malzahn: It has been a while.
Sally Brown: Oh yes I do actually! I think Gus was coaching high school—
Kristi Malzahn: Yes! Yes!
Sally Brown: You came with him and you brought four recruits.
Kristi Malzahn: Yes! Yes, yes. That’s exactly right. I didn’t think you’d remember that. In fact I told them, I said, I don’t think she’ll remember when we first met.
Sally Brown: Yeah I do.
Kristi Malzahn: So yeah I was admiring you from afar a long time ago because we were, before we got into the college ranks. It has been, I mean it’s definitely a different beast.
But so the time in Texas, when you moved from, I guess had you always lived in Chapel Hill?
Sally Brown: No, I grew up in San Francisco.
Kristi Malzahn: You grew up in San—so what took you to Chapel Hill?
Sally Brown: My first husband was a professor there.
Kristi Malzahn: OK so you moved because of a job and then life happened and then you met this precious Mack Brown, precious, you know, man with all his fun, yes, and then he moves you to Texas and y’all have the ride of your life that many ups and downs and all the things. You had some pretty glorious high notes and lots of fun there. Anything that just sticks out besides?
Sally Brown: You know, so much. I mean Texas is such a state of its own. And you know you can’t prepare for that. You can’t prepare for the scale of Texas football. When I first got there, Coach Darrell Royal’s wife Edith just befriended me and just mentored me and was so wonderful. But the first thing she said to me is, she goes, “Texas football is a rollercoaster. You’re going to ride it up and you’re going to ride it down and you’re going to ride it up and you’re going to ride it down.” And I always remembered that and kept that in the back of my mind. That is what it is. It’s just, it’s a rollercoaster.
Kristi Malzahn: Right. Right.
Sally Brown: And might as well have fun with it. But there were so many things outside of football that Texas had to offer, Austin had to offer. Like a highlights of my life: one of the best moments of my life was I got to ride my horse through downtown Houston for the Houston rodeo. I mean who gets to do that? That was super cool.
I met princes and I met presidents and you just meet so many interesting people and there’s so much great music in Austin, so outside of football everything in Austin was absolutely fun and awesome.
Kristi Malzahn: Yeah. Your love of horses. I was going to mention that later but tell us. Do you have horses now?
Sally Brown: They’re all still in Austin.
Kristi Malzahn: Awwww.
Sally Brown: I know. I can’t move them here. I tried. Because they were born and lived there their whole lives, and they’ve always been fed, they can’t be put on a pasture here. They eat too much. The first time I brought them all they got gout and that doesn’t work. So they’re still there but I visit them.
Kristi Malzahn: Yeah. Bless it. Because I know that’s a big filler of time for you that’s a hobby that’s kinda your thing.
Sally Brown: Right, right.
Kristi Malzahn: I mean I’m guessing Mack gets involved but in the football world, not a ton of time to go mess with the horses.
You know the more I’m involved, the more it’s going to be healthy for our relationship I guess, and we’re talking to coaches’ wives and that’s one of the things that keeps coming up as a theme a little bit — is that it’s not about you not having your own life because you do. The beautiful part that I don’t know if a lot of people realize is that you were a very successful businesswoman in and of your own right. You didn’t really — it wasn’t as if you were just sitting around waiting on Mack to tell you when to come up and hang out with him. It was like, “If I can work you into my busy schedule, honey, I’ll be there,” kind of thing. So tell us about what your professional role and what that looked like or you as a businesswoman.
Sally Brown: Well I was a developer. So I built neighborhoods. So basically I did the infrastructure. I did the streets, the gutters, all the fun, non-glamorous parts of neighborhoods. And it was pretty time consuming, especially a lot of evening work just because clients can’t meet with you usually during the day. So we both had really busy schedules.
When I moved to Texas, though, I stopped doing residential development, and I just did a lot of re-doing homes and ranches, and I had a lot more of my own time at that point, which helped a lot.
But you know, I know you’re the same way, the only way you’re going to have a really great marriage in coaching is if you bring your family to there. Because they don’t have time to come home. And so like every Thursday night I took the kids in to the office and we all ate dinner together. You have to do that kind of thing.
