With the recent announcement that Chancellor Kenneth Peacock would be stepping down following the appointment of a successor, students and staff found themselves shocked by the news.
And Athletics was no exception.
Athletic Director Charlie Cobb said that no one embodied the “Appalachian Spirit better” than the chancellor.
“Dr. Ken Peacock’s announcement that he is stepping down as Appalachian State University’s chancellor came as a big shock to the entire campus,” Cobb said. “He is committed to Appalachian being its best in all endeavors. His leadership will be missed but, thankfully, that will not be immediately.”
Peacock has been very involved with athletics, from attending games to announcing the move from the Southern Conference to the Sun Belt.
Head coach of the football team Scott Satterfield said he was shocked when he received a phone call bearing the news.
“I said, ‘let me find out, make a phone call’ and I got on Twitter and saw somebody had put [the news] on there,” Satterfield said. “It was kind of shocking. In his nine years here, he’s done an unbelievable job. He’s really grown the university and really supported us athletically. We understand it goes hand-in-hand.”
It’s been a busy year for both Satterfield and Peacock.
“There’s just a lot going on,” Satterfield said. “We’re making an FBS transition, we’re having a transition in the leadership of our campus now and we had a new head coach come in for football. There’s an awful lot going on right now and I especially talk about day-by-day, it would be a little overwhelming to sit back and look at the whole big picture of it.”
He said he could only control what happened in his program, but he has confidence in the university and the board of trustees who will choose the new chancellor.
“I have all the confidence in them, and it’ll be sad to see him go,” Satterfield said. “I think he’s done a great job for this university, but we’ll support him, obviously, and I know he’s going to support us. He’s black and gold, through and through, and that’s what I am. But it was a sad day when that announcement came out.”
Senior quarterback Jamal Londry-Jackson said the announcement was a “shocker.”
“I admire him so much for the type of man he is,” Londry-Jackson said. “He is always so sociable and willing to interact with students and student athletes alike. It is really a breath of fresh air for someone in a position of power to interact with us like that. He has been nothing but gracious and kind to me personally and I know that he’ll be missed by the entire Appalachian family.”
Story: ANDREW CLAUSEN, Sports Editor