Who's going in the Macon Sports Hall of Fame in two weeks?
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
Multi-sport standouts as well as stalwarts in baseball and basketball as well as contributors with a solid athletics background from three Bibb County private and one public school and one from a neighbor to the west make up the latest class of the Macon Sports Hall of Fame.
They’ll go in on Tuesday, May 7 at the Macon Coliseum. For tickets, contact executive director Theron Ussery at 478-747-8544 or Theron.Ussery@hotmail.com.
Making up the latest class: Jay Cranford, Jim Gaudet, Chuck Hawkins, Kyle Johnston, DeAndre Smelter, Michael Taylor, Corey Williams, and Tawanya Mucker Wilson. They represent Stratford, Tattnall, Mount de Sales, Northeast, as well as Crawford County.
Cranford graduated in1989 from Stratford, where he was a three-time all-state baseball and one-time football player. He helped the Eagles to four GISA state titles, batted .383 for his career and went 35-3 over three years as a pitcher. His 13 homers in 1988 are third on the school’s all-time list, and he threw four no-hitters.
He played two years at Middle Georgia Junior College and was part of a national runner-up team, and batted .320 with 12 homers in one year at Georgia. He was drafted in the 21st round by Pittsburgh and spent five years in the Pirates organization, batting .256.
New Orleans native Gaudet was a third-round pick by Atlanta in 1973, but picked college ball at Tulane and batted .312. Kansas City then drafted him in the sixth round, and he played 450 minor-league games in six years before reaching the majors in 1978 and 1979, getting his first hit off of Goose Gossage.
An injury shortened his career, and he graduated from chiropractic school, eventually moving to Macon. From 1987-2011, he held a baseball camp every summer at Luther Williams Field, for free the final 24 years, allowing more than 13,000 children to attend.
Hawkins graduated from Crawford County in 1970, Georgia in 1973, the Medical College of Georgia in 1977, and began a long career as a cardiologist in 1982. He grew up in sports as the son of legendary high school basketball coach J.B. Hawkins at Crawford County. He was part of the Eagles’ 1969 state championship team, and the two-sporter entered the Crawford County High hall of fame.
Part of the group that founded an area Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter, the basketball supporter longtime Macon cardiologist became a Mercer hoops booster, and as such Hawkins Arena was named after him and the family.
Johnston had to wait a year to share Macon Hall of Fame bragging rights with his wife Christy Cantrell Johnston, who was inducted last year. Kyle was a three-sport standout at Stratford who is in the record books in multiple categories in all three sports.
He earned five all-state honors in basketball and baseball, and is the school’s only four-time MVP or co-MVP for baseball (1999-2002), winning the Dr. Paul Jones Best Senior Athlete award in 2002. He went on to play baseball at Mercer.
Smelter is on the short list of candidates for best athlete in Tattnall history, performing on a college-scholarship level in football, basketball, and baseball. He was picked in two pro drafts, baseball and football, and earned eight All-State honors in the three sports.
A two-time high school All-American, he went to Georgia Tech to play baseball, but injuries steered him to football, and he caught 56 passes and 12 touchdowns in two seasons, leading to stints in the NFL with San Francisco, Indianapolis, and Jacksonville.
Taylor earned nine letters at Mount de Sales, in basketball, football, and track. He accounted for 3,394 all-purpose yards, and is second on the school’s rushing list with 2,605 yards, en route to All-Region and All-City honors, as well as the back of the year in 1984 for the Macon Touchdown.
Track was his forte, and he led the Cavs to a 1985 state title with his efforts in the 100, 200, and relay teams. He got a track scholarship at Georgia Tech, competing in sprints and relays. He made the All-ACC track team as a senior.
Williams was a standout basketball player at Northeast, going on to play at Oklahoma State where he scored 1,320 points. Picked in the second round of the 1992 NBA Draft by Chicago, he was a reserve on the Bulls’ championship team his first year. He was also picked by Kansas City in the 12th round of the NFL Draft in 1992. He spent a season with Minnesota in the NBA, and then with Oklahoma City in the CBA.
He has coached at Oklahoma State, Florida State, Arkansas, Texas Tech and Auburn, and was head coach at Stetson.
Wilson was a standout under Hall of Famer Alvin Copeland at Northeast in the early 1980s, averaging 24 points and 13 rebounds as a senior in 1985 on a state championship team, the Raiders second during her three varsity years.
She went on to play collegiately at Middle Tennessee State. There, she was an impact player in the paint, leading the team in rebounds and blocks for three years and scoring twice. By the time her college career ended in 1989, she had the school record for consecutive games scoring in double figures, 60, en route to 92.
MTSU won four regular-season Ohio Valley Conference titles and two tournament championships, leading to her induction into the Blue Raiders’ Hall of Fame in 2012.
In 2020, she was named principal at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School in Macon.
LeeRoy Irby and Roz Howard Sr. are the first members of the Hall’s new Legend category.
Irby was a baseball standout at Lanier who played at Mercer and then spent five years in the minor leagues, batting .281. During that career, he was traded for Roger Maris.
Howard was an auto racing driver who started driving after serving in World War II in the 1940s in Central Georgia before expanding. He ran his first NASCAR race in 1956, and left the sport in 1960, and was inducted into the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame in 2004, dying nine years later on his 91st birthday.