James Beach: Saying Goodbye To An Old Friend

Tyner Set To Play Final Game On Wayne Turner Field

  • Wednesday, November 23, 2022
  • James Beach
James Beach
James Beach

The sound of the not-too-distant train horn passing in front of where Hundley’s Grocery Store used to be will call out, and the lights which have lit up Tyner’s Bob Evans Stadium will shine for a final Friday night when the Rams take on York Institute in tomorrow evening’s 2A state semifinals.

Bulldozers stand on the ready to clear the field for construction of a brand-new Tyner Academy in the spot where Tyner footballers have battled on Friday nights since 1967. A brand-new stadium will be erected in the spot where Tyner High School has stood since 1937.

Other than the man whose name adorns the field in his honor, I am going to slide out on a small branch and say no one else has seen more prep football games at Wayne Turner Field than I have. I grew up about three football field lengths from the stadium and to be honest it was simply part of my playground as a child.

I knew every hole in every fence surrounding the Tyner High School campus and utilized each to my advantage. When I wasn’t hanging out at the Eaves neighborhood tree house or playing tennis ball in their front yard, chances are I was roaming the Tyner campus.

In the early 70s, I would wonder towards the Friday night lights as Big Ed McBroome’s Tyner Rams took the field, sneaking in through one of my holes and sliding down the hillside on carboard boxes while the boys in maroon and gold battled on the gridiron. Then, in the mid 70s a young coach by the name of Ernie McCarson was hired from Hixson Middle School to man the program and my life’s path became forever changed.

Early in McCarson’s first year, he spied me slipping beneath the fence in the tree line as his Rams warmed up on that end of the field. I may have had free roam of the neighborhood, but the one thing I didn’t have was a nickel to my name to pay a Friday night admission. Later the next week, he saw me walking down the street from the practice field and he was ready for me.

Here was the deal, he said: “You can continue to sneak in the games on Friday nights, but I promise you that hole you came through Friday night won’t be there by the end of this week, or you can watch the game from the sideline if you’re willing to do some work.”

I took the plea deal.

From that point on I spent the next six years until I graduated as the Tyner football manager, eventually spreading my wings to keep scorebooks for the Ram basketball and baseball teams. McCarson even sent me off to camp to learn how to tape ankles and such, paying for it out of his pocket, and I became a jack of all trades. One of McCarson’s favorite phrases to me when it looked as if I wasn’t quite making the most of my time was “if you don’t have anything to do, sit over there and braid shoestrings.” I kept busy for the most part after that.

For someone who didn’t have a father or very much of anything growing up, being part of the Tyner Family meant the world to me. I got fed by the coaches and saw what caring men looked like in McCarson and his coaching crew of Kent Hampton, Happy Jack Allison and Terry Parks. I learned how to keep stats from the great Bob Evans and Bob Brown as we roamed the sideline. Coaches like Charles Kessler, Harden Satterfield, Larry Dillard, Efrin Stewart, Steve Chattin, Jim Parker, Andy Anderson and Johnny Crook all loved the maroon and gold and those who wore it.

I was made to feel as if I mattered, and as I grew older, realized this is what great coaches do. They get underpaid to teach a sport, but their fingerprints on young men and women are far more valuable than an X or an O. Every good thing about me today is a trait I learned from a coach who cared for me and my love for high school sports is embedded in the things I see our great coaches do with young folk’s lives. Lives like my own.

For the last 50 years, I have been drawn back to the Tyner football field because it has always been home to me. A beginning where so many fond memories still spark within. Of the villages it takes to raise a child, Tyner was my town square. I began covering sports as a reporter the year after I graduated in 1981, and I have covered at least one game on the field every year. Even when I moved to Knoxville to cover the University of Tennessee, I found a Friday night to make it home.

I saw the birth of the program for the most part when McCarson came on board and laid the foundation for what would become the most successful public school football program in Hamilton County. The Ram community had little experience with winning football until big Ernie took over, and by his fourth season he had produced the program's first league championship on a magical November night in 1979 when the Rams upended Baylor 12-7 for their first ever playoff berth.

That season produced so many firsts as Tyner earned its first state ranking, climbing as high as #2 in the polls. There were so many memories from that team which was led by Stan Phillips and the great Gary Woodburn. Guys got hurt and guys stepped up like Tank Phillips and Louis Dykstra. McCarson ran the old Lou Holtz Veer offense and it was a thing of beauty with Stan running it and Woodburn, Dykstra and Steve Rector at the ready.

Woodburn ran for five TDs on Reggie White's Howard Tigers in the second game that season as the option offense that night had but one option: run to whatever side big Reggie wasn't. By the time the finale against Baylor rolled around, it was an all-or-nothing game as only one team went to the playoffs in those days and the Tyner field has never been as crowded. The hills beside the stands were filled with overflow spectators and it was the first of so many significant games played on the field.

