How would you contrast and compare those iconic coaches? Way too much credit is given to Herschel (Walker) and Lindsay (Scott) and Buck. In 1977, Valdosta Daily Times sports editor Mike Chason, a native of south Georgia and recent graduate of Valdosta State University, wrote a story for the paper comparing the pro sports teams of Atlanta to the sports scene in Valdosta. That still sort of haunts me even today., 7. Doug Henderson, whose sons Ashley, Justin, and Doug all played at Valdosta, recalled a prank in the mid-90s that was designed to fire up the Wildcat players. He went on to play both football and baseball at Georgia. Im pleased we were able to give Valdosta a defibrillator, since they didnt have one, Belue said. The 2007 estimate showed a population of 130,170 in the Valdosta metropolitan area. !"-Susan Wooten, 2022 CATS Winner I should have done it a long time ago. 2. Buck Belue was born and raised in Titletown, USA also known as Valdosta, Georgia. But the current Wildcats still know who he is. VALDOSTA, Ga. (WCTV) - The Valdosta High School football team has been hit with sanctions from the Georgia High School Association following an investigation into the program. I enjoyed it. He was credited with 130 tackles as a senior. All the 1980 UGA stars are mentioned, but also prominently featured are teammates such as Nat Hudson, Hugh Nall, Jimmy Womack, Amp Arnold, Jimmy Payne, Eddie Weaver and Nate Taylor and assistant coaches Mike Cavan and Wayne McDuffie, among others. Most coaches are going to take their schemes to the grave, but he learned the new offense and made the change for the team. 3 Georgia high school football player of all time by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2007, and this is just his football career. Rome settled on professional football, playing four NFL seasons with the Chiefs. When I finally got a chance to talk to them, I told them I hoped theyd understand that the governor of Alabama, Fob James, was my roommate at Auburn and was involved in trying to persuade me. The problem was the plane didnt get low enough, and the wind blew the flyers all over the neighborhood next to the practice field.. Some call them Winnersville. To order a book or get a copy at a book signing, click here. . We missed a chip-shot field goal that wouldve won the state championship for all of us. Probably the most successful event to date was a couple of weeks ago in Valdosta. You also talk about the other coaches at Valdosta, especially Joe Wilson, who later became Lowndes head coach and led the Vikings to a 1980 state title, and Jack Rudolph, Valdostas longtime defensive mastermind [and father of Georgia Tech and NFL player Coleman Rudolph]. Lowndes led 3-0 after the third quarter, and although Valdosta would score twice in the fourth quarter to win 14-3, it was obvious that things were indeed about to change. After the game, Joe Wilson told me, Baker, as John Bond was running down the sideline, I came real close to sticking my foot out and tripping him, but I changed my mind.. "I had a daily planner that my dad gave me when I was at Georgia," Belue said. It came a year after the Vikings had won their first state championship in football, which gave the event a whole new perspective. Its great that the Lord Wedgwood Charity offered to give one to a school in my name. She finally came in and dumped it on his lap. Dooley stayed, Georgia went on complete the last perfect season in school history, and Belue and his coach are just fine. I host The Buck Belue Show on 680 The Fan Atlanta, weekdays 10-11. $1 Million - $5 Million. Belue also details in the book how he. Sandra Belue's son and his roommate, Scott, had just carved out a piece of immortality. Belue was kidded about Valdosta falling to Clarke Central in the 1977 Class 4A state finals. Despite having played each other since 1968, the Lowndes vs. Valdosta game didnt become the Winnersville Classic until 1981. Valdosta High School - Sandspur Yearbook (Valdosta, GA), Class of 1978, Page 57 of 272 | E-Yearbook.com has the largest online yearbook collection of college, university, high school, middle school, junior high school, military, naval cruise books and yearbooks. Lowndes High School opened its doors to students in 1966, and by 1968 was able to field a football team. Schools . We were in position to win the national championship and he is about to jump to our rival? Rogers was among three Georgians named to the 1976 Coach & Athlete All-America team. 