Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame announces 2026 class

Chuck Smith and Terance Mathis, key figures on the Falcons’ 1998 NFC Championship team, which lost to the Denver Broncos in the Super Bowl, will be reunited in the Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame this fall. Smith and Mathis were among the top vote-getters in the 2026 class of 33 announced Wednesday.

Smith played his NFL position, defensive end, at Clarke Central in the 1980s, but Mathis, who retired as the Falcons’ all-time leading receiver, played quarterback, tailback, cornerback and special teams at Redan before becoming an All-America wide receiver at New Mexico.

Terance Mathis played several positions at Redan in the 1980s, including quarterback. (AJC file)

Other more widely known inductees include Drew Hill of Newnan and Georgia Tech and Mo Lewis of Murphy and Georgia. Each spent more than 10 years in the NFL and played in multiple Pro Bowls.

Current Georgia offensive analyst Stacy Searels was an all-state lineman and wrestler at Trion and first-team All-American at Auburn.

Joey Browner, who died in March, was a one-year phenom at Southwest Atlanta in 1978, having moved from Ohio. He was a four-time Pro Bowl defensive back with the Vikings.

A lesser-known but historically significant inductee will be John Henry Jackson, believed to be the first Black player from Georgia to play in a traditionally white major conference. A quarterback, Jackson led Spencer of Columbus to a Georgia Interscholastic Association title, then joined Indiana of the Big Ten and was the Hoosiers’ leading passer as a sophomore in 1959.

The oldest living player to be inducted will be Southwest DeKalb’s Harold Olson, a two-time first-team all-state lineman who made All-ACC at Clemson and played five AFL seasons. Olson, inducted into the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame last year, is 88.

Running backs dominated the class, with 12 to be inducted. They include Washington-Wilkes’ Daccus Turman, whose 3,172 yards rushing in 2000 remains the single-season state record; Waycross’ Doyle Orange, the state’s first 2,000-yard rusher in the integrated era; and Commerce’s Runt Moon, whose 2,501 yards rushing in 1973 set a state record.

The great runners go back to the 1940s, when future Georgia Tech players Jack Peek and Bobby North were part of great teams at Atlanta’s Tech High, to the 1990s, when Patrick Pass of Tucker and Jasper Sanks of Carver in Columbus were Parade All-Americans, AJC Super 11 picks and prize Georgia signees.

Former Georgia and NFL player Patrick Pass is among 12 running backs in the Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame's 2026 class of 33 players. As a high school player at Tucker, Pass rushed for a DeKalb County-record 5,004 yards and scored 50 touchdowns in his career. He was an AJC Super 11 and the Gatorade Georgia Player of the Year in 1995. (Jack Spink/AJC file)

Milton Byard, a GIA legend from Risley High in Brunswick, made the cut. He reportedly scored 50 touchdowns in 1950.

Putnam County’s Brent Cunningham compiled more than 3,000 all-purpose yards and scored 35 touchdowns in just 12 games in 1967, when he led Putnam County to the Class C championship.

Stump Mitchell rushed for more than 1,600 yards in 10 games as a 1976 Camden County senior, then became an All-American at The Citadel and a 1,000-yard NFL rusher.

Ricky Williams of Griffin in 1978 and David McCluskey of West Rome in 1982 were feature backs for state-championship teams.

West Rome’s 1982-85 teams, the first in GHSA history to win four straight championships, will be honored as a team.

The induction will be Oct. 24 at 5 p.m. at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta. This is the fifth Hall of Fame class and will bring the number of inductees to 181. The latest class was chosen by a vote of 50 board members. Score Atlanta administers the Hall of Fame.