By Mike London
Salisbury Post
EAST SPENCER — Thomas Mark Lowery, a 1978 North Rowan graduate who excelled in football and played briefly for East Carolina University, died on Sunday at 64.
Lowery, who was known as Mark, was a younger brother of Buddy Lowery, a North Rowan three-sport athlete who played football at ECU and became a legendary wrestling coach at Davie County.
The younger Lowery was North’s center and was a central figure in two North Rowan-Salisbury football battles in the 1970s, including North’s first ever victory over the Hornets when he was a senior in the fall of 1977.
“Salisbury was a hump no one could get over,” Lowery said in Post interview in 2012. “I was around North Rowan football a long time with my uncle (Charles Love) and my brother (Buddy) before me, and we just couldn’t beat them. Even when North had Jimmy Heggins — and he was as good as there’s ever been at North — we still couldn’t beat Salisbury.”
No one did for quite while. Salisbury owned a county winning streak that spanned 12 seasons, dating back to when it was still Boyden High. The school didn’t lose to a county opponent in 1965 and didn’t lose to one during Pete Stout’s 10 seasons as head coach (1966-75). The county streak stretched to 12 seasons in 1976 after Ray Wilson replaced Stout.
Mark Lowery always took the blame for North’s loss to Salisbury in 1976 by the unlikely score of 2-0. His snap over the head of Gil Hobson, North’s quarterback/punter, gave the Hornets an early safety, and that was the end of the scoring.
“I never saw it,” Lowery said. “I snapped that ball and was running down the field when I heard the crowd yelling. I had to ask (tackle) Marty Thompson what had happened. That night was really tough. But I remember going to the Catawba game the next day and my uncle Charles told me, ‘Hey, the sun still came up this morning, didn’t it?’”
Lowery carried the burden for that loss on his shoulders for a solid year, but life has a way of evening things out. Lowery was still North’s center — he was All-Rowan County and All-North Piedmont Conference in 1977 — when the Hornets and Cavaliers clashed again.
North was 0-12-2 against Salisbury lifetime when the teams squared off in Spencer. Coached by Larry Thomason, North came into the game with a 1-2 record. Salisbury was 3-0, including a win over East Rowan that raised the school’s unbeaten streak in county games to 33 in a row. The Hornets were ranked No. 1 in the state and were expected to continue to dominate the county.
“We had a sophomore quarterback — Bobby Myers,” Lowery said. “We knew he was pretty special because I don’t remember any sophomore ever starting on the varsity at North before him.”
Myers was special, but he was nervous. Lowery kept him calm, and North’s offensive line and running backs Kenny Brown and Darrell Foxx took control of the game to take the pressure off the young QB. Brown and Foxx combined for 180 rushing yards. Lowery always remembered being drilled on two punt snaps, resulting in 15-yard personal fouls against the Hornets and first downs for the Cavaliers. North’s defense came up with six turnovers. Myers threw a touchdown pass to Kendall Alley, and North prevailed 26-13 in an outcome that shocked the world.
“Lots of turnovers and lots of big plays,” Lowery said. “It was payback and a great night for our seniors. When we were freshmen, I was the quarterback, and we couldn’t beat anybody.”
Depending on which side of the stadium you were sitting on that night, it was either the end or the beginning of an era. Both teams finished with 6-4 records. Myers would direct North to victories over the Hornets again in 1978 and 1979.
Lowery was in Greenville, N,C., while Myers was coming into his own, as he had followed in his big brother’s footsteps as an East Carolina Pirate.
Lowery had played at 215 pounds as a high school senior, but he built himself up to 250 as a redshirt freshman and was the No. 2 center on the depth chart for the Pirates. He was elated. That meant he was going to get on the field, as coach Pat Dye always played the second team the third series of each half to build depth and to give reserves game experience.
“Our first road game was at NC State, and I was excited,” Lowery said. “But I suffered a freak injury during a walk-through to go over blocking assignments. I dislocated three fingers. I went from second-team center, sure to play, to scout-team guard and tackle, with no chance to ever play, in just one day. But that’s the nature of big-time football. You only get one shot.”
Even though he didn’t get to play in the game, charging on to the field at Carter-Finley Stadium to the jeers of 55,000 red-clad N.C. State fans, still provided an adrenaline rush that reminded Lowery of sprinting out there for those North Rowan-Salisbury scraps.
Lowery was done with football and grueling, three-a-day practices after the 1979 season, but he stayed in school at ECU, earned a degree in Industrial Technology and made a living as a sales rep for 30 years.
He remained a life-long sports fan, a diehard supporter of North Rowan, the Dallas Cowboys, the Rowan County American Legion team — and the ECU Pirates.
Lowery’s survivors include his sister, Jane Webb, his brother, Buddy Lowery, and his uncle, Charles Love.
A Celebration of Life will be held on Sunday, July 20, at 4 p.m. in the sanctuary of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Salisbury.