McCarson turned the program over to Carey Henley who earned playoff berths in 1984, 86 and 89 as the former UTC All-American built upon the foundation which had been laid. In 1991, Turner was handed the reins, and oh how he directed the program to new heights. Both of Wayne's brothers had been star athletes at Tyner with Ronald and David both being a part of that '79 team. David wound up winning a JUCO World Series MVP before putting his name in the Tennessee Vols' baseball record books with his sweet left-handed swing.

David is one of many who won't be on hand to say goodbye to the field having passed away a few years ago and joining deceased Tyner greats like Stacy Bates, Joseph Burney, Ollie Tatum and Vic Myers who gave their all for the program.

Turner's 30-year run at the helm was incredible, winning 15 region championships, playing in 32 playoffs game and bringing the 1997 state championship trophy home. He developed so many great players during his time and won 25 playoff games on the field that now bears his name. His scowl, coaching shorts and prominent beard was a fixture until Scott Chandler took the job last season.

That '97 team which defeated Union City 13-10 on a cold Nashville day on Vanderbilt's Dudley Field remains as my favorite event I have ever covered. Not Jack Nicklaus' '85 Masters win, not Bo Over the Top as Auburn beat Bama, or any of the plethora of special Final Fours or World Series or SEC title games. Turner and Tyner, who lost in the state finals the year before, delivered the most cherished memory of writing career.

That team was so special with the likes of Rory Hinton, Kelvin Hughley, Anthony Jones, Windarek Stewart and RaShaun Strickland. Turner knew what it meant to me to see the win and I still have the signed football from that team he gave me afterwards among my most cherished possessions.

The Rams beat David Lipscomb 19-14 in the quarterfinals on Tyner's home turf and it was perhaps the second biggest win on the field. Hinton was incredible on that night quarterbacking the Rams, converting on two fourth down plays late in the game on the winning drive. It was a harbinger of things to come as Hinton led a last-minute drive in the finals, hooking up with Stewart on the game-winner in the final minutes.

Hughley, who went on to play at Georgia Tech, won the first of six Mr. Football Trophies which belong to the Ram family. Jermaine Harris (99), Jeff Ramsey (99), Demonte Bolden (02), Greg Smith (03) and Desmond Hendricks (04) all belong in the club.

Josh Jackson, the Rams current signal caller, should join that club in a couple of weeks and will go down as the most prolific passer in the program's history, topping 3,000 yards and 30 TDs thus far to earn Mr. Football finalist status. He would have fit in well back in the day, a confident leader who cares for his teammates.

I have seen so many special talents work their magic on this field and when I close my eyes I envision all of them. Marcus Leftwich, whose name wasn't in the game program in 1978, burned City High for 3 TDs and earned the moniker Mystery Man Leftwich in the newspaper headlines the next day. Jacob Burney, who alongside Alfred Copeland, were beasts on the '75 team. Burney was the first of three stud brothers (Joseph and Simeon) and wound up a star at UTC and coached in college and later the NFL. Mark Mowery, who was a ball hawk on defense, and Tim McDade the sticky fingered receiver. Steve Wade, the massive defensive lineman who earned All-SEC honors at Vandy. James Bagwell, who played for Army, and Bruce Loveless, who went on to become a Navy Admiral. Walter Scott, with his speed to burn, and Jay Clark the tackling machine. David Eaves and later Jeff Eaves, who grew up down the street with me, were quiet assassins.

The list runs long through the years: Craig Miller, Brian Hendon, Willie Hodge, Allen Roden, Todd Woodard, Ray Smith, Steve Held, Jay Fowler, Kevin Wright, Chip Goins, Marvin Elkins, Don DeShea, Buff Smith, and Kurt Stillwell. And, of course, David Scruggs, who I loved like a brother as we plotted more shenanigans together than anybody in the building.

For only the second time in all these playoff runs, the semifinals game to decide a state finalist will play out on the Tyner field. The Rams won a home semifinal game in '96 against Lenoir City, and the stage for tomorrow night's game could not be more fitting.

Tyner alumni will come back one final time to cheer on the boys and support Chandler, who is poised to lead the Rams to a fourth state championship game. He and his staff have been nothing short of spectacular after taking over for the legend that is Wayne Turner. Three weeks ago, Chandler became the first person other than Turner to direct a Tyner playoff win and will have the honor of leading the Ram train onto the field one final time.

I am reminded of the great Terence Mann quote from the Field of Dreams movie as the time draws near to an end for my old friend.

"This field, this game: it's part of our past. It reminds us of all that once was good ..."

Or Archibald "Moonlight" Graham from the same film: "Once a place touches you like this, the wind never blows so cold again. You feel for it like it was your child."

Godspeed my old friend and thank you for so many cherished memories.

(Contact James Beach at 1134james@gmail.com)

Tyner fans watch the Rams play at Bob Evans Stadium and Wayne Turner Field.
Tyner fans watch the Rams play at Bob Evans Stadium and Wayne Turner Field.
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