Latest: Gallery: Buck Belue book signing at Coach's Corner Call: (916)383-0110 (510)781-4800. The highly recruited player chose Florida State and became the Seminoles first two-time consensus All-American (1979-80). Lastingers vision was to bring the two fan bases together all week long for community-wide events. Im looking forward to reading it, Dooley said. Low around 65F. We were in an extra bedroom, and his wife came in a couple of times and told him dinner was ready. I remember Stanley Bounds. Search and browse yearbooks online! With Coach Hyder, you just couldnt imagine anyone working harder than him to be successful. We had some tense moments during those years, but I sort of wanted a hard-to-please coach. And when it came to recruiting, he was the only coach I felt like I could trust with the baseball thing. What do most people want to talk to you about at these book signings? Buck has also written a new book about his times as an athlete in Valdosta and the University of Georgia. Credit: Photo by Chris McShane (provided by Buck Belue). There was a golf tournament involving fans and coaches from both teams. Buck Belue famously guided Georgia's football team to a national championship 42 years ago. Its great that the Lord Wedgwood Charity offered to give one to a school in my name. He came in from West Rome with the idea of running the wishbone like he was doing in Rome, and I was coming over for spring football as an eighth grader, and it wasnt a couple of months later we were back for preseason practice, and he was totally shifted to the Bazemore offense, as we called it. Mark Lemke joins me. Today's interviewee is Buck Belue, sports talk show host for 680 The Fan, quarterback for Georgia's 1980 national championship team, four-year starting quarterback at Valdosta, inaugural selectee into the new Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame and author of a new book, "Inside The Hedges," a look at Georgia's 1980 season and his athletic career. Dooley stayed, Georgia went on complete the last perfect season in school history, and Belue and his coach are just fine. He played at 6 feet, 2 inches, and 240 pounds but was exceptionally fast. I remember Buck had to go to the locker room and get another jersey. The Saints drafted Rogers in 1981, making him the first Georgia-grown player selected first overall in an NFL Draft. Belue was atUniversities Forever in Cumming on Saturdayto promote his book,'Inside the Hedges: The Quarterback's Journey to the 1980 National Championship,' a project that was decades in the making. But part of Belue's focus in writing the book was shining a light on his hometown of Valdosta, as well as some of the lesser known players on Georgia's 1980 team. His 1971 state-record 21 receiving touchdowns stood until 2010. I just wanted to be real with that, Belue said. A lot of my motivation was to brag on some players and coaches at Valdosta and at Georgia that never got the credit they deserved.. Valdosta High School is the most successful High School football program in the country. Learn how and when to remove this template message, Buck Belue profile on WCNN (AM)680 The Fan, "John Kincade, Steak Shapiro out amidst Dickey Broadcasting cuts", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Buck_Belue&oldid=1106291103, This page was last edited on 24 August 2022, at 00:05. When Buck finished his career he was the state's all-time passing leader with 5,214 yards. Truth is, Lowndes would struggle against everyone else too, winning just 31 games in that first decade of football with four different head football coaches. ITG Next is your go-to source for high school sports media coverage in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and across the country. Partly cloudy early followed by cloudy skies overnight. It includes Brooks County to the west.. Valdosta is the home of Valdosta State University, a regional university in the University . Its something were going to build on. They were very different. Nobody would have a better perspective from a players standpoint than Buck as the quarterback of that team.. The signing will be held at the Salty Snapper, located at 1405 Gornto Road in Valdosta, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Belue will also be speaking to all in attendance, discussing details about the book starting . Since it started playing football in 1913, Valdosta has won 612 games and lost 129, with 33 ties. We got the ball with about three or four minutes left inside our own 10 and drove down to the 1-yard line with like two seconds left. Don Shula's Miami Dolphins went undefeated and won the Super Bowl. We were playing old youth league football at 9, 10, 11 years old, and were playing at about 8 in the morning, and if you look back in the stands, youd usually see Coach Bazemore watching the games. He was the first Georgia-grown player to win the Heisman. He won 12 of his 18 games against Valdosta. Because official statistics are not required or maintained by any state organization, the records that we display here come from individual schools and from media reports, primarily newspapers. We were in position to win the national championship and he is about to jump to our rival? In the spring of 1978, he won the Class A 100-yard dash in 10.02 seconds. You need to watch him tonight, and he put on one of the most memorable performances I can remember seeing. That was Lowndes first win ever against Valdosta, whose quarterback was Buck Belue, the future University of Georgia star. All Rights Reserved. 