In recruiting, because you meet the families, you know the players so much better once you’ve met their families and their girlfriends. But I see it as a great Netflix series. Each family has their own really fascinating, crazy stuff. And so I just kind of view it that way. I don’t have to turn on the TV. I’ve got it coming to me. Sorry about my dogs.
Kristi Malzahn: That’s OK. We love the dogs. What are your dogs names?
Sally Brown: River and Riggs.
Kristi Malzahn: OK and those names came from?
Sally Brown: Well River came because he was born in a place called River Lab and Riggs was from Friday Night Lights, Riggins.
Kristi Malzahn: There you go. (laughs)
Sally Brown: Yeah you know.
Kristi Malzahn: Yeah, it all ties back, doesn’t in? Good old Texas high school football. Growing up in Arkansas it’s funny because we saw Texas football and Gus had a very seriously successful career and I always remind him of this whenever he starts feeling like he’s a little bit too much. There was a school that was open one year and Gus could not even get an interview at that point. And had gone multiple state championships and running the biggest school in the state but when it came to Texas it was a whole ’nother beast.
Sally Brown: I mean you see it in the college ranks when they promote a high school coach, I mean it’s such a huge deal. I mean Jeff Traylor, such a story. Joey McGuire going to Texas Tech. I mean they celebrate their high school coaches that when they get a college job, it’s a big to do.
Kristi Malzahn: I mean it’s kind of, in Texas you’ve got a lot of different colleges that are competing for, to be the top dog, but at the end of the day, Texas is its own entity. I know. Yeah. I mean, but.
So, Mack has a successful run. Does great big things. Wins national championships. The big USC game, that sticks out in everybody’s mind I’m sure. And Vince making all those great runs. Just the kind of quarterback that Gus loves to have and had one himself and it’s fun. It’s fun. It’s fun to watch them run over people and act like there’s, you know, nothing to it.
But tell me that year, what was the highest high of that year?
Sally Brown: Of course it was a fun year. The highest high was we had such great, great guys on that team. Guys that I still stay in touch with weekly. They were amazing kids and they were very much a player-led team. Vince, of course, was Vince. He was remarkable. Selvin Young, great running back. So much fun. So much life. I think on our defense like, I’m not sure if it was all of them, but maybe all of them went into the NFL after that year. I mean they were amazing, so talented. So we had a good run.
Kristi Malzahn: And who was your defensive coordinator then?
Sally Brown: Um, Gene. Chizik.
Kristi Malzahn: I knew that. I knew the answer, I just wanted you to say it. (laughs)
Sally Brown: Oh here’s one I remember. I’m not sure who we were playing at home but after the game, we won and all the kids were in the locker room. And we’re doing the celebrating, which by the way is the most fun part of being involved in college football is the locker room after a win. So fun.
Kristi Malzahn: I have never done that. I’m going to do that this week!
Sally Brown: Yeah it’s my absolute favorite thing to do.
Kristi Malzahn: See I’m always learning Sally. Always learning. That’s awesome.
Sally Brown: So after a game we’re in the locker room. We’re halfway in the season and I think USC is No. 1 and we’re No. 2 the entire season and USC is getting beat, I think maybe by Notre Dame. I’m not sure who they were playing. I think it was Notre Dame. But anyway, the kids were in there just cheering for USC because they did not want them to lose. They wanted them to win because they wanted to beat them.
Kristi Malzahn: Yes.
Sally Brown: And the very last play of that game in the locker room, there was the Bush Push where one of the players pushed Reggie Bush into the end zone and they won, and our kids were so excited. You know. And I loved that about that team.
Kristi Malzahn: To be the best you’ve got to play the best. You’ve got to want it.
Sally Brown: Really wanted USC. USC had won the two years before the championship, so they had two straight national championships so that part was fun.
