Many may not realize the Milford High School stadium is actually not the name of the area where Buccaneer fans cheer on teams from bleachers. It is actually the Bernard E. Briggs Stadium, named for Bernard “Barney” Briggs who served as Athletic Director at Milford High School for 33 years.
Born in Beverly, Massachusetts, Elgin Briggs was the son of Chester Everett and Ruth Hathaway Bernard Briggs. His family, which included sisters Grace Elizabeth, Ida Elise and Margaret Eva as well as a brother, Chester Everett, Jr., moved to Pennsylvania where he graduated from South Hills High School in Pittsburgh. The school claimed a few famous alumni, including musician Oscar Lavant and actor Gene Kelly. One of Briggs’ friends went on to lead the Julliard School of Music.
Briggs spent one year at Duquesne University before transferring to Penn State on a football scholarship. After his graduation in 1939, Joe Boston and Robert Schilling talked to him about taking the coaching job at Milford High School. At that time, the school was located where the current Milford Middle School stands.
During this time, America was still suffering from the Great Depression, but Milford knew what they had in Briggs. While other members of his graduating class began coaching careers at $1,180 for a 10-month position, Briggs was paid $1,800. At that time, there were no apartments in Milford, so Briggs rented a room from Laura and Gus Dickerson on Clarke Avenue, paying $3 per week for the room and paid 15 cents for breakfast.
Briggs was able to eat lunch at school, but dinner was a problem. The Windsor Hotel was known for their delicious fish and wild game dinners, but teachers were not permitted to eat there as they served alcohol. For most dinners, Briggs ate at Still’s Restaurant, one of the drug stores, or at Govatos. Because most businesses in Milford were closed on Sunday, Briggs, along with Reverend John Jackson Brown of the Presbyterian Church, drove to Dover for dinner.
World War II led Briggs to enlist in the Air Corps in 1942. He attended Officer Candidate School and spent 40 months working with personnel in the distribution centers located in Miami, Florida and Atlantic City, New Jersey. While serving in Atlantic City, Briggs met his wife, Mary Elizabeth Morris, a librarian, who went by “Betty.” They married July 14, 1945, at her home in Watkins Glen, New York.
Briggs and his wife returned to Milford where he began creating his baseball, basketball and football teams. John Tawes took over the girls’ basketball team and, during the summer. Briggs taught swimming at the local lakes and beaches. Briggs was instrumental in starting the field hockey and softball teams. He also brought wrestling to the school. Lawrence Sharp, who was an avid tennis player, suggested to Briggs that there should be a tennis team. Briggs quickly started one. He also started the track and field team, leading them to two relay team state championships in 1965 as well as nine individual state championship winners between 1948 and 1962.
He spent ten years as football coach and, in 1947, Milford was the highest scoring team in the state. Briggs spent eight years with the basketball and seven with the baseball teams
The track behind the school was comprised of cinders. Briggs had Swain Construction brig truckloads of dirt to improve the track. Kenney Draper, in art class at the high school, created a scale model for Briggs that showed them how the area could be laid out to include a football field, track and baseball diamond. Briggs took the design to a school board meeting who approved upgrades to the area.One day, piles of metal arrived. It was the bleachers for the field that needed to be assembled. After school and during the summer months, Briggs himself laid the concrete forms for the bleachers with the assistance of other teachers and students. Fences were placed and Briggs laid a cement walk around the field. When the high school moved to its current location in 1972, Briggs took down the bleachers and moved them to the new school.
Outside of sports, Briggs was an avid fisherman and an accomplished model shop builder. He also loved gardening, bird watching and solving crossword puzzles.
It was at graduation in 1975 when it was announced that the new stadium would be named in Briggs honor. Longtime coach Vern Walch leaned over and patted Briggs leg.
“If anyone should be in the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame, it should be Coach Briggs,” Walch is reported as saying.
Walch’s prediction came true in 2007 when Briggs was posthumously inducted into the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame. Briggs passed away July 27, 2000, at the age of 87.
Briggs and his wife had two sons, Jack, who taught at Friends Central in Wilmington, and Bob, who became an academic advisor to American University in Washington, DC.
At the induction, Bob pointed out the contributions of his father.
“He really characterized the coaches of his generation,” Bob said. “He spent his whole career there and really provided stability to the program. He was one of the guys back then who gave his entire life to build an entire program.”
According to his son, although Briggs was involved in every sport at the school, Bob felt he loved track and field the most.
“He coached the track team a great deal,” his son said, “I think that it was the sport that appealed to him the most over time.” In fact, Briggs started the Milford Invitational Track and Field Meet which grew extensively, peaking in 1963 with 16 schools participating and more than 400 athletes.
Today, Briggs name still adorns the Milford High School stadium, although the bleachers he built have long since been replaced.
