Southwest's legendary team to be honored Saturday, 40 years after a perfect season
The Macon Coliseum of Saturday night bears little resemblance to the one of 40 years ago.
Team member Henry Goss wrote a book about the Patriots’ legendary season.
Back in 1979, the Coliseum was a youngster of about 11 years old. It was also a home away from home for a collection of youngsters, slightly older, who lives about 10 minutes away.
Those youngsters were the members of the dynastic Southwest boys basketball team, led by the legendary Don “Duck” Richardson.
The Patriots went 28-0 in 1978-79 and hammered upper-level teams from Virginia, Tennessee, Washington D.C., Florida and, of course, Georgia.
And Macon.
Four decades ago, Southwest beat Northeast for the state title before 10,000 or so to win the state title and finish the perfect season.
Some of the 15 members of that team will be on hand Saturday night to commemorate the 40th anniversary of that legendary team.
The Patriots were also crowned national champs that year. Northeast could have been national runners-up, having lost four times to Southwest that year, part of a tremendous history of Northeast-Southwest battles that were more than just city rivalry games.
Members of the team: Carl Hardnett, Shelton Hudson, Dewayne Tharpe, Fred Pitts, Eric Hightower, Glenn Harden, Alonzo "Mickey" Patrick, Carl Tyler, Henry Goss, Clint Whitehead, Henry "Hook" McCarthy, Bobby Jones, Jeff Malone, Terry Fair and team captain Michael Hunt.
Most, as well as managers Kevin Sark, David Burch, and Donnie Hester, will be able to attend.
Richardson, a legend and a character, died on Sept. 5, 2011 at the age of 75 after battling complications from pneumonia. He went 463-90 in 21 years leading the Patriots.