By now, everyone has heard of the famous Bacon Bowl -- the gridiron coaching battle between brothers Bill (Dreher High School) and Robin (A.C. Flora High School) Bacon, in Columbia, S.C. Right? It’s the stuff that legends are made of, after all, as the brothers Bacon and their competitive fire have had their respective teams competing against one another for the last nine years.
Just in case you haven’t heard of the Bacon Bowl….
“When I first started, what got me into coaching, was Robin,” Bill said. “He was coaching at our alma mater – Richland Northeast – and I saw how much fun he was having. I had a business degree, but I got certified to teach and because of the nepotism rule I could not teach there.”
So Bill decided to be an assistant coach at Fairfield Central High School, which happened to be in the same region as Richland Northeast, where Robin was an assistant. That’s the first year they coached against one another.
“(Richland Northeast) blew us off the field,” recalled Bill.
That was in 1994, and the next season Bill took a job as an assistant coach at Dreher under Mike Sisk – who happened to coach the Bacon brothers back in high school at Richland Northeast.
“I worked under Mike for five years until he left to become the athletic director at his alma mater, A.C. Flora,” Bill said. “So I took over the head coaching job here, and the first thing Mike did was to hire Robin as his coach at A.C. Flora.”
On the same day that Robin was announced as the coach at A.C. Flora, Bill was named the coach at Dreher.
Ever since, the brothers have watched their teams go up against one another each of the last nine seasons –a series Bill currently leads, 7-2.
“The two schools are only three miles apart, but have only been in the same conference four of the nine years we’ve been coaching,” Robin said. “We’ve both bounced around, but we’ve played nine times. We play out of region even if we don’t play in region. It’s a huge game -- a game these schools have been playing for 48 years.”
But it’s only been known as the Bacon Bowl for a small portion of that time.
“We started it out as a ‘Hey, what can we do to make this interesting?’” Robin said. “Drehr was so dominant at the time and we’d won nine games total in 11 years – we were terrible. We wanted to help to build the rivalry, and we actually had a pig the first year. The losing athletic director had to kiss the pig. And eventually, with two extremely competitive brothers, they wanted to throw a little something extra in there, so we have what we have now, which is a trophy with a pig on the top of it.”
Robin says that the competitive fire and love of the game comes from their father, Col. Robert C. Bacon, who played football at West Point in 1956.
“I think it really starts with our dad,” Robin said. “We were really fortunate. As an officer in the military, he had us on the move every two years, but he coached our teams even though he was extremely busy. He always made time for us.”
Despite the rivalry, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if the two were once again on the same team, coaching on the same sideline.
“We’ve both been at our respective schools for nine years, and we’re happy,” Bill said. “But if the opportunity worked out, I’d jump at it. I’d be happy to be his assistant. That would be a lot of fun.”
The opportunity to be involved in the game and not in a rivalry presented itself for Robin and Bill at the NFL’s Youth Football Summit in Canton, Ohio, after they were selected by USA Football to represent South Carolina in back-to-back years.
“That was an unbelievable event for both of us, especially getting the chance to go to the Hall of Fame and interact with coaches from around the country,” Bill said. “I went in 2006 and Robin went in 2005."
Coaching is a passion for both Bill and Robin, and that passion was best summed up in just a few words by Robin.
“It’s what God drives you to do,” he said.
Story courtesy of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
Photo by Erik Campos/The State.