BOONE, N.C. — Down on King Street and up in the High Country, in the first days of a new semester, Bill Corriher was preparing for something the likes of which he has never seen in 40 years living in this college town, known for its views and for being the home of Appalachian State University. Corriher wasn’t alone. No one here has ever experienced what’s coming.
“I feel bad for all the people who are gonna be driving into town,” Corriher said, drawl thicker than a hedge of rhododendron, while he stocked the tables inside Mountaineer Mania. Inside, an endless supply of App State Mountaineer everything stretched on in every direction, and freshmen were still making their way in for Polaroids with the larger-than-life version of Yosef, the university’s mascot, painted on the wall — half-man and the rest a combination of beard, plaid and rifle.
Now it was Tuesday, four days out, and even still Corriher almost couldn’t believe it. Back when he arrived at App State in 1975 for his freshman year, the Mountaineers’ home football game everybody most anticipated came against Lenoir-Rhyne. And now this, on Saturday, with the Tar Heels of the University of North Carolina making their way up the mountain? To play here, in Boone? Against App State, of the Sun Belt Conference, at Kidd Brewer Stadium?
