Stratford legend Grady Smith joins Georgia Athletics Director Hall of Fame as first non-GHSA inductee (with other CGA honorees)

By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

          Stratford Academy on Peake Road covers almost 110 acres.

          It’s doubtful anybody other than Grady Smith has had a fingerprint – or footprint – on every single one, and few in the school’s 56-year history have had anywhere near a similar impact.

He coached several sports, and was an aggressive athletics director who expanded offerings and developed facilities that grew to host state championships.

          The basketball gym is named after him, and other facilities could carry his name with little argument.

          So it was extraordinarily fitting that the first non-GHSA inductee to the Georgia Athletic Directors Association Hall of Fame nearly three weeks ago was the former Jones County multi-sport standout.

Smith was joined by Butch Brooks, the late legendary football coach at Washington-Wilkes and later worked at Georgia Tech, as this year’s inductees.

          Central Georgia ADs Jason Brett of Houston County, Jeff Sloan of Lamar County were named athletics directors of the year for their GHSA classifications, 5A and A/Division I. Those two, along with former Northeast AD Tangee Hardnett, were region ADs of the year.

          FPD’s Greg Moore earned a GIAA Lifetime Achievement Award. Bibb County public schools’ Kevin Groom earned a state award of merit.

          Smith’s loaded resume made him a natural as the first private-school association inductee.

          Not long after graduating from Georgia, Smith became, as it turns out, an Eagle for life, with 44 years at the school as one of its most impactful employees ever.

          Back then, Stratford was on Coleman Hill in downtown Macon. Smith helped form and organize a budding campus almost 10 miles away in northwest Macon, diving into what became an impressive collection – by nearly any standard and context - of athletic facilities.

          While in charge of all sports at Stratford, Smith did plenty of coaching in plenty of sports: girls and boys basketball, football, golf, soccer, and softball. As often as not, though, he tended to the facilities for all sports at Stratford.

          After all, he also served as director of facilities for a period, as well as sharing duties as head of school during upper-administration transitions.

          He won 20 state championships – in 1978, he won a pair of basketball titles on the same night - and five runner-up finishes, leading to inductions into the Stratford and Macon sports halls of fame, as well as multiple GISA state coach of the year honors in basketball, softball, and golf. That total: 20.

          As the boss, human resources are a major part. Six of his hires, led by girls head basketball coach Ed Smith, have covered at least 25 years at the school, according to a Stratford release. He remains in contract regularly with scores of his former Stratford coaching colleagues.

          Smith gave up coaching about nine years before finally retiring as athletics director in 2014. Married for nearly 53 years to Anna, he is the father of two and grandfather to four.