33 new members to be inducted into Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame this weekend

The Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame will induct its 2025 class of 33 players on Saturday night at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta. Here are few tidbits about the class, the hall of fame's fourth.

*The most famous inductee, at least in Georgia, is Kirby Smart, the Georgia football coach. Playing in 1993 for his dad, Sonny Smart, Kirby was the best player on a Bainbridge team that reached the Class 4A (highest class) semifinals and won Region 1 in that region's glory days. Bainbridge beat Valdosta, Colquitt County and Lowndes, teams that won state titles that decade. Smart had eight interceptions in his senior and junior seasons. Smart twice made All-SEC at Georgia as a safety and made NFL training camps before moving on to coaching in 1999.

*Or is Cam Newton the most famous? He’s a former Heisman Trophy winner and NFL MVP. Newton’s induction will give the Hall of Fame four Heisman winners. The others are Herschel Walker (Johnson County), Charlie Ward (Thomas County Central) and George Rogers (Duluth). Newton wasn't an original inductee because the Hall of Fame requires that players be retired from football before making the ballot. Newton is still not technically retired, but his final NFL game was in 2021. Playing quarterback for Westlake, Newton was a GACA all-state player in 2005 and 2006. He was the 2010 Heisman winner at Auburn and the 2015 NFL MVP with the Carolina Panthers.

*Then there’s Walt Frazier. From a national and historical standpoint, he’s the most famous. Frazier, 80, is a two-time NBA champion and a member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and the NBA's 75-player 75th Anniversary Team selected in 2021. In 1963, Frazier was the best Black quarterback in Atlanta, playing for Howard High, now a middle school. Frazier’s Howard teams were 8-1 and 7-2-1 in his junior and senior seasons. The Atlanta World newspaper reported Frazier planned to sign to play football at Indiana, but Frazier later said he chose basketball because he saw no Black quarterbacks in the NFL or AFL. Frazier still does TV broadcasts for the New York Knicks. He is unable to attend Saturday night but is sending a taped message.

*As a 2025 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee in Canton, Ohio, Sterling Sharpe is an automatic inductee into this year’s Hall of Fame. Sharpe played quarterback and most every other position at Glennville High in the 1980s, then starred at South Carolina and with the Green Bay Packers. Sharpe joins brother Shannon Sharpe in the Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame. They are among four pairs of brothers in the hall. The others are David and Tracy Rocker (Fulton), Jon and Matt Stinchcomb (Parkview) and Terrence and Robert Edwards (Washington County). Robert Edwards is a 2025 inductee.

*Dunwoody’s Harris Barton and Chamblee’s Steve Wallace were DeKalb County linemen whose senior seasons were 1981. Both were good prospects (Barton went to North Carolina, Wallace to Auburn), though still underrated as high school players. The two famously went on to become the starting tackles and Pro Bowl players during the San Francisco 49ers’ NFL dynasty of the 1980s and 1990s, each winning three Super Bowls. Their high school alma maters are playing each other Friday night in the Georgia Football Hall of Fame Game at North DeKalb Stadium, and Wallace and Barton will be there. Peachtree Sports Network is televising and will have live interviews of Wallace, Barton and several other inductees expected to attend.

*Johnny “Stumpy” Thomason was the star back on Atlanta Tech High’s 1924 team that went 8-1-1 against teams from five states (including Georgia) and outscored its six Georgia opponents 278-0. He went on to play for Georgia Tech, then seven years in the NFL. Thomason was a member of Georgia Tech’s 1928 national championship team and Rose Bowl winner. During the week of that Rose Bowl – best remembered for Roy Riegels’ infamous wrong-way run – Georgia Tech’s opponent, Cal-Berkeley, gifted Tech a bear cub. Thomason adopted the bear, housed him under the east stands at Grant Field and took him on walks around the Tech campus. Normally friendly, the bear loved Coca-Cola, but also beer, and he became known as a mean drunk. Here's video of Thomason and his bear. Also being inducted from the 1920s will be Tom Nash of Washington-Wilkes and Jack “The Ripper” Roberts of Albany, both former NFL players.

*The Hall of Fame will recognize teams for the first time, and the inaugural choices are 1971 Valdosta and 1976 Warner Robins. Valdosta’s quarterback, Stan Bounds, will be inducted this year, joining teammate Stan Rome, his favorite wide receiver, who was inducted in 2022. Also in this player class will be former Grady High and Georgia Tech lineman Jack Rudolph, who was Valdosta’s defensive coordinator that year and many others. Warner Robins featured James Brooks and Ron Simmons, who were inducted in 2022. Valdosta’s average score was 48-11. Warner Robins’ was 47-7. Both teams were National Sports News Service national champions. As a matter of trivia, the 1971 runner-up to Valdosta was T.C. Williams, made famous in the movie “Remember the Titans.”

*College football fans in the state might find many of the inductees familiar as 17 of the 33 played at Georgia or Georgia Tech. The former Bulldogs are Nash, Roberts, Edwards, Smart, Paul Gilbert, Lindsay Scott, Freddie Gilbert, Knox Culpepper, Curt McGill and Isaiah Crowell. Former Yellow Jackets are Thomason, Rudolph, Kim King, Reggie Wilkes, Coleman Rudolph, Keith Brooking and Josh Nesbitt.

2025 Class

(Senior seasons in parentheses)

E Tom Nash, Washington-Wilkes (1922); FB Johnny “Stumpy” Thomason, Tech (1924); RB Jack “The Ripper” Roberts, Albany (1927); E Jack Rudolph, Grady (1954); RB Jimmy Burson, LaGrange (1958); WR/DB Frank Pitts, Archer (1960); QB Kim King, Brown (1962); QB Walt Frazier, Howard (1962); QB Paul Gilbert, Athens (1965); WR Danny Buggs, Avondale (1970); QB Stan Bounds, Valdosta (1971); DE Reggie Wilkes, Southwest Atlanta (1973); LB Chip Banks, Laney (1977); WR Lindsay Scott, Wayne County (1977); WR Willie Gault, Griffin (1978); DL Freddie Gilbert, Griffin (1979); LB/RB Knox Culpepper, Lovett (1980); L Harris Barton, Dunwoody (1981); L Steve Wallace, Chamblee (1981); WR Sterling Sharpe, Glennville (1982); P Chris Gardocki, Redan (1987); LB/DL Coleman Rudolph, Valdosta (1988); RB Robert Toomer, Worth County (1991); RB/DB Robert Edwards, Washington County (1992); LB Keith Brooking, East Coweta (1993); DB Kirby Smart, Bainbridge (1993); L Curt McGill, Brookwood (1996); QB Fabian Walker, Americus (1998); DB Carlos Rogers, Butler (1999); QB Josh Nesbitt, Greene County (2006); QB Cam Newton, Westlake (2006); DB/RB Greg Reid, Lowndes (2008); RB Isaiah Crowell, Carver-Columbus (2010)