Sports Hall of Fame to induct 14

Published 10:51 pm Thursday, August 23, 2007

MOULTRIE — The Colquitt County Sports Hall of Fame will induct 14 new members this year’s annual banquet.

The induction ceremony will be held at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 25, at the Colquitt County High cafeteria.

The inductees also will be introduced at Tom White Field at Mack Tharpe Stadium the following night before the start of the football game between Colquitt County High and Lowndes.

This year’s inductees are:

Gwyned Kay Bius, who played four seasons of basketball at Doerun High School, averaging 23 points as a junior and 28 as a senior.

She was the team’s Player of the Year, high scorer and “most athletic.”

She played basketball at the University of Georgia before it was a recognized sport and when the team had to buy its own uniforms and pay for its own transportation.

She later coached girls basketball at Chamblee High from 1976-1982 and also coached and refereed high school volleyball and coached gymnastics at Chamblee and Stone Mountain high schools.

Miss Bius became a USA Gymnastics judge and is the assigner for the National Association for Women’s Gymnastics Judges and is the score chairman for Georgia USA Gymnastics.

In 1991, she went to work at the Fernbank Science Center and retired from there in 2003. She taught in the DeKalb County school system for 33 years.

Greg Bright, the former All-State Colquitt County High linebacker and two-time scholar-athlete award winner who played on the 1991 state runner-up team.

A four-year starter at linebacker at the University of Georgia, he was the team captain in 1997. He was a preseason honorable mention All-American before his senior season.

Bright led Georgia in tackles his junior and senior seasons and when he graduated, he had set the school’s record for primary tackles with 290, breaking old record of 246, which had stood for 20 years. He was a first-team All-SEC.

He currently works for Waffle House as an area director and is responsible for 33 restaurants in the Atlanta area.

Mike Creasman, who was an honorable mention all-state football player at Moultrie High for Bud Willis and went on to play four seasons at Davidson.

He also was an outstanding baseball player and played in the North-South All-Star baseball game.

After graduating from Moultrie High in 1969, he played baseball for two years and football for four years at Davidson, where he also was president of junior and senior classes. He graduated cum laude from Davidson.

Creasman went on to become a high school coach for 30 years in Georgia, and was the head coach at Stockbridge, Greene-Taliaferro, Berrien and Dutchtown. He retired from coaching after the 2006 season and is now pastor of education and evangelism at Glen Haven Baptist Church in McDonough.

Tony DeRosso, who was an outstanding Colquitt County football and baseball player from 1991-1994. He was All-Region in baseball 1991-1994 and was an All-State receiver in football in 1993.

DeRosso was drafted out of high school by Boston Red Sox in 19th round in 1994 and turned down a scholarship to Georgia Tech to become a professional baseball player.

He played in the Boston, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and San Diego organization and was the Most Valuable Player of the Class AA All-Star game in 2000.

Tony currently a certified public accountant at Vines, Wear and Mangum and is the treasurer of the Packer Booster Club.

Parks Hughes, who was Colquitt County High quarterback in 1990-1991 and led the Packers to state championship game in 1991.

Hughes passed for 2,020 yards in 1991 and for 3,169 yards in his career.

Following his senior season, he was named honorable mention All-State and played in the Georgia-Florida High School All-Star game.

He was the Colquitt County High valedictorian in 1992 and graduated 57th out of a class of 916 at the Air Force Academy in 1996.

He played football for four years at the Air Force Academy and after receiving his master’s degree at the University of Georgia, was accepted into the prestigious Combat Control School, an elite special operation command. He has served in the Far East and Middle East and is currently a major, deployed in the Middle East.

Rocky Jones, a former Colquitt County High football player who coached recreation sports teams in Colquitt County for 17 years, until his untimely death at 42 in 2005.

His business, Rocky’s Trophies, sponsored teams for many years and he was a longtime member of the Packer Booster Club.