And then the other memory of that year before our last game was the Heisman. Vince was up for the Heisman. And he didn’t win. Reggie won that year, Reggie Bush. And so Matt Leinart had won the year before, Reggie Bush that year, who we were both going to play against, and Vince. And Vince lost. And we’re all in the meeting room watching because I didn’t go to New York that year. So we’re watching this and the players were all like just so stunned. Vince calls, gets on a speaker phone, and he goes, all he said is, “Game on.”
Kristi Malzahn: That’s right. Let’s do this.
Sally Brown: We were like OK. He’s not going to let Reggie beat him.
Kristi Malzahn: Not twice for sure. Mmm Mmm Mmm. No I hear ya. OK so what was the absolute worst thing about that year?
Sally Brown: Vince losing the Heisman? We had a tough game against A&M that year. It was interesting where they had a tough year, I think they were like 4-7 or something. They were not having a good year, really unusual for them because they’re usually very, very good. And we go into play and we’re on a roll and we are behind at halftime. And that was like oh my gosh, here we go. That was not good. So that was a tough part of that year. You know again, the pressure of winning every single game by enough points that you get to stay No. 2. That’s tough.
Kristi Malzahn: Yeah, for sure. We had one of those as well against Alabama. We were down and it was big and you go into halftime and you’re losing big time and all of a sudden, but it’s interesting to see those kind of players that come in and they’re like, I refuse it. I’m going to win this game. And that’s, those are usually the teams that make it because they really have somebody that’s leading them on the field, not just on the sideline.
Sally Brown: And we all know you can’t win it all without a great quarterback.
Kristi Malzahn: No you can’t. It’s hard. It’s really hard. It is hard. So is there anything during that time, I think one of the things — let me say it this way. Gus and I see there is so much more to the season of winning and as you win, kind of in the first times that you’re doing it, you don’t really appreciate as you’re going. It’s kind of like the stress just builds, each week that you’ve got to make this be more and better and bigger and even when he was in high school, he said I just don’t take the time to enjoy the fact that we’re undefeated. And we’re doing something. And it’s hard to have undefeated seasons. It’s hard to make that happen.
Sally Brown: Yeah it’s very rare.
Kristi Malzahn: Very rare. And so as a wife whose walked through it, is there anything just in the journey, is there any advice you have?
Sally Brown: I don’t know that you can have advice for it because I think you’re right, the more you win, the more pressure there is. I remember another wife who was at a school, and they hadn’t had great success. Well that year they were having a great year. And they were usually like a 7-8-win school. And she called me and she’s like, “This is awful. We keep winning.” And I’m like, “Well that’s good.” But she’s like the pressure is so high now. And I think that is true. I don’t know that you can not feel that pressure. I can say don’t read anything, don’t listen to anybody but even when you do that you have friends that go, “Oh I can’t believe that so-and-so said this and this and this.” It is just there.
Kristi Malzahn: Right. Yeah, that whole staying off social media, staying out of the newspapers, which I think, when we first got started it was so much better because message boards had just started kind of really picking up steam. Facebook was only for the players, the kids. You had to be a certain young age for all of that to work. It’s gotten so intense that it is one of those things that I tell them, it does not matter. If any of the younger wives that ask questions or whatever, I’m always like if you can stay away from hearing the positive or the negative because it truly becomes, you know—
Sally Brown: I remember Coach Dietzel told us one time a long time ago that at the end of his career he stacked up newspapers because that was back in his day, and he said there were an equal number of positives and equal number of negatives. So you just really can’t believe either one of them.
Kristi Malzahn: Right.
Sally Brown: And truly, who gets on a message board to be positive? No one. Ever.
Kristi Malzahn: No one. You are so right.
Sally Brown: No. I mean nobody goes, “Oh I think I’ll get on a message board and say something nice.”
Kristi Malzahn: That’s not their goal. That’s not their dream. Oh my goodness. So you make it all the way through, highs and lows and all of the things and then all of a sudden, Mack decides its time and you all ride off into the sunset. Happily or not, it doesn’t really matter, you do. And you said to me this past, when he went back it was a little bit — which y’all have been quoted that was up to you, kind of a thing. So I have a couple other, we have a couple other friends whose husbands have also been in that place and it’s like they’re hard to deal with when they’re at home. And it’s just not quite enough for them to just talk about, but how great was that for you? I mean did you enjoy the whole just talking time?
