ATHENS — The Georgia Bulldogs have lost another darn good Dawg.
Former Georgia place-kicker Kanon Parkman, who was known for kicking one of the greatest – if not the ugliest – game-winning field goals in school history, died Monday. He was 48.
His son Blake Parkman, a freshman on the Bulldogs’ golf team, confirmed the sad news via social media Tuesday.
After signing with Georgia from Stone Mountain High School, Parkman scored 255 career points while kicking for the Bulldogs from 1991 to ‘95. He had to be medically redshirted in 1992.
Parkman made 52 of 76 career field-goal attempts (.684), but he’s best known for the low, knuckling 34-yarder with 47 seconds to play that defeated Georgia Tech 18-17 in 1995 in Atlanta.
“Needless to say, I hit it fat and about an inch too high,” Parkman said afterward. “It had plenty of leg to get through, but it was ugly.”
Parkman also kicked a 34-yard game-winner to beat the Yellow Jackets 18-15 in 1991.
“Against Tennessee I was 0-5 and against Florida I was 0-5, but at least we were 5-for-5 on Tech,” Parkman said in an interview with the Athens Banner-Herald a few years ago.
“Needless to say, I hit it fat and about an inch too high. It had plenty of leg to get through, but it was ugly."
Parkman was considered one of the top kickers in the country when he signed with the Bulldogs in 1991. He worked in corporate sales in Atlanta since graduating from UGA with a sports management degree. He was residing in Cumming at the time of his death.
“We came in together, essentially,” said former quarterback Eric Zeier, who is Georgia’s color commentator for radio broadcasts. “He was a great kicker, a great teammate and a great friend. We became close while we were in school because we both had a love for golf and used to go play nine holes on Fridays before games and in the offseason, of course. He could flat-out play some golf. But just a great friend and a great man.”
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