Qualla: Appalachian State University

Appalachian State University: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Geologik (talk), Public domain. On September 1, 2007, a Division I FCS team named the Appalachian State Mountaineers walked into Michigan Stadium - the Big House, 109,000 fans, the fifth-ranked team in the country - and won. The final score was 34-32. Sports Illustrated called it the Alltime Upset. The Boone-based university that had been founded as a teachers' school 108 years earlier had just become the first FCS program ever to beat a ranked FBS team. The story had been building for a while.

Image: Geologik (talk) | Public domain

Appalachian State University: Watauga Academy, 1899

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit USFWS/Southeast, Public domain. It began with three names: Blanford B. Dougherty, his brother Dauphin D. Dougherty, and Dauphin's wife Lillie Shull Dougherty. In 1899, the Dougherty brothers led a group of Watauga County residents in raising money to build a teachers' school. Their father Daniel donated the lan...

Image: USFWS/Southeast | Public domain

Appalachian State University: Sanford Mall and the Mountain Campus

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Clayhefner, CC0. The main campus today spreads across 410 acres in Boone, with 20 residence halls, 30 academic buildings, and a total holding of 1,300 acres. The center of student life is Sanford Mall - an open grassy quad between the student union, Central Dining Hall, and the Carol Grotnes Belk...

Image: Clayhefner | CC0

Appalachian State University: Three Straight, Then the Big House

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit DavidSSabb, CC BY-SA 3.0. The football story is the one outsiders remember, but it didn't start with Michigan. Between 2005 and 2007, the Mountaineers won three consecutive Division I FCS national championships - the first FCS team ever to do so since the playoffs began in 1978. They beat Northern Iowa, M...

Image: DavidSSabb | CC BY-SA 3.0

Appalachian State University: The Mountaineer Library and a Stock Car Collection

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit RidgelantRL, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Carol Grotnes Belk Library, opened in 2005 in a 165,000-square-foot, five-story building, holds nearly 1.9 million bound volumes and 1.5 million microforms. Its special collections include the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection - one of the most comprehensive archives of Appala...

Image: RidgelantRL | CC BY-SA 4.0

Appalachian State University: Wind Turbine on a Mountain

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Broyhill, CC0. Sitting on the highest point on the App State campus is a 100-kilowatt wind turbine, 153 feet tall, installed in 2008 at the Broyhill Inn site to test industrial-scale wind generation in mountain terrain. It has produced over 311,000 kilowatt-hours. Frank Residence Hall and Mount...

Image: Broyhill | CC0