Macon Sports Hall of Fame: From blindfolded passing drills to the village of family to lessons and detours ...
From left to right: Chuck Hawkins, Corey Williams, Tawanya Mucker Wilson, Michael Taylor, Jay Cranford, Jim Gaudet, DeAndre Smelter, Kyle Johnston.
Photo: Michael A. Lough/Central Georgia Sports Report.
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
For Tawanya Mucker Wilson and Michael Taylor, the evening was about a motto and a belief.
Wilson, now a principal at Dr. Martin Luther King elementary, rode from the courts of Macon to Northeast to Middle Tennessee State.
“The one thing that comes to mind, every time I think about it, when I got that phone call and they told me I had to give a speech,” Wilson said during her speech at the Macon Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony Tuesdays night in the Monument Room at the Macon Coliseum, “is, to whom much is given, much is required.”
For Taylor, a multi-sport standout at Mount de Sales who then ran track at Georgia Tech and became a Central Georgia restaurateur, his successes were connected by one thing.
“God surrounded me with talented people.”
Both touched on the points several times while talking in front up upwards of 400 family and friends and former teammates.
The class’s resume covered baseball, basketball, track and field, and football, as well as community contributions.
Hall of Famers like Alvin Copeland, Barney Hester, Craig Gibson, Mike Garvin, Joey Hiller, Robert Slocum, Mark Farriba, Bubber Adams, among others, were referenced by members of the new class of Wilson, Taylor, Jay Cranford, Jim Gaudet, Chuck Hawkins, Kyle Johnston, DeAndre Smelter, and Corey Williams.
The 1989 state championship Southwest boys basketball team was honored, and Charise Stephens-Merriweather won the Bobby Pope Service to Sports Award.
Cranford joked about the 1989 high school picture of him in the program: “I’m amazed I made it to 1990, that I have a loving wife and family” - and then gave thanks to the Stratford faculty that steered him in the right direction that eventually led to Tuesday night.
Wilson remembered how clumsy she was as a tall youth, and then moved from Louisville to Macon, and Copeland started working on her.
“Being blindfolded and having to catch bounces passes,” Wilson said during her eloquent speech. “(He) mentored and grew me to be the athlete that was able and capable to go a D-I university
For the second straight year, a member of the Johnston and Cantrell families stood at the podium.
A year ago, Christy Cantrell Johnston was inducted for her soccer exploits at Stratford and Mercer. Husband Kyle, a three-sport standout at Stratford and then baseball player at Mercer, was inducted on Tuesday.
Smelter’s road to the hall had more detours than expected. He was a highly touted baseball prospect at Tattnall who signed with Georgia Tech. Also a standout basketball player at Tattnall, injuries sidelined his college baseball career, and he moved to football, a wide receiver on a run-oriented team.
He ended up making the NFL, and is now on the football staff at Georgia Tech. On hand were his three main head coaches at Tattnall: football coach Hester, basketball coach Paul Brooks, and baseball coach Hiller.
Smelter was a quiet and humble player at Tattnall and Georgia Tech, and was inspired academically. He noted something he’d written, joking that yes, he writes things, after offering that he had always been more afraid to fail than anything, before realizing the learning aspects that came from failing.
“I don’t like the beach, but I am a fan of the ocean. Just like our souls, the deeper we search, the darker it gets. Our fear of darkness stems from a fear of the unknown, but traveling these depths makes the journey to the surface well worth it.
“Take a moment to breathe above the water, because life says ‘hello’ by coming in waves. Chase your fears.”
The Hawkins name is bigger in Crawford County, where the high school baseball team just won a GHSA Class A/Division I baseball quarterfinal series while playing on Dr. Chuck Hawkins Field, part of the J.B. Hawkins Sports Complex at the high school.
But Hawkins – a standout basketball player at his high school alma mater, under his father and legendary coach J.B. - has been connected to Bibb County basketball for decades, more than a few players hooping on the court at his home near Wesleyan.
A little more than a decade ago, Mercer renamed its basketball arena after Hawkins, a Bear basketball booster.
The urge to give back came from within the house, and it kept going even after he got married and established and wondered about doing things.
“I think maybe my wife should have gotten this,” said Hawkins, a longtime cardiologist in Macon who has an indoor gym at home. “I have a beautiful wife Kathy, who’s loving and generous.
“When we decided to do things for the sports world in Macon, I’d usually go, ‘Can we do this?’ And she’d always go, ‘Yes, we can. We can do it. And we can do it four or five times better’
The same went for Gaudet, whose goal upon starting a free baseball clinic a year after moving to Macon in the 1980s was a broad baseball experience, and one for kids who didn’t have the finances for bigger, fancy camps.
That desire was borne at home, from his father, owner of an extensive and impressive resume of his own.
“His trophies and accolades were impressive,” said Gaudet, who grew up in New Orleans and was picked twice in the Major League Baseball Draft. “But more impressive to me was the way he changed kids’ lives, and the loyalty and camaraderie his leadership inspired.
“My father’s teams always included kids struggling at home, in the classroom, even those without talent.”
The first year, the camp was held at then-North Macon Park, now Theron Ussery Park, because the Macon Pirates wouldn’t give up Luther Williams Field.
A year later, though, the camp was at the iconic facility. And for more than two decades, campers learned all facets of the game, not just the parts they might’ve been good at. Eventually, sponsorship helped Gaudet and his group buy equipment for those who couldn’t afford it.
“My mother had a saying: the heart that gives, gathers,” he said. “And I took that to heart.”
Williams, who played at Oklahoma State and with the Chicago Bulls before embarking on a career that now has him at Auburn, was caught by emotion a few times.
“You know that old adage that it takes a village to raise a child?” he said. “I want to talk a little bit about that village.”
And he spent nearly his entire talk of a little more than seven minutes thanking family members, immediate and extended, new and old, and those by marriage.
Starting with his wife.
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“My queen,” he said. “When you see me, you see her. Without her, there’s no me.”
He closed, again his voice cracking, with a common sentiment of such inductees.
“It’s not just me getting into the hall of fame,” he said, pointing to the large collection of family members. “It’s you. You are getting in the hall of fame with me. I’m so proud to be associated with you. I mean that from the (bottom) of my heart.”
Bibb County Scholar-Athletes
ACE: Chloe Andayan, Henry Lewis
Central: Jamyiah Harris, Ulrie ‘tre’ Bellaire
Howard: Lillian Harper, Ryan Nate Campbell
Northeast: Ciarra Bond, Javian Dooley
Rutland: Zaria Blasingame, Fisher Hopkins
Southwest: A’laila Hampton, James May
Westside: A’mya S. Jolly, Jose M. Guzman-Marin
Central Fellowship: Emma Grace Griffin, Kellen Joel Andrews
FPD: Faith Wasden, Ben Barton
Mount de Sales: Anna Cane, Gabe Howard
Stratford: Campbell Ann Sellers, Cope Smith
Tattnall: Caroline Patterson, Riley McCallum
Windsor: Audrey Dobson, Blayne Bennettt