By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

            Georgia Military College JC legend Bert Williams had to retire last fall to battle mantle cell lymphoma, but he sounded pretty normal when accepting the J.B. Hawkins Humanitarian Award.

            The Westside-Augusta graduate had plenty of support from Milledgeville, led by his successor Rob Manchester.

            Williams makes a weekly trip to Emory in Atlanta for tests and treatment, which led to a slight limp when he was onstage.

            Afterward, he talked with The Central Georgia Sports Report about the honor and his progress in the fight against his disease.

 

Award named after Parker Myers, who has good news

            Longtime Georgia Sports Hall of Fame official and booster Emily Myers is now the namesake of the Emily Parker Myers leadership award.

            Former Mercer coworker and current consulting firm coworker Kirby Godsey ran down Myers’ long history in fund-raising, at Mercer and with the hall, doing whatever she could to fend off financial issues and potential closure.

            The first recipient is Dr. Kathy McMinn, a former Georgia gymnast.

            In a passionate speech about the battles to keep the hall alive, noting the death 200 yards away of the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, Myers had some very fortunate financial news.

            Thanks to a grant from the Peyton Anderson Foundation, as well other general support, the hall retired the debt on the building and owned it outright.

            Other award winners: Amanda Dinkel, the Erk Russell Spirit Award, for spearheading the start of flag football for girls in the Georgia High School Association; Myers, the Taz Anderson Service Award; and longtime Georgia Military College JC football coach and athletics director Bert Williams (see related story, video)

 

Jordan throws out props to notable Maconites in speech

            Folks were talking about Ray Lamb’s speech, but each of the speakers had their moments.

            All cited support, some tough love, the impossibility of this level of success without the proper better half, and getting a chance.

            Brian Jordan has become a regular to Macon for charity events, most notably what is now the Five Star Kevin Brown Russell Henley Celebrity Classic golf tournament. Kevin Brown/Five Star.

            “I really have to give out a special thanks to a former inductee, Jaime Kaplan. Jaime, if you know her, she is so special.  She invited me years and years ago to Kevin Brown’s golf tournament.

            “I came down, I had a chance to meet with Jaime,” Jordan said. “Her personality is so infectious. I didn’t know much about Jaime, I just thought she was just a director of the golf tournament.

            I later found out she was a great tennis player. I used to call her and say , ‘Hey, you got to come and be a celebrity at my golf tournament.’”

            Jordan said Kaplan kept telling him he deserved to be in.

            “Thank you so much for saying that, and being a part of getting me in here.”

            He also cited Macon-Bibb mayor Lester Miller.

            “I came down here years ago with his “Game On” baseball organization, and got a chance to speak,” Jordan said. “You’ve come a long way, Lester. Congratulations on being the mayor.”

            Speeches had their sentimental moments and laughs.

            “This is awesome,” multimedia college football legend Tony Barnhart said. “This is totally awesome.”

            And humbling, but he already got some of that at home.

            “My bride and I, we were talking this morning around breakfast,” Barnhart said. “I said, ‘You know, sweetheart, did you ever believe in your wildest dreams that you’d ever think that I’d be in the hall of fame?’

            “She said, ‘Sweetheart, you know I love you, really, but you were never in my wildest dreams.’”

            Tom Glavine’s dad made sure he had the right attitude when things didn’t go well.

            “When I was a young kid and had a bad hockey game, I got in the car and I was kind of a little snot when I was in the car,” said Glavine, who grew up in Massachusetts and was picked in the 1984 NHL draft. “He pulled the car over and he said, ‘Son, you’re going to go into the locker room with a smile on your face and you’re going to come out with a smile on your face or I’m mottaking you anymore.’

            “That taught me to enjoy the game and leave it there when it was over, which served me very well later in life when I was a husband and parent.”

            Former Georgia Tech quarterback Joe Hamilton was thankful for the unwavering support of his wife, which began very early in his career.

            “It was her encouragement, her words, her never giving up,” he said. “We studied together, we talked together, during tough times.

            “I don’t think at any point she realized how good I was until my career was over in college, until I actually went to Tampa. That’s how supportive she was, just caring about me, the person.”

            For long time, people wondered how a young Andy Landers went into Chicago and got star basketballer Janet Harris into Athens.

            Weather helped convince a girl who grew up play ball with a milk crate hammered into a pole as a basket.

            “There was a lot of negativity, people were saying things,” the program’s all-time leading rebounder and scorer said. “ ‘Who ever heard of Georgia?’

            “My response was: you will.”

            There were some expected bumps for a growing program.

            “You were tough as hell,” she said to Landers. “And at the end of practices, Lord have mercy. … There were times I didn’t really like you, especially during practice, ‘cause I thought you had lost your damn mind.”

            Maya Moore’s mother grew up in Chicago, and the single mom moved to Georgia for better opportunities for the two of them.

            That mindset has stayed with Moore since.

            “I learned a lot from that, looking at my mom saying, ‘Hey, you need to have more opportunity around you, so go be around the best.”

            Initially that meant Collins Hill High – where was part of only four losses in four years - and the Connecticut where she was the AP national player of the year twice.

            It also helped steer her toward her non-basketball vocation in the criminal justice system and working on reform as well as taking on cases of the unjustly accused and incarcerated.

            “Between my mom my family and my coaches and so many great role models, just showing up on a day and doing the best that you can really is the formula. Just showing up every day.

            “That is actually the heart of why am taking time away, is because I wanted to show up for some other things in life, that are even more important than these accolades and these championships and these records.

            “And that’s people. I wanted to show up for other people.”

            Matt Stinchcomb was one who didn’t expect such a call.

            “This is not something I would have ever anticipated being a part of,” he said. “I’m grateful to be included in the company of my fellow inductees, and the inductees that have come before us.

            “To be included in their company is a tremendous honor.”

            He reeled off some of the inductees accomplishments, and showed some deadpan.

            “.. like a Joe Hamilton, a guy that’s a Heisman Trophy candidate. Could’ve gone to Clemson. That’s another reason to hate Clemson. He went to Tech, wrecked my senior year, they beat us in 1998.

            “That’s not important tonight, but I thought I’d bring it up.”