1960s
2023 INDUCTEES
Bruce Bennett
Valdosta High School Graduate
Bruce Bennett was the 1961 Class AAA Back of the Year and a Wigwam Wiseman and Senior Scholastic magazine All-American. As a quarterback, he led Valdosta to consecutive 12-0 finishes in 1960 and 1961, establishing the Wildcats for the first time as the state’s premier football power in the highest classification and a national power. In the 1960 championship game against favored Avondale, Bennett guided Valdosta on a 16-play, 60-yard drive and scored from the 1-yard line with 29 seconds left to break 14-14 tie in the 20-14 victory. Bennett played safety in college at Florida and made All-SEC teams as a junior and senior. He was a first-team UPI All-American in 1965. Bennett's most famous game came during the 1963 season when he intercepted three Georgia passes in Florida's 21-14 win. Bennett played seven seasons in the Canadian Football League and made six Western Conference All-Star teams with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. He won a Grey Cup in his rookie season. He is third on the Roughriders' all-time list in interceptions (35). After his playing career, Bennett coached high school football and also served on Gene McDowell’s Central Florida staff for a decade. Bennett is a member of the Valdosta High Hall of Fame, the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame and the Roughriders Plaza of Honor. Bennett passed away on Jan. 12, 2021, at age 77.
Dan Reeves
Americus High School Graduate
Dan Reeves led Americus to state championships in basketball (scored 17 points in the championship game against Winder-Barrow) and baseball (hit .400 and was a winning pitcher in the championship series, again against Winder-Barrow), but football earned him the most fame. He was a three-year football starter at Americus. As a senior quarterback, he was injured and missed four games, probably costing him all-state selection, but he played in the Georgia High School All-Star Game and was named MVP for the winning South team. Lots of schools then began recruiting him then, but he stuck with South Carolina, where he again would be a three-year starter and make All-ACC as a junior and senior and pass for more than 2,500 yards for his career. Reeves went undrafted in the NFL but played eight seasons for the Cowboys as a running back and was a Super Bowl VI champion. He later joined the Cowboys’ staff under Tom Landry and became head coach of the Denver Broncos in 1981 and led them to three Super Bowl appearances. He was an NFL head coach for the Broncos (1981-92), Giants (1993-96) and Falcons (1997-2003). Reeves is best known in Georgia for leading the Falcons to their first Super Bowl in the 1998 season. Reeves passed away Jan. 1, 2022, at age 77.
Buzy Rosenberg
Northside (Atlanta) High School Graduate
As a three-year starter at Northside of Atlanta in the late 1960s, Buzy Rosenberg played wingback and defensive back under coach Wayman Creel. As a senior against Grady, Rosenberg ran for two touchdowns, returned an interception for a touchdown, returned a punt for a touchdown and passed for a touchdown. He helped lead Northside to a 25-5 record in his years as a starter and was named honorable mention all-state as a sophomore and junior and first-team all-state as a senior. Rosenberg often was compared to an earlier Northside star, quarterback Stan Gann, a 2022 Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame Inductee. Creel, who would become the state’s all-time leader in coaching victories, called Gann his greatest quarterback but Rosenberg his best two-way starter. Rosenberg went on to play at Georgia and was Associated Press first-team All-SEC in 1970 and 1971. Rosenberg, listed as 5 feet, 7 inches and 188 pounds as a senior, was a cornerback and one of the Bulldogs’ greatest return men in history. Against Oregon State in the 1971 season opener, Rosenberg returned five punts for a still-standing school record of 202 yards with touchdowns of 74 and 66 yards. Rosenberg led the Bulldogs in punt return yards for three seasons, and his career total of 946 yards ranks fourth in school history.
