"Best team in Georgia history" is what many called the 1978-79 Southwest boys, and the 1978-79 Southwest men will reunite Saturday night
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
The seats are different, the court on which they dazzled long gone, and there was no light show during pregame introductions.
ESPN.com looks back 30 years, in 2009
A generation or two has passed since the Southwest boys basketball team raised eyebrows and heart rates – and, particularly at Northeast, blood pressures and anxiety levels – as it rolled through the 1978-79 basketball season, taking the state title in Georgia’s highest classification, and being that last team in that group to go undefeated.
Fittingly, it’s at halftime of a game featuring a team that can be the first since then to match the phenomenal accomplishment that the 1978-79 Southwest team will be honored by the GHSA, a perfect season in the highest class.
Most of the Patriots of 40 years ago will make their way out onto the court, probably around 7:35ish, while 31-0 McEachern and 26-5 Meadowcreek are in the locker rooms, to celebrate their legacy.
Henry Goss is one of the dozen or so Patriots who will take in the old memories in the same-but-newer facility. Goss and Eddie Ashley, the PA announcer then in the fairly early stages of a long career in Bibb County athletics, started thinking about such a gathering.
Don Richardson was not a calm, button-down coach.
Photo: Duck’s Boys/Henry Goss
Goss called Ashley and mentioned the anniversary, and Ashley started exploring a way to honor the state and national championship team.
“We were talking about, it’s not the starters or who played a lot,” said Goss, who authored “Duck’s Boys: The Greatest High School Team in Georgia History” in 2012. “It’s about celebrating the team that was, back then, and the things we went through.”
This is the first full reunion of that team, ever, with a half-dozen members mobilizing in only about a month’s time to get everybody together.
There will be personal reunions Saturday night that are decades in the making, and Goss admits he’s not completely sure of the current life details of everybody that’s coming (and almost everybody from the team is coming).
Several Patriots are still in or near Macon, including: Terry Fair, Myles Patrick, Eric Hightower, Carl Tyler, Clint Whitehead, Glen Harden, Fred Pitts, and Henry McCarthy.
Shelton Hudson spent nearly three decades in the military and is retired senior master sergeant, living in Atlanta. Said Goss: “He’s been around the world a couple of times. A great, great patriot.”
Jeff Malone is done coaching, and lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., where a commitment prevents his attendance.
Unofficially expected to attend on Saturday: Fair, Michael Hunt, Bobby Jones, Pitts, Whitehead, Harden, Tyler, Hightower, Hudson, Alonzo Patrick, Carl Hardnett, and Henry McCarthy.
Granddaughters Chastity and Adonna will represent legendary head coach Don “Duck” Richardson, who died in 2011.
There was, of course, the big 3: Malone, Fair, and Hunt. They got the bulk of the attention, and Richardson didn’t necessarily spread the minutes out much beyond maybe seven on a regular basis, despite the fact that Southwest’s second five and third five were basically good enough to start for a few hundred teams in the state, and no doubt other state champs.
Come back Sunday for video and more on Southwest’s anniversary and reunion
Thus, practices weren’t finesse, or fit for polite company.
“Carl Tyler and Clint Whitehead used to just give guys fits,” Goss said. “They just did. And then there were days when Alonzo Patrick gave Terry Fair everything he could handle. Just would run him.
“It was just competitive.”
The rotation, though, would change.
“A lot of times, it just depended on the situation,” Goss said. “Don, in that particular year, made some moves in certain games that just were critical.
“The state championship game when he puts Carl Tyler in. Against St. John’s (Washington D.C.), when Clint Whitehead came in and maybe scored eight points in the game, really crucial points. There were just times when Duck moved the right guy into the right position, and it worked.”
Street & Smith magazine, for decades a sports bible, declared the Patriots national champs. The editor was based in Indiana, so recognizing an urban Southern team was notable.
“So a guy from Indiana, for him and everybody to recognize a Southern team like that …” Goss said. “We didn’t just play people in Georgia. We played everybody.”
Henry “Hook” McCarthy shows how he got the nickname, against Northeast.
Photo: Duck’s Boys/Henry Goss
And beat ‘em. “Everybody” also included Northeast, which was almost as stout as Southwest, multiple times. Those games, regular-season and otherwise, had to be moved to the Coliseum, and if you weren’t in there before halftime of the girls game, you weren’t in there.
“Listen, I didn’t want to play Northeast for one more minute,” Goss said. “They were really good.”
The teammates will gather around 6 p.m. on the ground floor of the Coliseum, and there will no doubt be some backbreaking hugs, near-yells of acknowledgement, and maybe a few tears.
The catching-up will start, and suddenly, they’ll be back in their teen years remembering the legendary practices, the legendary tactics, the legendary games.
And there’ll no doubt be more than a few “Remember that time when Duck …?” or “Can you believe …?” and so will start a story about something – unprintable as often as not – that Richardson came up with on a sideline or during a practice.
The vast majority of which was all but outlawed years ago.
So, when they hit the court, who is most likely to grab a ball off a rack and take a shot?
“All of ‘em,” Goss said with a roaring laugh. “Every one of ‘em. Every one of ‘em would, and they’ll tell ya that.”
Anybody willing to pass the ball?
“Not anymore. Maybe 40 years ago, but not anymore.”