The Macon Telegraph from Macon, Georgia • C3

Sunday, March 1, 2009 3CThe Telegraph Here are some highlights from induction ceremony of the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame at the Macon City Auditorium. like to thank the city of Macon. I was walking in here, in the Auditorium, and I saw some old faces. You guys have always embraced me and showed me support, and I hope that represented you guys on and off the basketball Former Southwest star and Mississippi State and NBA standout Jeff Malone has gone on to be with the Lord. She was our glue, our rock in the Malone family.

I really miss her and I love her so much and I definitely want to dedicate this award to my Malone on the influence of his mother love and appreciation to Mr. Stan Lomax and others, for their persistence in assisting the Georgia High School Association and getting the hidden records of the accomplishments of the GIA (Georgia Interscholastic Association) athletes from their basement and brought them to the light. these efforts, we would not (have) this great honor being presented to a loved father, cousin, grandfather, great-grandfather, uncle and Angela Byard-Rucker, accepting for her father, standout basketball player Milton Byard, who died in 2005. Andy (Landers) commented, and accurately so, players who have accomplished a tremendous amount. Coaches get up and because we had the opportunity to stand in front of you tonight is for one reason: we had the fortune to win basketball games.

But you win basketball games because blessed with good players, blessed with people who have passion, who as Shannon (Sharpe) said, you dream, you believe, and then you accomplish Ex-Georgia head basketball coach Hugh Durham those clips is quite humbling. I was part of something much larger than myself, and I feel fortunate to be able to have the opportunity to come over to the state of Georgia, which is now more of a home to me than Texas was. Former UGA football standout Terry Hoage, part of the 1980 national championship team. asked (head coach Vince Dooley) one time why exactly he had offered me a scholarship when I get one anyplace else. had no idea you could play football.

I wanted somebody who could go to class and Hoage, who was virtually unrecruited in high school in Huntsville, Texas. like the others, am very humbled, when you go through the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame and see the ones that are already there, and then are able to visit with the ones going in (Saturday), it can be very Longtime Georgia basketball coach Andy Landers (Vince) Dooley looked at (assistant athletics director) Liz Murphey as they were going over the resumes and said, this Andy Landers, she looks like a good I think Liz told him until the day of the interview that she a she, she was a All that worked out very, very Landers on how he was hired back in the late 1970s. wish you all could have seen his face when we told him that he was being inducted into the Georgia state hall of fame. He was born in Georgia, he was raised in Georgia, and this truly is a very, very special honor to Son Terry Lane, accepting for retired boxing referee Mills Lane, whose health prevented him from attending. someone had told me that a skinny kid from Glennville, would catch a ride to Savannah State with two brown paper bags as luggage, play 14 years in the National Football League, be an all-pro, a Pro Bowl player, win Super Bowls, go into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame, the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame, be in the final 10 for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, I have believed Shannon Sharpe, who went from Savannah State College to an NFL career that is likely to land him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in the next year or two.

was an even greater person than he was athlete. He was a great athlete, but I know a single person that like Roman Turmon. A great athlete, a team player, not an individualist, a athlete (who) wanted to learn and develop his skills the best way he could. the times that Roman played, there was just a few people that really had an opportunity to see the talents that we had because of the barriers of segregation. (Saturday), we have an opportunity to see what has been done in the past and to give notice to these exemplary players that came before us an opportunity to be seen by persons that had never heard of them or seen them.

Roman Turmon was one of those athletes. Gilbert Turmon, speaking for cousin Roman Turmon, who died in 2001. Michael A. Lough, Telegraph Staff What they said GEORGIA SPORTS HALL OF FAME has gone on to be with the he said. was our glue, our rock in the Ma- lone family.

I really miss her and I love her so much and I definitely want to dedicate this award to my A dinner crowd of approximately 650 plus a few dozen in the Macon City Audi- balcony watched the in- duction of a class that included three Georgia Bulldogs, two products of the Brunswick area, a future Pro Football Hall of Famer, a Southwest Patriot, most fa- mous referee and a former Harlem Globe- trotter. Longtime sports broadcaster Bob Neal was the master of ceremonies. New members Ro- man Turmon and Milton Byard are de- ceased, and retired boxing referee Mills Lane suffered a stroke in 2002 and was unable to travel from his home in Arizona. University of Georgia products Terry Hoage and Hugh Durham traded jabs, Hoage saying he was happy to speak before Dur- ham, because little time would be left after Durham. Georgia head basketball coach Andy Landers noted, and Durham concurred later about his own career, that he was mere- ly part of a team that won so many games, more than 800 in case.

Landers not- ed that two former UGA stars were on hand, Teresa Edwards and Lou Sims-Holmes, part of his first recruiting class. Shannon Sharpe, who now talks for a liv- ing covering the NFL on CBS, eloquently thanked everybody from a coach who drove a bus back and forth from Savannah to Glen- nville delivering players to events and then driving back home to Savannah, to a Spanish teacher to friends and family. He raved about having a best-friend sis- ter who knows more about him than his brother Sterling or mother or friends holding her to and of the gam- ble made by his first NFL head coach Dan Reeves who moved him to tight end to his grandmother. Mary Porter was undergoing surgery for a blood clot recently when she suffered a heart attack. Sharpe said she was recovering, and he dedicated his induction to her.

remember my grandmother telling me and my brother something when we were little said Sharpe, who used the night to put the spotlight on those who helped him become an elite NFL player. grandmother want a whole lot. I remember my grandmother saying, my life ends on this earth, I want to live in a decent To her, that simply meant a house that kept her dry when it rained as she slept. remember as small child, in the middle of the night, putting rain coats on beds so my brother, my grandmother and I get wet. I remember putting pots and pans in the middle of the floor so the floor get soaked.

I remember that. That drove Sharpe earned a reputation for determina- tion, and he was often asked about his inspi- ration. want to eat cold he said, I want my grandmother to ever be wet again. I stand here before you. I know not here, I wish you were, to see the man that you raised in me and my brother.

It means the world to me that my grand- Class of 2009 Milton Byard Sr. Hugh Durham Terry Hoage Andy Landers Mills Lane Jeff Malone George Rose Shannon Sharpe Roman Turmon HALL Continued from 1C GRANT TeLeGRAPH The Macon City Auditorium was decked out Saturday for the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony. GRANT TeLeGRAPH From right, Gilbert Turmon, Shannon Sharpe, George Rose and Jeff Malone watch as former Georgia basketball star and Olympian Theresa Edwards tells Sharpe, a former standout tight end in the NFL, your on her way out to the floor of the Macon City Auditorium at the start of the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Saturday. Sharpe, Malone and Rose were among the 2009 inductees. Turmon was representing deceased 2009 inductee Roman Turmon.

has gone on to be with the Lord. She was our glue, our rock in the Malone family. I really miss her and I love her so much and I definitely want to dedicate this award to my Jeff Malone.