Georgia Sports Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024: High school and youth stars who kept starring, a coach who lifted two programs, and a 45-year career sharing stories, all doing more than just the games
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
Copyright issues didn’t allow the video of the entire ceremony, streamed by the Hall live, to be embedded here. This is the link. The ceremony begins at the 18:30 mark, including the Parade of Stars (it’s mute during copyright issues), with a gap for dinner from 37:40 to 1:20.
Here are timestamps for the each inductees’ introduction by Smoltz and then the inductee’s speech:
Sharif Abdur-Rahim: 1:37:00/1:40:35
Eric Berry: 1:45:45/1:48:25
Cris Carpenter: 1:52:10/1:55:10
Thomas Davis Sr.:1:58:50/2:02:05
Claude Felton: 2:11:30/2:2:14:40
Paul Johnson: 2:20:50/2:24:40
Brian McCann: 2:28:25/2:36:00
Wendy White: 2:41:55/2:45:00
Reaching levels of high achievement and accomplishment in the world of sports for any individual involves a team effort.
And overcoming roadblocks in life.
Master of ceremonies John Smoltz reeled off a few of those for Thomas Davis Sr. before introducing his bio video at Saturday night’s Georgia Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the Macon City Auditorium.
It was the same superb resume Davis has heard recited many times during and after his football career at Georgia and with Carolina in the NFL, a career interrupted by three ACL surgeries.
“What you guys didn’t get to hear was my upbringing,” Davis said. “You didn’t get to hear how I grew up in a single-parent household with me and my mom and my younger sister. You didn’t get to hear about us having our lights turned off.”
Davis recalled running an extension cord from a neighbor’s house to have power, as well as other assorted struggles in small-town southwest Georgia.
It all set him for nights like Saturday, when hunger and resilience met with a work ethic and resulted in becoming one of the NFL’s most respected players.
“Whenever I got into a situation where I was faced with adversity, there was no doubt in my mind that I was going to overcome it,” Davis said, “because I had been through some of the worst struggled you can ever go through.”
Indeed. He went on to be named the Walter Payton Man of the Year in the NFL in 2014, and took the Bart Starr Award a year later for outstanding character and leadership. His high school alma mater named its stadium after him.
Without a hint of arrogance, Davis went a slightly different route under the circumstances, combining humility with confidence, fully accepting the honor he’d earned.
“At the end of the day when I sit back and reflect on my career, I will be doing God a disservice if I said that I didn’t deserve this honor, If I didn’t deserve to be here,” he said. “Because that would be selling short the job that He has done in my life. And I’m not a finished product by any means, by any means at all.”
Davis’s only Division I scholarship offer for football was to Georgia, which inducted him into its Circle of Honor in 2017. Being a father – and advisor of sorts – to his kids and other family members is his priority, what all his work has led to.
“It was all about being an example not only for him, but my nephews,” he said. “Showing kids something different than what we all experienced growing up in small towns, in high poverty areas.
“When you give a kid hope and you give him a chance and a belief that they can do something different with their life, you will be amazed at how far that goes.”
Georgia Sports Hall of Fame Fan Fest, with one on ones: Thomas Davis, Paul Johnson, Brian McCann
Baldwin's Tasha Butts among Legends to join Georgia Sports Hall of Fame this weekend
Davis went in with another high school football standout Eric Berry, as well as football coach Paul Johnson, Sharim Abdur-Rahim (basketball), Brian McCann (baseball), Wendy White (tennis), media relations veteran Claude Felton, and Cris Carpenter (baseball and football).
The ceremony ended a full weekend that included a golf tournament and jacket ceremony on Friday, and a FanFest on Saturday.
Former Baldwin girls and Tennessee women’s basketball standout Tasha Butts was among four going into the Hall as part of the Legends class which honors candidates posthumously. She died in October from breast cancer complications only a few months before being named head coach at Georgetown.
It was the rare Hall ceremony during which no new members got overly emotional. That’s not to say they weren’t sentimental, humbled, and excited.
The six former athletes have stayed in shape, from the youngest to the most veteran. Former Georgia Tech and Georgia Southern head football coach Paul Johnson looked like somebody who no longer had major-college football stress, nor the new issues of the transfer portal and Name-Image-Likeness issues.
Seemingly the only difference for former Georgia sports information director – the simple title of his duties – Claude Felton from the night and the pictures shown during his bio video was a little less hair and a little grayer hair, after 45 years of leading the Bulldogs’ message.
Eric Berry was a star high school athlete and standout at Tennessee in college and Kansas City in the NFL. He overcame Hodgkins Lymphoma in 2014 and returned the NFL, having hardly lost a step.
He had some fan in his speech, regarding Brian Jordan’s multi-sport exploits, Smoltz as a Brave, Johnson having coached Berry’s high school coach while at Georgia Southern.
“I think one of the best things about being part of this class is being inducted with Thomas Davis,” he said. “Watched him growing up. Wore No. 10. Big reason why I wore 10.”
They share ACL scars, both in the same Florida hospital at the same time, Davis having surgery on both knees. That didn’t prevent him and his wife from visiting a recuperating Berry.
“I was pretty down about the whole situation,” Berry said. “He came over for dinner and he didn’t have his crutches or anything, and I’m like, ‘How are you walking, and you just had surgery on both knees yesterday and I’m having a pity party for myself?’
“You coming over spending that time with me … that was truly a blessing.”
He thanks his mom, which led to a quick explanation of a number change.
“Mom, you’re a big reason why I wore 14 at UT,” he said. “That was the number of hours you spent with me in labor. So, I hope I made you proud.”
Smoltz went into a lengthy story about how he was a veteran pitcher who needed a new catcher, and there was Brian McCann.
Who was then shown on the big screen in a picture as a youngster posing with Smoltz, firmly entrenched with the Braves. They had met.
“That’s me as a big-leaguer, and that’s him as a little kid,” Smoltz said. “And that’s the picture that was in my locker the first game we were going to play and pitch to him.
“I mean, he’s a cute kid, don’t get me wrong. But it’s not easy to star down the mound into a … I’m old, I’m officially old, when that happens.”
McCann was a quick study at catcher, starting off as Smoltz’s choice. McCann was initially called up for a short stint in 2005, but caught Smoltz on his second night.
“He threw a complete game,” McCann said, “and probably shook me off 90 times. It’s always right place, right time. After the game, he walks into Bobby Cox’s office, and says, ‘I want him here and I want him catching me every fifth day.’
Just your average start to a hall of fame career.