Browning’s legacy includes opportunities for Black quarterbacks

Coach Kenny Browning, center front, and former Northern High student-athletes.Photo byAlex Bass/Tribune

By Alex Bass

Alex.bass@triangletribune.com

DURHAM – Jason Peace and Reginald Valentine walked to field level before halftime of the Sept. 20 Northern High School football game. Peace, a 1995 graduate, discussed how Valentine (class of 1989) laid the foundation for him and so many others.

Peace, Valentine and scores of former student-athletes were at the school for the stadium dedication named in honor of coach Kenny Browning, who led Northern to the 1993 North Carolina 4A State Championship.

Peace quarterbacked the Knights to the state championship five years after Washington Redskins quarterback Doug Williams became the first Black quarterback to win a Super Bowl in 1988. Valentine started at quarterback the season after Williams’ milestone.

“All I did was play the best players,” Browning said.

Valentine agreed, and reminded everyone that Browning’s son, Chuck, was his backup quarterback. “I think I earned the position, so I think I’m going to get to play,” Valentine said. “I made sure I proved it every time I went on the field.”

Peace aspired to the same thing. Before Northern’s undefeated 1993 campaign, sophomore Peace led the Knights to a state runner-up finish. Peace said, at that time, he did not contemplate his Williams-like journey.

“My apprehension was, ‘I don’t want to let these guys down,’” he said. “To me, it was more about trying to prove that I belonged and prove that they could count on me.”

Browning, who went on to a historic 18-year tenure as a UNC football assistant coach, could count on scores of Knights. Peace was among a handful of high school student-athletes who reunited with Browning in Chapel Hill. Long before Peace’s college days, Browning trusted him, like Valentine, to call his own plays.

“We would do a lot of combo plays,” Browning said. “They would choose based on the defense. That was part of the training they went through, to be able to do that.”

Peace’s training helped lift him to Parade All-American status following the 1994 season. That same year, Alcorn State quarterback Steve McNair was named a Heisman Trophy finalist and was selected third in the 1995 NFL Draft. McNair’s competitive milestones, Peace said, were the turning points in his realization of the sociocultural impact of Williams and other Black quarterbacks, including Valentine and himself.

Still, Peace said, he just was part of a bigger team led by Browning, who modeled how to treat and trust others. “His name just resonates across the state, “Peace said of Browning. “You realize that everything is a relationship business. Because of his relationships in North Carolina, it helped not only the high schools, the high school coaches and players in North Carolina, but also helped the University of North Carolina.”