By: Gary Dove
WN Sports Writer
Friday evening will be a showcase event for McDowell County and in the four-plus decades history of Mount View High School.
At 7:30 on Friday evening, the Golden Knights will host the Sherman Tide from Boone County in the inaugural high school football game to be played at the brand new Vic Nystrom Stadium on the campus of Mount View High School.
The football game itself will, in all likelihood, take a backseat to the unveiling of the beautiful facility, featuring the latest in artificial turf, where the Tide and the Golden Knights will play.
Long talked about, the new Vic Nystrom Stadium has become a reality, nestled just a stone’s throw from the schools, both high school and middle school, and in the complex with Nick Shaffron (baseball) Field and Mike Crouse (softball) Field.
What a wonderful, picturesque setting for the new home of the Golden Knight football teams, both today and long into the future.
Many of the pioneers in the Mount View story will be missing, such as the late Bob Jack, the first principal at Mount View, Sid Cure, the first head football coach of the Knights in their first two seasons of 1978 and 1979, longtime defensive coordinator Coney Bales, along with former 16 year head coach Vic Nystrom, for whom the new facility is named.
The latter three, like Mr. Jack, have gone on to their reward for all the good they accomplished on earth.
Don Boyd, who played on the 1951 Welch Maroon Wave football team that played its final season at Blakely Field and then played on that Wave squad that settled into its new home at Maroon Wave Stadium that would evolve into Mount View Stadium when the school opened in 1978 and later into Vic Nystrom Stadium, where the Knights showcased their talents through the 2019 season.
Boyd went on to play football at the University of Louisville after high school, where one of his teammates was the late John Unitas.
Boyd, who was inducted into the McDowell County Sports Hall of Fame, had planned to be at the first home game atop Mount View, but with all the changes due to the coronavirus pandemic decided to regretfully forego the trip to his old stomping grounds of McDowell County.
Ed Mosko, a teammate of Boyd’s on those two aforementioned teams at Welch who later served as a longtime assistant football coach at both Welch and Mount View, will also miss Friday’s opener.
In fact, with attendance restrictions due to the pandemic, what promised to have been a standing-room-only crowd will be reduced to a fraction of what would normally be expected at such an event.
At any rate, this monumental opening will go on, with the promise of many more football games long into the future to showcase Mount View’s newest gem, the new Vic Nystrom Stadium.