Rocky was an immensely popular member of the sports community. As the Rev. J.E. Moak wrote, “I feel the impact hat he has made on countless children and youth is most commendable. Very few, if any, have touched the lives of so many in such a short time. A great host of youth and young people shared with me how he greatly influenced their lives in a good and positive way.”

George “Bubba” Kendrick, who played football, basketball and baseball at Gillespie-Selden Institute in Cordele. He was the most valuable player on the football and baseball team’s at Alabama State, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in education.

In the 1940s, he coached at the Moultrie High for Negro Youth with Colquitt County Hall of Fame member A.F. Shaw.

He taught at Charlie A. Gray School, where he established a youth football program. He spent much of his life teaching and coaching youngsters and was a role model for such future Colquitt County Hall of Fame members as John Glenn, R.C. Stevens and Ralph Taylor.

Christopher McCranie, who was three-sport starter at Colquitt County High, where he was All-Region in football and baseball. As a senior in football, he caught 63 passes for 959 yards and six touchdowns, was All-State and played in the Georgia-Florida High School All-Star Football Game.

McCranie was drafted by Boston Red Sox after batting .562 as a senior. But after graduating No. 5 in his class, he accepted a football scholarship to the University of Georgia.

He played four years as a wide receiver and a punt returner at Georgia and also lettered three years in baseball at Georgia. He was a four-year SEC All-Academic and is currently an attorney in Jacksonville, Fla.

Beth McCoy Redding, who was an outstanding basketball player at Moultrie High and was named All-Region in 1965 under Ace Little.

She served as coordinator of girls and women’s sports for recreation department 1974-2004 under Jim Buck Goff and Rick Gehle, receiving the GRPA District III Professional and Meritorious Service awards.

Says Gehle: “She always gave everything she had, and then some. She took her job very seriously.”

Wanda Purvis Ross, who played basketball at Norman Park High under Herbert Houston 1961-1964, averaging 30 points a game during career and scoring 2,460 points.

She was named to the All-state tournament team as a senior after scoring 45 points in an overtime loss to Miller High. She was offered a chance to play with Atlanta Tom Boys, but turned it down.

She currently lives in Jackson, Ga., and works for the Georgia State Patrol Capitol Police as administrative coordinator.

Robert H. Tharpe Sr., who played football at Moultrie High and was a member of the undefeated 1928 team. The younger brother of Mack Tharpe, he went on to play at Georgia Tech, where he started at left tackle for coach W.A. Alexander and was captain of the team in 1933, when he was named All-Southern.

He graduated in 1934 and in 1966 was inducted into the Georgia Tech Athletics Hall of Fame. In 1947, he founded Tharpe and Brooks Mortgage Bankers and also served as chairman of the Georgia Ports Authority. He died in 1997.

Bennett Willis, who played football, basketball and baseball at Moultrie High from 1954-1957, earning 10 letters. He was All-Region and honorable mention all-state in football in 1956 and once held the school’s passing record.

He also was All-Region in baseball in 1956-1957 playing first base for coach Ben Kirk.

Willis also radio broadcasts of Packer football for eight years.

Jay Lerew and Wenbo Chen, former coaches of Moss Farms Diving program. The two were the coaches of the 1995 Moss Farms team that won the U.S. National Team championship.

Lerew was hired by Moose Moss and coached at Moss Farms 1988-1995. After leaving Moultrie, he became the head coach of the high successful Team Orland Diving program was the coach of the U.S. team for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.

Chen coached Moss Farms 1993-2001 and went on to become the head coach at Purdue University.

He is now the head coach of the U.S. Diving Training Center in Indianapolis and was the coach of the 2007 U.S. team in the 2007 Pan Am Games in Rio de Janiero.

Both Lerew and Chen produced a number of championship divers while leading the Moss Farms program.

Inductees are selected by the Colquitt County Sports Hall of Fame board of directors.

Those picked for induction are selected from among those people nominated by the public.