Coaching legend’s final walk off field

The Smoky Mountain Conference lost a legend when coach Boyce Dietz passed away after an extended illness on Dec. 30.

Dietz, a N.C. High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame inductee, coached Murphy’s archrival, Swain County, from 1977-97. He returned to his alma mater, Smoky Mountain High School, where he was head coach until 2000. He then became an ambassador for Western Carolina University before becoming a commissioner in Jackson County.

Dietz was not very well liked in Bulldog Nation during that time, but he was respected as a very good coach. Dietz would always take every opportunity to get in a jab at you if you were a Bulldog from Murphy. It happened to me of a few occasions.

I was managing the radio station in Sylva, Dietz’s hometown. I had just got off work and headed home. As I would often do, I stopped a local convenience store to pick up a few things and I ran into Dietz, who promptly asked, “What are you doing over here?”

I replied that I lived there and managing the radio station. His reply was, “There goes the neighborhood.” He went on to tell me I wasn’t going to be happy till I got back to Murphy.

He went on to tell me that he and his team like it when I did that, “First and Teeeeennnnn, Bulldogs!” thing, that it just fired them up. Well, being the smart aleck I sometimes am, I replied, “Coach, that just ain’t right. Cause if I’m doing that a lot, you ain’t doing too well.”

Dietz smiled and walked off. A few years later, a reporter from the Asheville Citizen-Times asked him about me, and he said, “Well, some years we have to hear that a lot, and some years we don’t.” The man always had a way with words.

Back in those days, it was a heated rivalry between Murphy and Swain. The game usually was the last one of the regular season, and most of the time it either decided or affected the Smoky Mountain Conference title. A lot of back and forth went on during those years.

One coach at Swain referred to Murphy as “that team out west.” I had my little jab during that time as well: “The distance between heaven and hell was 49 miles, the distance between Murphy and Bryson City, and we all we all knew where the devils live.”

Dietz told this story: Swain would always walk their players in front of the home stands before they took the field to get the crowd into the game. The visitor’s locker room was located to the left of the visitor’s stand, and there was a gate onto to the field on the right of the stands. Dietz noticed there was a Murphy coach that check that gate to see if it was open during warmups.

He told one of his assistant coaches, “They are going to try and do what we do,” referring to Murphy taking the Dogs in front of their crowd before taking the field. When the teams returned to the locker rooms, after warmups Dietz radioed his custodian and told him to lock the gate. As expected, Murphy went in front of the crowd, but then had to come back in front of the crowd to take the field because of the locked gate.

The 1986 and 1987 football seasons saw Murphy with, in my opinion, the best high school football team to ever grace the field in the SMC. The team won back-to-back state titles and compiled a record of 29-1, but that one loss was to Swain in the conference championship game.

The conference votes on the All-Conference team the week after the last regular-season game. When the Murphy coached arrive at the meeting, they find a Swain hat leaned up on each of their placards. The teams stared to nominate players; each time Murphy would nominate a player, Dietz would stand and say something to the effect of, “I had a player at that position that did pretty good against Murphy last Friday night.”

After about the third time of that happening, Murphy defensive coordinator Bill Gaither stood up, pointed at Dietz and said, “Two weeks,” which is when Murphy was expected to face Swain in the state playoffs. Gaither returned to Murphy and instituted a new defense dubbed “The Swain Special.”

The drama continued the next week, as Dietz did a radio interview and said everybody seems to be mad at us for beating Murphy two weeks ago.

“I guess if we lose to them this Friday night, I’ll just go rabbit hunting,” he said.

Believe it or not, a live rabbit was confiscated at the gate at Swain County before that game. When the fan that had that rabbit was asked why he brought it to the game, he said he was going to give Dietz a head start on his rabbit hunting.

A few years later, Murphy kicker Jonathan Cook booted a last-second field goal to defeat Swain in the state playoffs. After that, every time I would run into Dietz, he would ask, “Have they made that Cook boy honorary mayor of Murphy yet?”

The man was a fierce competitor who liked to poke fun at his opponents every chance he got, but he was also a gentleman in the end. After he quit coaching, I had several conversations with him along the sidelines of football games. He knew and loved the game well, and he wanted the best for the kids who played it.

I had the honor of being at last year’s NCHSAA Hall of Fame induction ceremony to honor Murphy’s great coach, David Gentry. As I arrived outside the hotel, I was greeted by a contingent of former Swain coaches and alums. They jokingly started thanking me for showing up to support Dietz. I told them, “Well, fellas, I think they are inducting another coach today, too.”

After all the battles they fought, it was nice to see Gentry and Dietz inducted into the Hall of Fame on the same night. I walked into the hall to be greeted by Gentry, who told me Dietz was asking about the “first and 10” man and wanted to see me. I saw him that day, and we reminisced about al those battles from years past.

If they play football in heaven, Boyce Dietz is coaching a game inside the pearly gates. Happy trails, coach.

J.R. Carroll is a staff correspondent for the Cherokee Scout. Email him at jcarroll8760@gmail.com or leave a message at 828-837-5122.