Today’s interviewee is Bill Hartman, who provides live coverage of Fox 5 Atlanta’s Friday night football games of the week. Hartman began his TV career at the same station in 1970 as a 21-year-old sports anchor. He retired from full-time broadcasting in 2008. He has covered Super Bowls, World Series and Olympic Games. In 2012, he was inducted into the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame.
Bill Hartman, Fox 5 sports broadcaster
1. Your career has come full circle in a sense. How did you get started in sports, and how is that tied to high school football? “I went to Athens High School in the 1960s. I was a decent left-handed quarterback on the JV team, but a guy named Paul Gilbert was in front of me. Paul was the Trevor Lawrence of high school quarterbacks in those days. There was no way I was going to be the quarterback at Athens High, so the Athens Banner-Herald called me and said how about writing about Athens football in the fall of ‘65. We knew we were going to the state championship game. [Gilbert, the Class 3A back of the year in 1965, led Athens to the Class 3A final, where the Trojans met up with Valdosta and suffered their only defeat, 14-13, on a missed extra point.] That was my first paid writing job, the fall of my senior year. That led to the Atlanta Constitution hiring me when I was a freshman at Georgia in the fall of ‘66, and that led to me getting a job at WDOL in Athens, and that led to WRFC hiring me. So what I’m saying is, it’s all because Paul Gilbert was better than I was.”
2. For those who don’t know, what are you doing now? “I retired in 2008 after 35 years. My friend Chip Zeller, the executive sports producer at Fox 5, wanted to do a bigger deal on the high school football game of the week, so in 2009, I started hosting that, meaning I’ll be on the air between 5 and 7 on Fox 5 three times live with coaches, the cheerleaders, the band and things like that. I stay for the game and do a big deal on our 11 o’clock highlight show. We present a trophy to the game winner and I talk to the winning coach and the player of the game, and everybody screams and cheers. This is our 13th year.”
3. You’ve covered everything over the years, to say the least, but what draws you to high school football? “A couple of things that I really love. One, in high school football, when I’m on the field with the cameraman, and when this 16-year-old catches a touchdown pass, and he grins from ear to ear, that might be the most important thing he does athletically in his life. For the great ones, they may do it many more times, but for most of these kids, they’ll still remember that moment when they’re my age, which is 73, and the rest of their lives. It’s so pure. And then when you look in the stands and see a mama and a daddy, and their kid scores a 20-yard touchdown, that’s huge. You don’t get that same feeling in college football or the NFL.
“The second thing is, unlike the NFL and college football, or major league baseball or the NBA, these coaches are very agreeable to do things on TV up until the last minute. When I step on the field for that first interview at 6, I’m literally in the middle of their warmups and I’m grabbing Rabun County coach Jaybo Shaw, saying, ‘Tell me about No. 14, Gunner Stockton.’ We were at the Langston Hughes-Westlake game a couple of weeks ago, and Daniel Williams is the Hughes coach. He’s an affable, gregarious guy. That game started at 6 o’clock, and we were live on the sideline. I said, ‘Coach, when they come to me, I’m coming to you.’ So there’s a play going on, and I’m talking to Coach Williams, and it’s live television in the middle of the game. It’s fun stuff.”
4. Who are some of the most memorable high school football players or coaches you’ve met or covered over the years, and is there an especially memorable game you remember? “Billy Henderson at Clarke Central is one. He built them into a powerhouse and was the nicest guy in the world. My daddy coached Billy at Georgia. He was the backfield coach. Billy would always welcome me and give me access you don’t usually have. Then I go back to Buck Godfrey at Southwest DeKalb. He didn’t want to be distracted from what he was doing on the sideline, but he was always so gracious and fun after the game. He had great teams with Quincy Carter and Steve Davenport. There are so many others – Bruce Miller at Gainesville, Lee Shaw at Flowery Branch and Rabun County, and Hal Lamb at Calhoun. What’s fun about Hal is that he became so successful that Ray Lamb [who won state titles at Commerce and Warren County] became known as Hal’s father. It used to be that Hal was known as Ray’s son.
“As far as players, I can remember Quincy Carter running like a knife through butter through defenses. He was a great passer, but he had that knack of turning his hips just the right way, and people couldn’t tackle him. Deshaun Watson at Gainesville was so accurate as a passer, I thought. Those are two. I had the pleasure of watching Trevor Lawrence as a sophomore and went to his games as a junior and senior. Same with Brock Vandagriff.
“Maybe the greatest performance I ever saw was in 1969, Athens vs. Valdosta, and Andy Johnson taking control of that game. They tied that night for the state championship. I did the radio broadcast of that game my senior year at Georgia. Andy is the best that’s ever come out of Athens. It’s hard to say somebody was a lot better than Fran Tarkenton [as a high school player], but Andy was.”
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