Sally Brown: Oh yeah. It was awesome. You know when we left Texas, I remember saying to him, you know 16 years in one place, that’s four presidential terms. It’s too much. You can’t just stay someplace that long. And you hate that because you want to be loyal, but Spike Dykes once said you lose 10% of your support every year, and I was at Tech for 13 years — you do the math. And it’s true. You really can’t stay because you have the same stories and the same — it just doesn’t work.
So when he was doing ESPN it was awesome. I stayed in Austin most of the time and he’d be doing his thing and he enjoyed that and so he stayed really engaged and then you had all spring off which you know was pretty awesome. But it was time to go back for us. We needed that time away, but I could tell he needed a team. He needed to mentor young kids because that’s what he does and what he loves to do. So it was time for us.
Kristi Malzahn: Well and I’ve told Gus that if at any point you ever know in your heart that it’s time, be willing to step away. Because it can be such a grind. But on the other side of it, that purpose and calling doesn’t just go away. And it’s hard to just shut that down especially in the deepest part of your core and your being because that is what, it’s definitely not your whole identity. You are who you are. But doing that is, there’s something so beautiful about watching, it gives life. I just think it keeps you moving and it’s beautiful so kudos to you that you let him go back, or that you made him go back, whichever way you want to say it. (laughs).
Sally Brown: You know it was also, in coaching you don’t get weeks to think about things. Like should I go back into it? They call you one day and they’re like, “Do you want to do this?” And yeah. OK the press conference is 3:30 tomorrow.
Kristi Malzahn: Let’s do this. Was it a big transition after being out a little while, coming back? Had football changed? Had the business side changed?
Sally Brown: Well I mean, yes in a sense. Certainly now with the COVID year, the transfer portal, NIL, all of that’s changed everything about football in good and bad ways.
Kristi Malzahn: I do feel like more has changed in the past two-to-three years than in probably 15 before.
Sally Brown: I agree with that.
Kristi Malzahn: I mean it has just shifted and I feel like it’s constantly in that what is happening?
Sally Brown: Well you watch games now and it’s like, “And he transferred from so-and-so, and he transferred from so-and-so,” and you know, we played a game two weeks ago where the quarterback was 25 years old.
Kristi Malzahn: Yeah.
Sally Brown: We played him in two other schools. We played him when he was at Clemson. We played him when he was at Duke and then we played him again. And I’m like oh my god, like how can this kid be for the eighth year?
Kristi Malzahn: I know. (laughs) I know. That extra COVID year has kind of thrown everything into a different—
Sally Brown: It’s been good for some schools.
Kristi Malzahn: It’s been really good. And it’s good for some of the kids because the COVID year was a hard, I mean they missed — we only played the 10 games and some of them not until the spring. It messed a lot of things up, so definitely an issue there.
What were your expectations when you went back into coaching and did you set any guidelines and, I know I said to Gus when we left Auburn — not by our choice, but we left Auburn — and got to a place this came along and I said we’re not doing this the same way. There’s going to be a few things that are going to change. And there are some pieces of it that changed just by the dynamic of the place that you live that — you know you were living in bigger city in Austin and then this is small town, and we did just the opposite. So just in that piece of it, it’s already different. But inside our four walls, there were also a couple stipulations, you know. Things that I was like I need you to pay attention to, and let’s not do, let’s not make that mistake of sliding back into that again. Is there anything for y’all that came across that way or that you felt like you needed to—
Sally Brown: Well, you know, he promised me that he wasn’t going to take the losses as he had. And he totally lied about that. Because he does. I knew going in that it was going to be rough because they had won, at North Carolina, they had won two games and three games the two years before us. So I knew the team wasn’t to the standard you’d hope it was. I knew that was going to be a struggle.
And, you know, we came in and they did have good players. Something was off, you know how you can have that happen. And so we won enough to go to bowl games and that’s good.
Kristi Malzahn: And how’d that bowl game turn out? That first bowl game?
