Jack Branch
Jack Branch is known as the “Apple Man.”
You could just shorten it to “App Man.”
Either applies.
Branch is arguably the Mountaineers’ No. 1 fan. It would be hard to argue that he’s not.
“I travel up and down that road every day, just about,” said Branch, 79, who lives in Wilkesboro. “I’m up here at least three times a week, sometimes four or more.”
He brings along a box of apples every Monday, purchased from an orchard near his home, for anybody that wants one.
He attends every football game, volleyball (his favorite), soccer, field hockey and any other ASU game that he can.
“I run into a conflict once in a while, when two teams are playing at the same time,” Branch said. “Sometimes I’ll just go to both.”
Branch, originally form Morganton, graduated from Davidson in 1952 and was drafted into the Army soon after. He served as an instructor near the end of the Korean War, and discovered that he loved teaching.
After his time in the service, he enrolled in graduate school at ASU, earned a master’s degree in education, helped as a graduate football assistant under Coach E.C. Duggins and began teaching in ASU’s health and physical education department.
“I taught trampoline,” Branch said. “No instructor wanted to teach it. But I enjoyed it. And I just fell in love with the place from the moment I got here.”
And he’s been coming back ever since.
NOTE: Branch has a road at ASU named in his honor – the street that runs along Owens Field House at Kidd Brewer Stadium – as well as an award, given annually to supporters of ASU athletics.