2 in the state in Buck's senior season. He was the first 4 year starter at Quarterback at Valdosta High school. He set other state records in high school football that lasted decades, including the single-season receiving record of 1,573 yards as a sophomore in 1971. The runner-up was Herschel Walker, then a sophomore. Told of the passage about his Auburn flirtations, Dooley laughed and said he doesnt begrudge Belue for including it. The Vikings would begin playing crosstown rival Valdosta that same year, but it was a David-vs.-Goliath mismatch for the first decade or so, with Valdosta, boasting all those state and national championships not to mention a 50-year head start defeating the upstart Lowndes High in the teams first 11 games. He was the quarterback for the Georgia Bulldogs in 1980, when the team went 12-0, and, after beating Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl, was named the consensus national champion. Well, the only thing that went crazy was the mule. With Coach Hyder, you just couldnt imagine anyone working harder than him to be successful. We spent so many Friday nights at Cleveland Field, or Bazemore-Hyder Stadium as they call it now, watching them win big. 1 high school football player of all-time in a 2007 article. Rogers was the Wildcats team manager in 1994 and a top Wildcat supporter. "I had no idea that Georgia would win the national title. Belue played two seasons in the USFL with the Jacksonville Bulls and was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 2013. He hit .447 for the 1982 season and his .356 career batting average (he also hit 30 homers and scored 114 runs) remains among the top 10 in school history. Henderson said neighborhood residents called the police, who came over to the Valdosta fields where he and other fans were watching practice. Benjamin Franklin "Buck" Belue played American football and baseball at the University of Georgia from 1978 to 1981. The interview below follows the Four Questions format, along with three bonus questions with Belues thoughts on making the Hall of Fame (induction is Oct. 22), his most memorable high school game and how coach Wright Bazemore made him a quarterback. Chuck Knoll's Steelers were champions and as. Read, watch, and listen to the latest news and opinions in the high school sports world. Those who were part of the game shared the plays and players they remember the most. Hundreds of people turned out at the The Salty Snapper, including former Valdosta High classmates and UGA teammates. Im glad he came here and did this for us. Ben Belue, 71, of Valdosta was a devoted family man and lifetime sales executive, born in Anniston, Ala. on Nov. 28, 1940 and raised in Macon, Ga. where he attended Lanier High School. He played nine NFL seasons, made two Pro Bowls and finished with more than 18,000 all-purpose yards. Following a Lowndes punt, Valdosta took possession around midfield. FCN staff. The problem was the plane didnt get low enough, and the wind blew the flyers all over the neighborhood next to the practice field.. Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles. Stan Rome was awesome, too. . You just looked at Bazemore like Lombardi at the time. He also added 1,487 rushing yards and . @680TheFan. Benjamin Franklin "Buck" Belue played American football and baseball at the University of Georgia from 1978 to 1981. Georgia was loaded with talent in 1980 there were five future NFL Draft picks on the roster, plus Hall of Fame head coach Vince Dooley and legendary defensive coordinator Erk Russell. They were up 40-0 with 30 seconds left and still giving the ball to William Andrews. UGA star Jalen Carter present at scene of fatal crash, From 2021: Buck Belue, QB of 1980 Georgia national champions, to call the Dawgs before kickoff, Georgia Tech hammers Syracuse as Jackets late-season surge continues, Braves notes: Jared Shusters first spring game, Michael Sorokas progress, Ian Anderson on spring debut: Im not gonna sugarcoat it. They were running the same sets and plays. You also talk about the other coaches at Valdosta, especially offensive coordinator Joe Wilson, who later became Lowndes head coach and led the Vikings to a 1980 state title, and Jack Rudolph, Valdostas longtime defensive mastermind [and father of Georgia Tech and NFL player Coleman Rudolph]. William Andrews was the leading rusher for Thomasvilles consecutive state champions in 1973 and 1974. VALDOSTA Buck Belue starred at quarterback for Valdosta High years before the teams current players were even born. He sort of chuckled and said there was a lot of built-up frustration over those years of losing to Valdosta, Dont take it personally is what I believe he said., 5. The following year, he put up a career-best 714 rushing yards. Ive been wanting to do this for some time, Belue said. I grew up admiring most of those guys on the list we were voting on. Jun. They just had a huge impact in my career along with all those teammates I played with at Valdosta, many of them deserving of those kinds of honors. There were a lot of guys who had a huge impact to the success of those teams.]. We missed a chip-shot field goal that wouldve won the state championship for all of us. You need to watch him tonight, and he put on one of the most memorable performances I can remember seeing. 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