By Erik Evenson, Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl Director of Communications
Mack Brown is a college football legend – a College Football Hall of Famer, two-time Coach of the Year and BCS National Champion – and will be the featured speaker at the 15th Annual Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl Kickoff Dinner on Monday, August 18.
“I can’t wait to kick off the season at the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl Kickoff Dinner,” said Brown. “It will be an exciting way to start the 2025 college football season.”
Brown has been a staple of the college football coaching world over the past 47 years with five stops in 36 years as head coach at four different universities – Appalachian State (1983), Tulane (1985-1987), North Carolina (1988-1997 and 2019-2024) and Texas (1998-2013). During his 36-year head coaching career, Brown compiled a 288-155-1 record. His 288 wins rank him seventh on the FBS all-time wins list. He is a two-time National Coach of the Year – winning the 2005 Paul W. “Bear” Bryant National Coach of the Year Award and the 2008 Bobby Dodd National Coach of the Year Award. He won the 2005 BCS National Championship with the Longhorns in one of the most memorable games in college football history.
“We are very excited to host Mack Brown in August to help the Shreveport-Bossier City community kick off football season and the countdown to the 49th Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl,” said 2025 Independence Bowl Foundation Chair Sarah Giglio. “Coach Brown is a legend of our sport and one of the 28 College Football Hall of Famers to coach or play in our game. I can’t think of a better person in our sport to help us ring in the new season in our community. I can’t wait to hear all of the amazing stories from Coach Brown’s illustrious career.”
The 2025 Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl Kickoff Dinner featuring Mack Brown is set for Monday, August 18 at the Shreveport Convention Center. Doors will open at 6 p.m. for a cocktail hour and dinner buffets will open at 6:15 p.m. The program will begin at 7 p.m. with a Q&A to conclude.
Individual tickets to the event are on sale for $50 apiece, and a table of eight is $400. Tickets can be purchased at RadianceTechnologiesIndependenceBowl.com/shop or by calling the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl office at 318.221.0712 or toll-free at 888.414.BOWL.
Brown got his first taste as a head coach at Appalachian State in 1983 – going 6-5 that season. After a year as Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator in 1984, he became the head coach of the Tulane Green Wave in 1985. He improved the team drastically from 1-10 his first season in 1985 to 6-5 heading to the 1987 Independence Bowl against Washington – the Green Wave’s fifth bowl game since 1940. That season earned Coach Brown a spot in the Independence Bowl Hall of Honor in 2002.
Following the 1987 Independence Bowl, Brown headed to Chapel Hill for his stint as head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels. He led Carolina to a record of 69-46-1 (.599) from 1988 to 1997 – including three 10-win seasons, six consecutive bowl games, a Top-Five finish, a Top-10 finish and two Top-20 finishes.
Coach Brown’s tenure at Texas spanned from 1998 through 2013 and resulted in him becoming the second-winningest coach in Longhorns history – only nine wins behind Darrell Royal. After his time in Austin, Brown was one of just four active coaches to reach the 200-victory plateau. He was also one of only two coaches nationally to lead his teams to 21 bowls in 22 seasons, and the only one to have 23 winning seasons in the previous 24 years. His 225 wins from 1990 to 2013, which combined the last eight years of his first stint at UNC and his entire Texas tenure, were the most of any coach in the country.
Between his Texas tenure and second stint with the Tar Heels, Brown was a staple on ESPN’s college football coverage as both a studio analyst and color analyst.
In his six seasons at UNC from 2019 through 2024, Coach Brown brought the Tar Heels back into the college football spotlight – leading them from a two-win team the year before his arrival to a team that appeared in six consecutive bowl games. They played in an Orange Bowl, Holiday Bowl, Military Bowl, Fenway Bowl and two Duke’s Mayo Bowls in his six years at the helm and compiled a 44-33 record.
Coach Brown is one of a handful of coaches in college football history to lead two separate programs to Top-Five national finishes and is the only coach to win 100 games at two FBS schools.
Brown joins the prestigious list of Kickoff Dinner speakers, which includes Terry Bradshaw, Bobby Bowden, Lou Holtz, Jason Witten, Emmitt Smith, Archie Manning, Herschel Walker, Steve Spurrier, Drew Brees, Devin White, Marcus Spears, Kim Mulkey, Paul Skenes and Holly Rowe.
If you are interested in sponsoring the 2025 Kickoff Dinner featuring Mack Brown, contact Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl Director of Partnership Development Matt Shanklin at [email protected] or call the bowl office at (318) 221-0712.