Corne Remembers Relationships Built On Nixon Field

Tonight won’t mark the first first game that Bo Corne has seen at Nixon Field.

The longtime Byrnes teacher, head coach, and District 5 board member was at the very first one, too.

“I saw the first game we ever played there,” Corne said. “I don’t really have a big memory of it, but like so many of us who grew up here and had the privilege to go on and work at Byrnes and in the district, I remember when it first opened.”

Nixon Field made an immediate impression on him, Corne said.

“I lived so close that I could see the lights from my house,” he said. “Back then, I was at the age when kids would get in the end zone and play on the hill instead of paying attention to the game too much. We were just going and being with the people, but I remember it distinctly. I’d never seen stadium lights before. Like anything else in life, you sometimes don’t have a reference point. But it was awesome. It was the biggest, prettiest stadium I’d ever seen.”

Corne saw plenty of those lights in his future. He played JV and varsity football on Nixon Field, and after college he came back to coach at Byrnes. As head coach, he led the team to a 76-39-2 record and state championships in 1982 and 1986. The 1982 state championship game is one of Corne’s fondest Nixon Field memories.

“As a coach, my best memories of actual games are tied to the moments I felt like my staff had given back to the community and produced a team the community was proud of,” he said. “Back then, the Upper State and Lower State would alternate hosting state championships. That 1982 game is the only state championship football game ever played at Nixon Field.”

The magnitude of that stage produced a bowl-type atmosphere surrounding the title matchup.

“That was a community-wide celebrate to host Myrtle Beach,” Corne said. “So many things happened, it was such a great week, and it was topped off by us beating them in a really close battle. But the special part was that the community got to enjoy it for the whole week. We had a lot of events, a pep rally and all that. It rained all week, we had to put sand on the field, and we hired a helicopter to hover over to try to dry it out. All of those are special memories.”

Corne was an assistant for Byrnes/ 1976 state championship, and won another in 1986. But the one the Rebels claimed on their home turf was just different.

“In 1976 we had the right to host it, but our stadium was too small for the High School League regulations and we couldn’t meet capacity. We had to play for state at Dorman. In 1986 we went to Williams-Brice. Both of those were just as fun to win, but there’s not the sentimentality and feeling there for the one under the lights at Nixon Field. A lot of people my age or younger still talk about that game in 1982. And that’s not football, that’s memories tied up in friendships and relationships. Those guys are grandpas now. It’s just tied up in our memory banks.”

Those relationships, mostly, are what Corne remembers the most about Nixon Field. You can hear it when he talks about the success Byrnes had later, and the men who led it.

“I don’t think I had very much to do with it, but we had a very special group of men who I coached with,” he said. “Two coaches after me was Fred Coan, who led the first undefeated regular season team, 10-0, that Byrnes ever had. That’s quite an accomplishment. Later was Bobby Bentley, who’s arguably the best coach ever in South Carolina, and you’d lose that argument with me. He had a vision that nobody else had. His career has awed me. He’s the most organized coach I’ve ever seen. Chris Miller coached with me, came back and led us to a bunch of victories and state championships. We’re tied together in the fact that we worked together, and hopefully I was able to influence him a little bit.”

Those coaches, and especially his players, are what made his time stalking the sidelines at Nixon Field special to Corne.

“I’m the lucky one,” he said. “I learned a lot from those guys, and others, and I’m in awe of what they did. Every coach I’ve ever talked to loved the memories of the players. It’s about the games and the hard work, sure. But it’s those relationships that stay in your memory, and being associated with so many successful coaches and players means a lot to me. That’s what my truly great memories of Nixon Field are – the kids I coached who have grown up and retired now, and the close relationships that have turned into friendships.”

Now, Corne has come full circle. That little boy who played in the end zone at Nixon Field will walk into a new, gleaming, state-of-the-art facility with the same name. It’s been tilted 90 degrees so that the field runs now runs north/south. It’s got turf. Those stadium lights that awed him so long ago are now capable of putting on a show choreographed to music. 

As a lifelong product of District 5, Corne is thrilled.

“Fred Coan and his brother Butch and I and several more all grew up in Duncan and played at Byrnes,” he said. “We invested a lot of our time and energy at Nixon as players and coaches. My grandkids went to Byrnes. I spent a lot of time there and enjoyed every minute of us. And seeing our community grow, that growth in District 5 kind of demanded that we step up. For people who didn’t grow up here, there’s probably not that memory value of the old Nixon Field. A lot of people do have that, though, and they’ll miss it. But I doubt anybody who sees the new one will say that. How could they not be in awe? It’s a really amazing place.”