MOULTRIE — Several years ago, the Colquitt County chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes named its annual breakfast after two of the community’s most revered citizens, former coaches Tom “Babe” White and Roy Saturday.

On Thursday, at this year’s breakfast held at the First Baptist Church social hall, the FCA further honored the former football coaches by turning the program over to former players and colleagues, who spoke of how they had impacted their lives.

The breakfast in the past had featured inspirational messages from Ray Goff, Dave Van Halanger, Jeff Van Note and Bobby Bowden.

But Thursday breakfast tribute had a completely local flavor as former Moultrie High football players Brooks Sheldon and Bob Montgomery reminisced about their days playing for White, and Jim McGilvray and Jerry Croft spoke of their tenures as assistants on the eighth-grade football teams coach by Saturday.

White was the varsity line coach for most of his 15 years on the Moultrie High football staffs under Knuck McCrary and Bud Willis and is one of the community’s most beloved people.

Sheldon, a retired Colquitt County banker, was an end for the Packers and was coached by White. His line coach also was his Sunday School teacher, Sheldon noted.

White also had lessons to give that extended past Sunday mornings, and they came in the form, Sheldon said, of “ethical training.”

Among what White taught was that players should have personal goals, but those goals will be fulfilled to greater extent if they are blended with team goals.

His admonition that “everybody’s responsible and nobody’s to blame” became a mantra, especially among those players getting ready to head downfield to cover a kick.

“And we thought we had the best training,” Sheldon said, remembering being convinced by White and others. “We were Packers.

“Tom White established principles that are a good foundation for a lot of people.

“Thank you coach.”

Montgomery, now the president of South Georgia Banking Co., said he had wondered recently, “Where are our heroes today?”

He then said that it was “an honor and a privilege” to stand in front of two such heroes, White and Saturday.

Like Sheldon, Montgomery played end as had White as his position coach.

After moving to Moultrie from Plains, Montgomery came under the influence of such men as Walt Thompson, Jim Nolan, Bud Willis, Virgil Mims, Jim Buck Goff, Ace Little, Kurt Scheub, Bill Christopher, Ed Reeves and Ike Aultman.

He equated getting a chance to play for the Packers with reaching Mecca.

“And waiting at the gates were Tom White and Knuck McCrary,” he said.

Montgomery said White “taught us to be better than we ever thought we could be.”

White, and the others who helped Montgomery become an outstanding player for the Packers and go on to play at the University of Florida, “were strong men, good men, fair men. Men of character.”

White admonished his players, especially during practices that were not going especially well, not to be “drugstore cowboys” or “youth center commandos.”

Having the FCA breakfast named in his honor is just one of at least three honors that have been bestowed on White, a member of the Colquitt County Sports Hall of Fame. The City of Moultrie’s linear park and exercise trail was dedicated in his honor. And last year, the turf at Mack Tharpe Stadium was named Tom White Field.

“And they don’t name football fields after youth center commandos,” Montgomery said.

McGilvray moved to Moultrie in 1971 and his first brush with White came when he turned on his radio on a Sunday morning and heard the coach on speaking on the First Methodist Church’s Men’s Bible Class.

He later joined the eighth-grade football staff coach by Saturday as the offensive line coach.

McGilvray remembers Saturday making the eighth-grade team practice on Fridays following a Thursday afternoon game.

And with both players and assistant coaches eager to get ready to go to the varsity Packers games, the idea of a Friday practice was not always a popular one.

But McGilvray said the decision was to show the players an example of self-discipline.

“He was a perfect combination of patience and discipline,” McGilvray said of Saturday.

Croft said two of the three highlights of his long coaching career are the state championships the Packers baseball teams won in 1997 and 2003. The other?

“Being able to coach with Roy Saturday,” he said.

Saturday’s record as an eighth-grade football coach was 130-56-16, a total based on six-game seasons.

Croft said that factored on a 10-game season, which varsity football team’s play, the record would be 216-90.

“That would put Roy among the elite of those coaching football,” said Croft, who was the defensive coordinator for 13 years on teams coached by Saturday.

“But Roy never had any aspirations to be a varsity football coach.”

Croft says that much of the credit for the success of the Colquitt County varsity football program in the 1990s — which included a state championship in 1994 and a state runner-up in 1991 — should go to the foundation laid by Saturday, also a Colquitt County Hall of Fame member.

“In those days, if we started with 50 kids, we finished with 50 kids,” Croft said. “I never heard him raise his voice, but the kids listened to him.”

Croft said he once read that athletes learn more about character than athletic performance from their coaches.

“And Roy Saturday taught character,” Croft said. “He made a difference to hundreds of young men in Colquitt County.”

The Colquitt County Fellowship of Christian Athletes has huddles in both middle schools and at Colquitt County High. It raises money through the breakfast and through its annual Jim Buck Goff Memorial Golf Tournament to send student/athletes to FCA summer camps.