Loran - Smith
Loran
Following World War II, one of the sports that Americans were eager to embrace was college football. The nation was anxious to return to normal and the college campuses were filled with returning veterans who were anxious to obtain a degree and get on with their lives. Student bodies also expanded and one of the great recreational outlets was college football on Saturday afternoons. This was before the television and mass media initiatives of today. The game flourished at the grass roots level and experienced remarkable growth.
In 1947, Red Blaik, the head coach at Army, war hero Gen. Douglas McArthur, and the legendary sportswriter Grantland Rice met and laid the groundwork for the National Football Foundation.
The first Hall of Fame class was inducted in 1951. Following a brief break, the banquet began its annual start in 1954 and has been a big date on the December calendar except for one year when COVID caused a shutdown of the Hilton Hotel where the NFF hosted its banquet.
Georgia has had 21 of its former players and coaches inducted into this august group and those affiliated with the UGA chapter of the NFF are working diligently to promote the candidacy of George Patton, two time All-American, who was the cornerstone of the Vince Dooley era.
The NFF for years held its annual induction banquet at the Waldorf Astoria in mid-town Manhattan. In 1975, William C. Hartman, then Chairman of the Georgia Student Educational Fund, took an associate to the Foundation induction banquet and continued throughout his life.
After a couple of years, Hartman began buying a table and inviting several Georgia friends and supporters to attend the banquet. For a few years this became an annual excursion for several of UGA’s most enthusiastic supporters.
From those casual and informal outings, a chapter was formed, with its first awards gathering taking place at the Athens Country Club with a luncheon in 1986. From that loosely organized beginning and with Hartman and GSEF underwriting any budget shortfalls, the Chapter experienced a trial-and-error existence until it firmed up its volunteer board of directors and created a golf outing that enabled the chapter to grow and expand until it became the largest chapter in the country. It has enjoyed the No. 1 ranking for the last dozen or so years.
Headliner college head coaches, National Football League stars, media celebrities— from Kirby Smart, Georgia; to Bob Stoops, Oklahoma; to Archie Manning, Ole Miss; to Rick Neuheisel, former head coach at Colorado and UCLA and is now CBS college football analyst; Ron Jaworski, Monday night football; Mike Tirico, long time television play by play announcer now working with NBC; Jeff Foxworthy, comedian; Holly Rowe, ESPN sideline announcer and former players such as Herschel Walker and Terry Hoage.
Earlier this week the Georgia Chap- continued from page
ter hosted its 39th annual awards dinner honoring a local son with a distinguished political and community service career, Michael Thurmond; the dean of the Terry College of Business, Ben Ayers, with its Distinguished American Award; and Jonathan Taylor of Long Island, New York was recognized for his “Contribution to Amateur Football.”
Fred Butler, Athens Coca-Cola Co., presented the Coca-Cola Helping Hand Award to Shawonna Coleman of the Athens Boys and Girls Club; Jesse Hickey of the Turner Family Foundation presented the Jack Turner Award to Dan Jackson, Georgia’s overachieving defensive back, Dan Jackson; Tony Ferguson recognized on behalf of Georgia Power the two local public high schools Cedar Shoals and Clarke Central for their work with Play It Smart, an NFF program which provides support for academically at risk student-athletes; the most valuable players from the two schools (Taiwan Green, Cedar Shoals and Corey Watkins, Clarke Central) were awarded scholarships from Synovus Bank, hosted by John Tebeau.
Five former Georgia players Hap Hines, David Jacobs, Clint Boling, Jeff Hipp, and Orson Prince-Charles were honored for postgraduate achievement, which is sponsored by board member John Parker in memory of his parents Reid and Cynthia Parker. Lawton Stephens, a trustee of the Francis Wood Wilson Foundation, saluted Northeast Georgia scholar athletes: Jaiden Nelson, Clarke Central; Aiden Rainey, West Hall High; Jonah Burger, Franklin County High; Charlie Bradshaw, Chestatee High and Parker Crawford Grow, Athens Academy.
Julie Moran, a Thomasville, Ga., native and a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Georgia was the keynote speaker who provided insights into the interesting things that have happened to her in her broadcast career.
A woman of firsts, her credits include co-founding NBC Sports’ “Inside Stuff” with Ahmad Rashad and later becoming the first ever female sideline announcer for Dick Vermeil and Brent Musberger. She is the first woman to have an NBA trading card, and with “Inside Stuff” being inducted into the Naismith NBA Hall of Fame, this means she will soon be receiving an NBA Hall of Fame ring.
She is the first woman to solo host ABC’s Wide World of Sports, later shifting to an assignment with “Entertainment Tonight,” in New York and Los Angeles. She left “Entertainment Tonight,” to raise her daughters Makayla and Maiya. She teams with her husband, Rob Moran, producing movies and documentaries. Their production company, Silver Fox Productions, is named for her grandfather, Sterling Dupree, Vince Dooley’s first recruiting coordinator.
An athlete herself, she made the All-State basketball team in high school at Brookwood Academy in Thomasville and she is being nominated by the University of Georgia for induction in the state of Georgia Sports Hall of Fame.