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The Plowboys name would serve as a rally point of sorts for Lowndes, establishing and embracing their underdog status, especially against the football WIldcats. George Rogers, the 1980 Heisman Trophy winner while at South Carolina, was the AJCs Class A Back of the Year in 1976 and Class B Back of the Year in 1975. Mark Lemke joins me. In Buck's first year as quarterback the Valdosta Wildcats were 3-7. And a Plains teen girl borrowed Jimmy Carters clothes. Find out more. You do well at Valdosta High, and you get a shot to play some college ball. Height: 6'1" Weight: 190 College: Georgia High School: Valdosta (GA) USFL Career: 1984-1985 More: Buck Belue complete pro stats Buck Belue played from 1984 to 1985 during his career with the Jacksonville Bulls. Scott. It was good learning from their experiences. When Wilson arrived, he saw that many among the Lowndes faithful were not too crazy about the references to the Vikings being known as the country school. We just live a couple miles down the road, and we just found a place where we love the people. It was so much fun going being part of that atmosphere. [Belue said the second motivation for writing the book was bragging on teammates and players at Georgia and Valdosta that didnt get the credit they deserved. Buck Belue Buck Blanton Calvin Waters Caroline Everitte Cassandra Morris Catherine (Cathy) Pearlman Chad Wilson Charles Fluit . He and his wife had an apartment next to the school, and I would go over to watch film with him. Owen Prince, Lowndes County Schools director of information and athletic business, and a graduate of Lowndes High School, recalled what led to Wilsons unhappiness at Valdosta. VALDOSTA - Former Georgia Bulldogs quarterback, Buck Belue, will be doing a book signing at Salty Snapper on Friday, June 17. Belue said he flirted with shopping his book to outside publishers, but opted instead to publish it himself. "We just love it. Lowndes came back with, My heroes have always been plowboys.. The longtime Lowndes coach was quick to offer his memory of the best performance he saw in the Classic. Holcomb oversees the Wildcat Football Museum and sits on the Board of Directors for the Valdosta Touchdown Club. I dont blame the players for feeling that way, said Dooley, who will turn 90 in September. You need to watch him tonight, and he put on one of the most memorable performances I can remember seeing. The native of Jessup has made his home in Valdosta since retiring from professional football and is an avid supporter of UGA athletics and a dedicated follower of local high school football. We sort of fell into it. Im glad he came here and did this for us. My thought was that they played in Albany last night and probably got in bed at 3 a.m., and hes up scouting out the talent in town. Furious, actually. SPONSORED BY: Buck Belue - 1980 National Championship QB They worked on it all week. Valdosta is a city in and the county seat of Lowndes County, Georgia, United States.As of 2019, Valdosta had an estimated population of 56,457. Billy Henderson [Clarke Centrals coach] called three straight timeouts and iced the kicker. Before he was an All-SEC running back at Auburn and played 13 NFL seasons, James Brooks led Warner Robins to a 1976 Class 3A championship and a National Sports News Service (NSNS) national title. It was just playing for the Wildcats. Georgia was loaded with talent in 1980 there were five future NFL Draft picks on the roster, plus Hall of Fame head coach Vince Dooley and legendary defensive coordinator Erk Russell. Mon - Fri: 7:30 - 4:30. The History of the Winnersville Classic: Valdosta, Lowndes and a Community-Wide Celebration, 4 Questions With Northside Warner Robins Football Coach Chad Alligood, One-Point Wins Highlight Exciting Georgia Boys Basketball Playoffs, 4 Questions with McEachern Football Coach Kareem Reid, McCullough Triplets Ready for Next Chapter in Wrestling Careers, Baltimore Ravens WR Rashod Bateman Honored by Hometown Tifton, Trinity Catholic Celtics Find Success with Former Gators QB John Brantley, Showcase Football Events Attract High-Profile Programs, Rewind: Top 10 Florida High School Football Prospects Since 2000. Heads up to Atlanta area high school quarterbacks and receivers: I'll be hosting my annual QB Passing Camp this July, again. Three, Ill win a state championship, which youve never won. Joe Wilson accomplished all three within three years.. Buck Belue is a 1978 graduate of Valdosta High School in Valdosta, GA. Sign up on Classmates for free to reconnect with Buck Belue and other high school alumni. A lot of my motivation was to brag on some players and coaches at Valdosta and at Georgia that never got the credit they deserved.. That was just heart-breaking. Old Friends . Those who were part of the game shared the plays and players they remember the most. Georgia legend Buck Belue helped lead the Bulldogs to the 1980 national championship and has published a book called " 'Inside the Hedges: The Quarterback's Journey to the 1980 National Championship." Oscar universe belongs to 'Everything Everywhere'. So the Viking flag flew high and proud over the Valdosta stadium property, for at least a little while.. He has ordered it, however. ET to 11:00 a.m. UGA star Jalen Carter present at scene of fatal crash, From 2021: Buck Belue, QB of 1980 Georgia national champions, to call the Dawgs before kickoff, Georgia Tech hammers Syracuse as Jackets late-season surge continues, Braves notes: Jared Shusters first spring game, Michael Sorokas progress, Ian Anderson on spring debut: Im not