Sally Brown: Good, it was good.
Kristi Malzahn: Did anybody show love to you? Cause I think, was there a game ball given to Ms. Sally?
Sally Brown: Oh yes. I got the game ball for that. That’s right.
Kristi Malzahn: And I think that I’m going to be holding my guys accountable. (laughs) It’s bad when you’re having to ask for the award but I’m thinking, why didn’t I, why didn’t I get one? (laughs)
Sally Brown: I’ve got several game balls.
Kristi Malzahn: Look at you! Is there anything that you would tell young wives that they need to absolutely be prepared for?
Sally Brown: I would tell them to embrace the situation. Not complain. You know the wives that complain about their husbands are gone too long, I say you know what if he was in the military? He’d be gone for months at a time. You know he’s not. He comes home at night. People might say bad things about him, he’s not a police officer. He’s not worried he’s going to get shot when he goes to work. It’s all good. And just embrace the team and the players. That’s what’s going to be fun about it. I can’t imagine being a coach’s wife and being away from that part of the team part of it. That would just feel so, I would be getting nothing back. I love that part. I either eat lunch or dinner every day over there with the guys. And because you know, I think Kristi you know this, guys between that age, they talk when they’re eating. They don’t talk to you if you sit down next to them and they’re not eating. But give them a meal and they’ll just chat. You’ll learn everything. Way too much probably. But that’s fun. That’s fun for me. So I would just tell them get involved. Get to know everybody there.
Kristi Malzahn: Any time we had them to the house and Gus and I have this rule, I have this rule, he’s not allowed to talk football when they come to the house. And when they’re in the house and they’re having conversation, it’s just, it’s amazing how much — you don’t have to ask. They just, one or two little prompts and they will tell you what you need to know, and sometimes without realizing they’re telling you, they’re telling you what you need to know. Oh yeah. It’s the truth.
Embracing seems to be a theme that we keep hearing and I truly, I think that’s the part of it — that we get a choice about being negative and frustrated and mad about it. I mean Gus and I talked about it the first podcast. It is truly, that was the marker for me. It was the day that I went you know what, this, I’ve got to make more of this be OK in my life. And once you start embracing the kids and embracing the life of, it changes. And you start to have fun and enjoy it rather than dreading and being miserable about it.
Sally Brown: I mean think about the people you get to meet because of the position your husband’s in. It’s fascinating all the relationships you get to form. I mean we get good parking spaces, great places to watch games. You know there’s so much positive to it. You just have to enjoy that part.
Kristi Malzahn: Is there anything that you would tell them absolutely don’t do?
Sally Brown: You have to learn when you’re young that your friends are going to want to know things and you just can’t. You can’t relay. Your very bestest friend who is never going to tell a soul, is going to tell a soul. So you just have to learn to be very, very tight-lipped about what happens in football.
Kristi Malzahn: Right. And you know that was the case when we were in high school, as well. It was like there were people in town that just wanted to know. They just want to be in the know and while you want to have a safe space to vent and puke it out, it’s hard. It is hard. Very, very hard.
Sally Brown: That’s when I would need to call you. Or need to call another head coach’s wife who understands the role. This was really fun, years ago when the Barnetts were at Colorado, after each game, Mary would call me and we would get the articles out and read, “My husband is so stupid he duh-duh-duh-duh-duh,” and then she would read, “My husband is so stupid,” and we’d just laugh on Sundays. I mean that’s, those are the only people that are ever going to understand that situation.
Kristi Malzahn: Right. It is the truth. And that’s what I keep saying, no one really ever gets the life until they’re in the life. And it’s not that we’re anything special, it’s just that it’s that unique. That’s the issue.
Best and the worst of coaching period? Not just a particular season or anything like that. And I feel like you’re going to say the best will be being with the kids. And, but what would it be for you?
