Staff report

Carl Torbush, who grew up in East Spencer, died in his sleep on Sunday night.

He was 72 and had been diagnosed last week with ALS.

The son of a railroad man, Torbush was 11 years old when his family relocated from East Spencer to Knoxville, Tenn., when his father received a promotion.

Torbush became a standout high school athlete in Knoxville and starred in baseball and football at Carson-Newman.

He played minor league baseball and planned on a college coaching career in baseball, but bigger opportunities came in football and he switched sports.

He became one of the nation’s most respected defensive coordinators and was instrumental in head coach Mack Brown’s success during his first coaching tenure at North Carolina.

In 1995-97, the Tar Heels had defenses as good as any in the country.

Torbush also was a personable recruiter and recruited Julius Peppers, among others, for UNC.

When Brown left UNC to take the head coaching job at Texas, Torbush followed him as UNC’s head coach for three seasons.

He wasn’t as successful in that role but returning to his defensive coordinator role with programs such as  Alabama, Texas A&M and Mississippi State,

His last coaching stop was as the head coach at East Tennessee State, where he got that program restarted.

He retired in Tennessee, but always enjoyed coming back to Rowan County to visit the Eighth Street Ballpark in Spencer where he played his early baseball and to watch American Legion games at Newman Park