gonna sugarcoat it. Buck Belue Social Network Timeline 2007 He is also the only quarterback to start all four years for the Valdosta Wildcats where he was inducted as a member of the Valdosta High School Hall of Fame in 2007. In the 1977 game, there were no fights, but there was a bounty placed on Buck Belue not to hurt the Valdosta QB great, but to take a piece of his number 8 jersey off his back and to the Lowndes sideline. That passage appears in Chapter 18 -- titled The Dooley Drama -- of the 199-page book. Brooks rushed for 1,816 yards as a senior, 1,852 yards as a junior and 1,088 as a sophomore. He sort of chuckled and said there was a lot of built-up frustration over those years of losing to Valdosta, Dont take it personally is what I believe he said., 5. John Lastinger remembers that game and the play. I would soak up all this knowledge. He was the 1974 AJC Class 3A Back of the Year and was a 1974 Coach & Athlete All-American. How would you contrast and compare those iconic coaches? Because official statistics are not required or maintained by any state organization, the records that we display here come from individual schools and from media reports, primarily newspapers. That would be the last time we tried anything like that, said Prince. Ron Simmons was a monumental piece of Warner Robins state and National Sports News Service (NSNS) national championship team that went 13-0 and was considered by some the most dominant Georgia team in history. Joe had been passed over for the head coaching job at Valdosta twice, Prince said. Ben Belue, 71, of Valdosta was a devoted family man and lifetime sales executive, born in Anniston, Ala. on Nov. 28, 1940 and raised in Macon, Ga. where he attended Lanier High School. If you are a Valdosta alumn, we encourage you to register and be sure to sign up for the alumni newsletter. This University of Georgiarelated article is a stub. . We just rolled with it and said the timing is the timing. Brooks finished with 7,962 rushing yards and 3,621 receiving yards in his NFL career and was named to the Bengals 40th Anniversary team in 2007. This isn't conjecture, it's really fact. Former UGA quarterback Buck Belue authors book on 1980 championship season, Online archive of print stories 2006-present, Pick em 2022 Forsyth Sports football picks, Football: Forsyth County News Media Day-watch the videos. valdosta high school Fields Victoria Lane-Long Victor James Vivian Manghram Voncil Moss I knew coverage, I knew techniques, things that it seemed like these other quarterbacks didnt understand at the time. The Valdosta High class of '78 alumni are listed below. Its important to me to come back and pass that knowledge along. It was pretty good, Johnson said. Belue also presented a defibrillator to the school Friday. I just think of all the people that helped me get there, as I mentioned, Coach Bazemore, Coach Hyder, Coach Wilson, Coach Rudolph. I really appreciate him letting me come out here and do this, because a lot of coaches wouldnt.. Feb. 25, 2021 -. Jan 26. He also added 1,487 rushing yards and . You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. They were very different. Who are some of the great players you saw from your era or before? Tired of losing to their city school rival, and tired of just losing in general over the first decade of the teams existence, Lowndes County school superintendent Sonny Martin decided to reach out to one of the enemy, longtime Valdosta assistant coach Joe Wilson. Salary in 2020. He had everybody running the same offense so that by time you got to middle school and high school, you didnt have to learn any of it. They were up 40-0 with 30 seconds left and still giving the ball to William Andrews. Belue was a star quarterback at Valdosta High School. Joe Wilson had accomplished two of his three goals. He had everybody running the same offense so that by time you got to middle school and high school, you didnt have to learn any of it. He was the quarterback, and he went to Ole Miss. 1 recruit in the country. Valdosta High School Graduate. GHSF Daily recently named him the best player in Thomasville High history, and the AJC in 2007 ranked him the No. Coach Jerry Don Baker confirmed the rumor. [Rome, a 6-foot-4 tight end, set a national record for receiving yards in a season. Belue said he and most of his Georgia teammates understood after hearing Dooleys explanation about his deep relationships at Auburn. Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and connected. They hauled the ship over from Lowndes to Valdosta High in the middle of the night and put it in the pond in front of the school. One of the key plays in the 1980 season was a 93-yard touchdown pass from Belue to wide receiver Lindsay Scott[1] Bazemore watched you play in youth ball and suggested to the coaches that they move you to quarterback. It turned out it was a bad snap from the center and threw off the timing. Belue will host a book signing for his new book "Inside the Hedges". 115 N. 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