Longtime North Stokes principal is honored - Vikings’ football stadium is now “Eugene Lyons Stadium”

(By Leslie Bray, The Stokes News) - If it hadn’t been for an Appalachian State University recruiter, Stokes County—especially the North Stokes school district—might be a very different place today. Back in the early 1940s, that recruiter visited the home of a Boone stonemason to see if his oldest son wanted to attend college at ASU and play football.

Eugene “Gene” Lyons clearly remembers that day. He was working in the garden with his mother when the recruiter dropped by. Lyons had never even played football and had figured he’d just follow in his father’s footsteps to become a stonemason. But the idea of college was intriguing, and Lyons agreed to go.

It was a decision that changed his life.