Sally Brown: For sure it’s relationships. Relationships with the players. It’s so heartwarming. Every Mother’s Day I get so many calls from over the years of players. And that’s just very heartwarming. And it’s the relationships you have with staff. All the other coaches’ wives on your staffs for years. I mean, I still talk to Julie Applewhite before every season. Major is at South Alabama now. She texted me during the UCLA game like oh my gosh. So there’s a lot of people that, Arthur and T’Leatha Johnson are at Temple, they stopped through because they were playing Duke and we got to see them. So all those relationships are definitely the best because you have such a community built in across the country which is so fun.
The worst. Losing. I tell Mack this all the time and I really believe this for all coaches. This is the best job in the world. I love recruiting. I love the players. I like the relationships. I like everything. But I hate the games. And I think all of us wives hate the games. You know they’re not fun. We’re not tailgating. We’re sitting there stressed out. We’re recruiting before, and usually we’ve got recruits the next Sunday morning at our house really early. And the games are stressful.
Kristi Malzahn: They are. They are.
Sally Brown: If we didn’t play the games, I would think this is the be the best life ever.
Kristi Malzahn: And I want so often to tell people, you know because we have people that want to come and support and this that and the other. Especially when you’re hosting officials and they’re coming to your home and it’s that pressure of win or lose, you’ve got to show up. I mean we’ve had a couple of days where we had to get up the next morning and smile and act like we’ve got to figure this out and we’ll be OK and inside you’re just [tenses in frustration]. But I would agree with you. I would agree with you.
I think sometimes the games are fun but they’re also not. I think it’s kind of how it started with me sitting by myself. That piece of it was part of why that happened was because it just, the stress was high and it is a job. It’s a job at the end of the day. We’re doing a job. And it’s going to be publicly graded so—
Sally Brown: What do you mean you sit by yourself? Where do you sit?
Kristi Malzahn: I mean I sit by, I’m not anymore this past year I’m having to kind of sit with a couple people. But last weekend I sat, you’ll find this amusing, under the bleachers in a chair and the security guard was letting me know when we had scored. (laughs) I couldn’t watch. It was, the first quarter and a half were really stressful. The first half was pretty stressful. And I kind of have a number of us separating ourselves but if it’s too tight, I just can’t. And I don’t want to be seen watching it because it becomes this thing—
Sally Brown: People watch you watch it. And waiting for you—
Kristi Malzahn: Yes. They wait for you to have a response. It becomes that thing of, yeah I usually try to sit by myself somewhere.
Sally Brown: Yeah I get that. There were, twice Texas-Oklahoma games I sat on the bus the whole time and watched it on the TV on the bus because I didn’t want people watching me.
Kristi Malzahn: I feel ya. The SEC Championship I was sitting in the concourse in a little back piece. Somebody caught a picture of it, but it was kind of an area where nobody, it was kind of reserved the back side of it. And I was watching on a screen sitting on the concrete floor with my back, back up against the wall and people walking through. And I mean we won big but it didn’t matter. It was still stressful. It’s hard to be out in the crowd and—
Sally Brown: No, I’m with ya.
Kristi Malzahn: This week there was not a lot of option so what it ended up being was under the bleachers in just a plastic chair and the whole band, it was funny because the band had stored some of their drums and things up underneath there, and I turn around and there’s two or three of them and they’re changing clothes, and I’m like OK it’s like I’m in the band locker room. You never know what you’re going to get when you travel in this high, everybody thinks, “Oh it’s so cool, I bet you’re really having fun.” Hmm yeah, it’s great (laughs). My little guy was telling me, “You scored again. It’s OK.” Thank you! You know. So that was my week last week. So any way.
I really, I really appreciate you doing this. I feel like you probably don’t realize how important you are to so many coaches’ wives around the nation. I mean truly, you do it with a class and kindness and it doesn’t matter what level. Because the Sally Brown I met when we were a high school coach is still the same Sally Brown that I deal with today. And I love that. I love that about you.
Sally Brown: That is very kind of you.
Kristi Malzahn: We love you dearly. Both of you and think y’all are just two of the best. And I do appreciate you giving me some time.
Sally Brown: It’s always great to be with you Kristi. And send our love to Gus.
Kristi Malzahn: Alright will do. Talk to you soon. Bye bye.
Sally Brown: Bye bye.