PREVIOUS INDUCTEES
Charlie Dudish
Avondale High School Graduate
Charlie Dudish was the most celebrated all-around high school athlete in Georgia, if not the nation, as senior. A dual-threat quarterback before the description was coined, Dudish was 85-of-131 passing for 1,338 yards and scored or passed for 31 touchdowns and returned four punts for touchdowns in 1967, when low-scoring games were the norm. Dudish was the AJC’s Back of the Year in Class 3A, the highest classification. He also was a star baseball player, and the San Francisco Giants drafted him in the second round out of high school. Dudish chose football and signed with Georgia Tech. Though he started as a sophomore, Dudish didn’t have the college football career expected of him. Yet amazingly, the San Diego Padres drafted him two years later in the first round of a 1971 MLB supplemental draft, even though Dudish hadn’t played organized baseball since the summer after high school. Dudish played two seasons of minor league ball. In the end, he didn’t reach the college and professional stardom some predicted, but Dudish’s high school stardom would not be forgotten. Though not recognized at the time, Dudish’s 55 career TD passes, 91 rushing and passing touchdowns and 6,024 yards rushing and passing were almost certainly state records. Dudish was 29-3 as Avondale’s starting quarterback over three seasons.
Andy Johnson
Athens High School Graduate
Andy Johnson was the 1969 AJC Class 3A Back of the Year and made the Senior Scholastic All-America team after leading Athens High to a co-championship in Georgia’s highest classification. A quarterback, Johnson rushed for 1,178 yards and passed for 1,251 his senior year. In the championship game against heavily favored and defending champion Valdosta, Johnson scored on a 68-yard run on the final play of the first half and threw for a touchdown late in the game to come within two. He passed for the two-point conversion to tie the game. During his time at Georgia, he led the Bulldogs to an 11-1 finish his sophomore year and finished as one of the top five rushing quarterbacks in SEC history. The Patriots drafted Johnson in the fifth round of the 1974 NFL Draft. He played eight NFL seasons as a running back. In 2007, the AJC ranked Johnson the No. 13 Georgia high school football player of all time. Johnson passed away in his Athens hometown in 2018 at age 65.
Chip Kell
Avondale High School Graduate
Chip Kell was a dominating force for Avondale’s state-powerful teams of the mid-1960s. Kell was even more nationally renowned as a track-and-field thrower. He set a state record in the shot put with a throw of 66 feet, 7 inches, that stood for 50 years. His accomplishments at Tennessee outweigh even that. As a center in his sophomore season, he was named to the All-SEC team for the first time. In Kell’s junior and senior seasons, he was moved to guard and became the first two-time consensus All-American from a Georgia high school (1969-70). He won two straight Jacobs Trophies (best blocker in the SEC), two more All-SEC nominations and his second and third SEC shotput championships. Kell was drafted by the NFL’s San Diego Chargers but opted for the Canadian Football League, where he played for two seasons. Kell worked as an educator and coach through professional career, following the path of his father, Jug Kell, a well-known Atlanta football coach from the 1950s and ’60s. Chip Kell was an inductee to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2006 and the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.
Bill Stanfill
Cairo High School Graduate
Bill Stanfill, the Outland Trophy winner at Georgia and an All-Pro player with the Dolphins, was one of the great all-around Georgia high school athletes of the 1960s. He was the 1964 Associated Press Class 2A Lineman of the Year and also flashed his ball skills, catching a 30-yard touchdown pass in Cairo’s 7-0 victory over Dublin for a 1964 region title. In basketball, as a 6-foot-5 center, Stanfill was named MVP of the Class 2A tournament in 1965 while leading Cairo to the championship. Stanfill went on to football play at the University of Georgia, where he would win two SEC titles and the 1968 Outland Trophy as the nation’s best interior lineman. The Dolphins selected Stanfill with the No. 11 overall pick in the 1969 draft. He played eight professional seasons, all with the Dolphins, and won two Super Bowls, earned five Pro Bowl selections and one first-team All-Pro selection. He finished runner-up in AFL Defensive Rookie of the Year voting in 1969. Stanfill led the NFL in sacks in 1973 with 18.5. He was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 1984 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1998. Stanfill passed away in 2016 at age 69.