Appreciation, emotion, humor, humility, and thanks: a packed Georgia Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
Ernie Johnson Jr. was back on the stage at the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony, again as host after last year being honored with induction.
Georgia basketball alum Willie Anderson watched his brother also play for Hugh Durham, to the delight of their parents.
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And he warned the Class of 2020 on this “very cool night” that they’d better be prepared when they took the podium after watching a bit of their career highlights shared with another capacity crowd of more than 600 at the Macon City Auditorium.
Former Mercer athletics director Bobby Pope, longtime Fort Valley State head women’s basketball coach Lonnie Bartley, and ex-Atlanta Brave-turned-Stratford coach Jeff Treadway are Central Georgians in the class.
Bartley asked the capacity crowd to pray for his alma mater as it deals with the recent tragic death of a senior student.
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Georgia Southern football legend Adrian Peterson, ex-Valdosta State basketball coach Gary Colson, former Georgia Tech football standout Eddie Lee Ivery, late-1980s Georgia men’s basketball point guard Willie Anderson, and women’s soccer whiz Kelley O’Hara round out the Class of 2020.
Most went past the “limit” of a four-minute speech, led by Colson, who drew the most laughs but was sure to get in thanks to his wife of 33 years, during which emotions caught him and he quickly finished.
Anderson’s college coach Hugh Durham, a regular attendee at each year’s ceremony, was “the toughest sucker I’ve ever been around,” Anderson said. “Called me everything in the book.
“But be believed in me.”
Gary Colson was supported by a large contingent of old Valdosta State Rebels.
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He let Durham and the audience in on a secret.
“My mother and father loved you almost more than they loved us,” Anderson said.
Bartley of Fort Valley State wondered if “everybody here is as nervous as I am.” He later asked for prayers for his alma mater and former employer as it deal with the recent murder of a senior student.
Ivery was passionate about how football - Mr. Football - changed his life.
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Peterson earned admiration for so many years by battling a severe stuttering problem by facing it head on, eventually overcoming it to a large degree and writing a book.
And he hardly took a breath in motoring through his thanks in less than two minutes.
O'Hara is the youngest inductee and the first soccer player.
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Ivery had a funny story about how the Georgia Tech football standout was almost “forced” to go to Georgia upon the end of his pro football career to graduate by Dick Bestwick, who was a coach or administrator at both schools.
Treadway was perhaps the most “Georgia” inductee, growing up in Griffin, playing at Middle Georgia College (back then) and Georgia, spending four of his nine Major League seasons with the Braves, including the magical 1991 season.
Adrian Peterson followed his legendary Georgia Southern career and eight years in the NFL by returning to work at his alma mater.
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He managed the Macon Braves in 1999 and 2000, and started his career at Stratford three years later, and has won four state softball and one state baseball championship.
Stratford is also where the Treadway family started, beginning with Treadway meeting his wife Mollye.
Jeff Treadway was the first Atlanta Brave to score A run in the World Series, and has spent nearly two decades teaching and coaching at Stratford.
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“I never knew an accountant could be so good looking,” he said with a laugh of the school’s chief financial officer
O’Hara was a pioneer in two senses, as the youngest inductee ever – 31- and the first soccer player. The member of the U.S. women’s national team said she hopes to have crashed open the door to the hall for more soccer players and more women.
Pope said he was having trouble reading from his notes, and asked the audience to bear with him.
“And if that music goes off, tough break.”