Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame makes inaugural inductions Saturday

Forty-five former Georgia high school football stars – from Pro Football Hall of Famers to Heisman Trophy winners to high school legends of their time – will be inducted into the new Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame on Saturday in Atlanta.

It has been eight months in the making, or since Hall of Fame founder and chairman I.J. Rosenberg announced the vision in February.

“It has been a whirlwind,’’ said Rosenberg, who expects more than 800 attendees. “It’s going to be a gathering of the very best who have played in Georgia.’’

The event, staged at the College Football Hall of Fame downtown, will begin with a VIP reception and buffet at 5 p.m. The induction starts at 7 p.m. with a walk down a red carpet for the 45 inductees or their representatives. Each inductee will be given a Hall of Fame jacket, medal and plaque.

Bill Hartman and Matt Stewart will be the masters of ceremony. They are Hall of Fame board members and long-time local sportscasters who’ve covered high school football for decades.

About two-thirds of the 35 living Hall of Famer members are expected to be there, Rosenberg said.

The most famous is Herschel Walker, the Heisman Trophy winner from Georgia who in 1979 set the state’s high school single-season and career rushing records while winning a Class A championship at Johnson County. Of course, Walker is more newsworthy today as a U.S. Senate candidate.

Walker will be joined by fellow Heisman Trophy winner Charlie Ward, who starred at Central High in Thomasville in the 1980s and then Florida State.

Pro Football Hall of Fame members Champ Bailey of Charlton County, Calvin Johnson of Sandy Creek and Richard Dent of old Murphy High in Atlanta are planning to be there.

The list of attendees includes the state’s all-time rushing leader, Monte Williams, who ran for 8,844 yards at Class A Commerce from 1997 to 2000.

The state’s all-time leading receiver also will be there, but not as originally planned. Valdosta legend Stan Rome is coming, but his revered 49-yard-old standard of 4,477 yards was broken last week by Jaden Gibson, a Rabun County senior. Now, Gibson is driving down Saturday just to meet the fabled receiver. That Rome’s record survived this long against today’s prolific passing offenses helps explain why Rome trailed only Walker in the Hall of Fame vote count.

The youngest inductee will be Eric Berry, who is 33. The former Kansas City Chief was an all-state quarterback at Fulton County’s Creekside High in 2006. The oldest will be Bill Curry, the former Georgia Tech and Georgia State coach who turned 80 on Friday. Curry was the Class C Lineman of the Year in 1959 while at College Park before going on to a long NFL career with the Packers and Colts.

The 45 inductees represent 16 schools that no longer exist but will be rekindled, old names such as East Rome, where Larry Kinnebrew’s ‘Wrecking Crew” almost never allowed a point in 1977, or Athens High, where Andy Johnson and Fran Tarkenton won prep state titles and remained hometown heroes at the University of Georgia.

Old Avondale teammates Charlie Dudish and Chip Kell from the 1960s will be reunited Saturday as will Warner Robins’ famous 1976 pair of James Brooks and Ron Simmons.

Six inductees played in the Georgia Interscholastic Association, which ran sports for Black schools during segregation. They are Rayfield Wright, Mel Blount, Jim Parker, Otis Sistrunk, Clarence Scott and Emerson Boozer.

About 10 living Hall of Fame inductees won’t attend. TV assignments will keep away sportscasters David Pollack, Takeo Spikes and Jeff Francoeur, but “College GameDay’' is expected to recognize Pollack’s accomplishment on Saturday morning’s show from Oregon while “SEC Nation’' on the SEC Network does the same for Spikes on Friday night.

Tracy Rocker and Hines Ward are active coaches whose work will take them away. About five can’t attend because of health issues, Rosenberg said.

Ten of the 45 are deceased, but all be represented. Passing away just this year were Stan Gann, Atlanta’s most famous prep quarterback of the 1950s while at Northside High, and Rayfield Wright, the former Dallas Cowboy who played at Griffin’s Fairmont High in the 1960s.

Fans can watch Saturday’s induction on Atlanta First News, formerly CBS46, or the GPB app or the National Federation High School (NFHS) Network. Peachtree TV will do a one-hour special on the event Nov. 6.

45 inaugural inductees:

William Andrews, Thomasville

Champ Bailey, Charlton Co.

Buck Belue, Valdosta

Eric Berry, Creekside

Mel Blount, Lyons Industrial

Emerson Boozer, Laney

James Brooks, Warner Robins

Clint Castleberry, Boys

Bill Curry, College Park

Richard Dent, Murphy

Charlie Dudish, Avondale